Remote diagnostics collaboration between RSIE and RRA
Rhomberg Sersa Ireland (RSIE) and Rhomberg Rail Australia (RRA) began a collaboration in August 2021 between the two businesses where knowledge and experience is shared across the Operations and Maintenance functions.
The purpose of the collaboration between the sister companies is to learn from each other's successes and failures and accelerate the implementation of return on experience between them.
The RSIE team led by Sean Ward and Derek Clarke meet with their RRA counterparts Ryan O'Neill and Joseph Main every six weeks over teams. The meeting start time is a 07.00 call for the Irish Reliability Engineers in Kildare which across time zones is a 19.00 start time for their Australian peers in New South Wales.
During these calls the group can bounce ideas of each other. There is a transfer of maintenance knowledge as the fleet of OTM's are similar in each country. The collaboration also optimises the exchange of maintenance methods, ideas and experience.
As a result of the cooperation, RRA has provided a maintenance plan and instruction on yo-yo maintenance to RSIE which should significantly aid the reliability of these components on the Ireland fleet.
Further discussions have centered around remote diagnostics and data loggers for OTM 781 Ballast Cleaner. Data such as system pressures, temperatures, flow rates, engine revs and more machine variables can be measured and then recorded against future machine performance.
With data loggers – and the ability to examine the data remotely – there is an opportunity to anticipate when a maintenance issue may arise and carry out preventative maintenance.
RSIE are looking at installing a new remote diagnostic system on OTM 781 ballast cleaner, which has resulted from the experience and knowledge shared between the teams.
What started as an exchange of ideas between the two sister companies will also lead to the group meeting up in person at the end of May, when the RRA team will travel to Ireland.
