Meeting the challenges of the rail industry, along with providing local innovation and capability, have been critical to Siemens Mobility’s success in manufacturing rail infrastructure equipment in Melbourne for almost 140 years.
Local capability in rail manufacturing is important to understand local requirements in helping passengers and freight get from their first to last mile.
With the current record levels of investment in the rail industry, local manufacturing allows for reduced lead times and faster delivery to customers to meet the industry needs and specification.
In Australia, Siemens Mobility has two manufacturing sites: MRX Technologies in Perth (covered in the April issue), and one in Port Melbourne for rail infrastructure.
Siemens Mobility is the only trackside railway company proudly carrying the Australian-Made logo and with it, recognising its contribution to local jobs, economy and community.
The use of Australian-made technology has made it easier for rail operators to know that the equipment they are using meets Australian standards and is produced specifically with Australian conditions in mind.
PORT MELBOURNE
Siemens Mobility’s specialised rail manufacturing facility plays a critical role in bringing in latest global technologies, and adapting them to the Australian and New Zealand markets, along with the local product innovations to help move people and goods safely across the country.
As Siemens Mobility Head of Products Eric Bougeois tells Rail Express, the company has established what it terms a Centre of Competence for Rail infrastructure Product and Solutions for the Asia Pacific region.
The site primarily manufactures signalling products for the Australian, Asian and some of the Latin American market, continuing the tradition set in Melbourne since 1884, when McKenzie & Holland (later acquired by Siemens) manufactured its first point machine in 1930. Some of those machines are still being used today.
“We’ve built the business in Australia off being local, having local capability and local competence,” Bougeois said.
The entire manufacturing process is completed on-site in Port Melbourne, from design to prototype to manufacture to delivery, and back again for service.
Each year the site produces more than 4250 products designed and made in Australia, using a local team with long-term employees, with one employee recently celebrating 50 years with the organisation.
“Products locally manufactured include point machines, signals, and many other component parts of interlocking and automated systems for moving and positioning rail cars, which are all really safety critical products ensuring the passengers get to the destination securely,” Bougeois said.
To support Siemens Mobility’s operations in Australia and New Zealand with established local manufacturing sites, approximately 75 per cent of the company’s spend for Port Melbourne is on local product.
The business possesses a large and diverse vendor base which procures a range of goods and services both domestically and internationally, supporting the respective supply chains.
“The team works closely with Australian customers by designing local, manufacturing local and servicing local,” Bougeois said.
“Siemens Mobility supports about 300 local families in Australia through its local supply chain and that is an important effect of us being able to work with our local suppliers.
“It’s also helping businesses to develop, helping them to evolve in our industries and to build the capability further to address the growth of the market.”
Bougeois said Siemens prided itself not just on the quality of the product, but also in being able to respond quickly to its customers’ needs.
“When people have a particular problem, they do look to Siemens in Port Melbourne to come up with solutions,” he said.
“We can provide engineering support and help our customers to develop their own solutions. That aspect is unique and we’re quite proud of it.
“We are growing our competencies, helping businesses to develop the industry, and that’s also addressing the resource shortages we have in Australia.
“We have more than 600 people in Australia working for Siemens Mobility and we have people who are passionate about understanding the local market. And it’s not all about having great products, it’s also about understanding the local needs and ensuring that our products are tailored to their local industry.
“What we do is important because we work on bringing in latest technologies and taking them and integrating them into the Australian market, so in that way we can improve the way that freight as well as people are moved around the country and around our cities.”
Bougeois said that, just like other suppliers and industries, Siemens has experienced product shortages that have led to delays.
“But we are working through the backlog and rectifying the issue. We continue to experience growth across the industry and this has supported our local suppliers,” he said.
INNOVATION REMAINS THE KEY
Innovation is a core value at Siemens Mobility. Currently the company has more than 100 patents and patent applications in Australia and New Zealand.
It also has achieved more than 650 rail equipment type approvals and exports to more than 30 countries.
Bougeois said that because the industry and market demands were constantly changing, innovation is vital to support customers and their long-term strategies, and keep up with market demand.
And the team in Port Melbourne is realising the possibilities that come with combining the real and digital worlds together through advance manufacturing.
“The focus is on rapid prototyping of new Australian-Made innovations using digitalisation technologies such as 3D printing, traceability and digital simulation, to design and develop products for local market and customers, and simulating certain environmental conditions.”
This is allowing research and development timeframes to go from years to just months.
An example of this initiative was the development of new axle counter head mounting arrangements.
While the original design was done in Europe, the Port Melbourne facility developed the components, carried out laboratory testing and then finally created a prototype using advance manufacturing.
“So in general, from the product being designed in 3D using Siemens PLM software, we can extrapolate to rapid prototyping with 3D printing to be quick on the market to address the requirement from the customer,” Bougeois said.
Another innovative action includes playing a leading role in Project i-TRACE technology, to provide standardised identification and marking of parts, components and assets in the rail industry.
The system is a joint initiative of the Australasian Railway Association and GS1 Australia, the leading provider of standards and solutions for more than 20 industry sectors.
Last year, the dataset specific to the rail industry was added to the National Product Catalogue (NPC) to enable suppliers and clients to log, manage and share information on their products to improve efficiencies.
Siemens is also a keen supporter of digitalisation as a means of driving innovation in an industry that can be slow to adopt new technology.
“We are fully embracing the technology to be more efficient and to address better the market needs,” Bougeois said.
For example, digitalisation has resulted in remote signalling programs, such as Siemens Mobility’s well-received RailFusion software, which enables the rail wayside infrastructure to be monitored and assessed in real time.
Its engineering capability is being used to assist trains to run smoothly along the Tarcoola to Darwin rail corridor: a 2250-kilometre section of south–north railway line between the two locations. The corridor is used by a third-party passenger service and freight trains operated by One Rail Australia, now owned by Aurizon.
“RailFusion monitors and analyses data points across an entire railroad’s infrastructure, including wayside assets such as active road crossings, remote crossing loops and stream flow detection on six major rivers between Katherine and Darwin,” Bougeois said.
“It is designed to turn the information into intelligence by intuitively monitoring and analysing railroad wayside infrastructure to improve system operations and safety.”
THE SIEMENS SERVICE
“The most important thing that we can do for the industry is deliver great service to customers,” Bougeois said.
“Any equipment which is not working properly has to be repaired in the shortest possible window, so any tools that we can use for this can increase reliability in reducing the number of faults.
“We’re quite proud of the fact that we’re designing equipment and manufacturing here in Australia, using the latest materials, and using latest manufacturing techniques.
“It just gives us the ability to innovate as much as we want.
“We are able to bring all the exciting new technologies that are being developed around the world and apply them to the railways locally and to show the railways what they can do with these technologies.
“We’re working with our customers and partners to help shape the future of mobility in Australia.”
