8. Smart Asset Management or Smart Operation Management? The Netherlands Railways Case

Asset Management represents a key factor in the transportation sector, especially in the railway domain. The proper interaction between asset owner, user, asset manager and operator determines the success of the daily operations and of the long-term strategy as well. Through the years, this balance has been often neglected causing situations where the service was not reliable enough or not safe enough. In this context, maintenance operations play a significant role. The chapter introduces how smart asset management and smart operations management have been implemented in the last two decades within Netherlands Railways. First, an introduction on the company and on the methodology based on ISO 55000: 2014 Standard is offered. Second, an overview of the fleet management and development is discussed. Thirdly, a full reflection on the different levels of performance management is highlighted for underlining all the principles used for reaching short, medium and long-term strategy results. Lastly, the chapter will pinpoint the benefit of introducing dynamic maintenance planning and prognostics and health monitoring as future step to take in order to facilitate a continuous improvement.