Optimisation of railway asset life cycle performance through a continuous asset improvement process as part of the maintenance management programme

Abstract

Paper presented at the 28th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6 - 9 July 2009 "Sustainable Transport", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The challenge to sustain railways is driven by the ability to optimise the utilization of the asset base. It demands the establishment of a continuous asset improvement process and program that requires maintenance personnel to continuously improve their understanding of the infrastructure's performance and the relevance of the configuration to this performance. A successful asset management process incorporates these elements and results in the optimisation of the infrastructure life cycle by extending useful life while minimising the operational interference thereby increasing capacity.