Abstract
The achievement of maintenance objectives to support the overall business objectives is the pursuit of any maintenance department. Using in-house or outsourced maintenance service provider is a decision which poses challenge in the management of maintenance function. Should the decision be for outsourcing, the next concern is the selection of the most appropriate strategy suitable for the business environment, structure and philosophy. In an effort to improve maintenance function so as to deliver set objectives, some infrastructure managers adopted the approach of outsourcing maintenance function, giving larger responsibilities to maintenance service providers called contractors. Moreover, such change requires adequate attention to meet the pressing need of achieving the designed capacity of the existing railway infrastructure and also support a competitive and sustainable transport system. This paper discusses performance based railway infrastructure maintenance contracting with its issues and challenges. The approach of this article is review of literature and as well as synthesis of practices. A framework to facilitate the successful implementation of performance based railway infrastructure maintenance is presented. Also a performance monitoring system is proposed to assess the outcome and identify improvement potentials of the maintenance outsourcing strategy. A case study is given to demonstrate the monitoring of a typical maintenance activity that can be outsourced using this outsourcing strategy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Åhrén T, Kumar U (2004) “Use of maintenance performance indicators: a case study at Banverket”. In: Conference proceedings of the 5th Asia–Pacific industrial engineering and management systems conference (APIEMS2004), Gold Coast
Alexandersson G, Hultén S (2008) The Swedish railway deregulation path. Rev Netw Econ 7(1):2
Allen S (2000) Outsourcing services: the contract is just the beginning. Bus Horizons 43(2):25
Arasteh Khouy U, Juntti A, Nissen, Schunnesson H (2011) “Evaluation of track geometry maintenance (Tamping) in Swedish heavy haul railroad—a case study”. In: International Heavy Haul Association Conference, 2011
Bititci US (1997) Integrated performance measurement systems: a development guide. Int J Operations Prod Manag 17(5):522–534
Bragg SM (2006) Outsourcing: A Guide to selecting the correct business unit. Negotiating the contract. Maintaining control of the process. Wiley Inc., Hoboken
Campbell JD (1995) Outsourcing in maintenance management: a valid alternative to self-provision. J Qual Maintenance Eng 1(3):18–24
Chalos P (1998) Outsourcing decisions and managerial incentives. Decis Sci 29(4):901
Espling (2007) “Maintenance strategy for a railway infrastructure in a regulated environment”. Doctoral Thesis, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå
European Committee for Standardization (CEN) (2007) “EN-15341; maintenance–maintenance key performance indicators,” European Standard 2007
European Committee for Standardization (CEN) (2010) “Maintenance terminology: EN 13306,” European Standard 2010
European Committee for Standardization (CEN) (2012) “prEN-13848; railway applications—track—track geometry quality—part 6: characterisation of track geometry quality,” European Standard 2012
Haroun AE, Duffuaa SO (2009) Maintenance organisation. In: Ben-Daya M, Duffuaa SO, Raouf A, Knezevic J, Ait-Kadi D (eds) Handbook of maintenance management and engineering. Springer, London, pp 479–498
Hyman WA (2009) Performance-based contracting for maintenance: a synthesis of highway practice, National Cooperative Highway Research Program: NCHRP synthesis, p 389
Kakabadse A (2005) Outsourcing: current and future trends. Thunderbird Int Bus Rev 47(2):183
Kaplan RS, Norton DP (2001) Transforming the balanced scorecard from performance measurement to strategic management: part 1. Account Horizons 15(1):87–104
Kumar U (2008) System maintenance: trends in management and technology. In: Misra KB (ed) Handbook on performability engineering. Springer, London, pp 773–787
Kumar U, Parida A (2008) Maintenance performance measurement (MPM) system. In: Kobbacy KAH, Murthy DNP (eds) Complex system maintenance handbook. Springer, London, pp 459–478
Levery M (2002) Making maintenance contracts perform. Eng Manag J 12(2):78–82
Levery M (2004) Insourcing maintenance: from railtrack to network rail. Eng Manag J 14(3):38–41
Martin H (1997) Contracting out maintenance and a plan for future research. J Qual Maintenance Eng 3(2):81–90
Menches CL, Khwaja N, Chen J (2010) Synthesis of innovative contracting strategies used for routine and preventive maintenance contracts. University of Texas, Citeseer
Murthy DNP, Kobbacy KAH (2008) Complex system maintenance handbook. Springer, London
Neely A (2005) Performance measurement system design: a literature review and research agenda. Int J Operations Prod Manag 25(12):1228
Nyström B (2009) Use of availability concepts in the railway system. Int J Performability Eng 5(2):103–118
Olsson U, Espling U (2004) Part I. A framework of partnering for infrastructure maintenance. J Qual Maintenance Eng 10(4):234–247
Quinn JB, Hilmer FG (1994) Strategic outsourcing. MIT Sloan Manag Rev 35(4):43
Stankevich N, Qureshi N, Queiroz C (2005) Performance-based contracting for preservation and improvement of road assets, Transport Note, vol TN-27 2005
Stenström C, Parida A, Galar D (2012) “Maintenance performance indicators for railway infrastructure management”. In: Proceedings of the first international conference on railway technology: research, development and maintenance, 2012
Straub A (2007) Performance-based maintenance partnering: a promising concept. J Facil Manag 5(2):129
Stremersch S, Wuyts S, Frambach RT (2001) The purchasing of full-service contracts: an exploratory study within the industrial maintenance market. Ind Mark Manag 30(1):1–12
Zietlow G (2004) Implementing performance-based road management and maintenance contracts in developing countries—an instrument of German Technical Cooperation. Available. http://zietlow.com/docs/PBMMC-GTZ.pdf. Accessed 30 June 2011
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Dr. Arne Nissen and Dr. Ulla Juntti for their technical contributions. We also acknowledge Luleå Railway Research Centre (JVTC) and Trafikverket for the financial support provided for this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Famurewa, S.M., Asplund, M., Galar, D. et al. Implementation of performance based maintenance contracting in railway industries. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 4, 231–240 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-013-0167-4
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-013-0167-4