Innovation at ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG to raise the efficiency
Summary
ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG has several efficiency enhancement programmes, which drive down investment and maintenance cost. The largest area is that of raising the efficiency of investments.
Efforts to increase efficiency range from the presentation of planned approaches and status analyses to implementation and controlling in terms of an ongoing process of improvement.
The resultant plethora of implemented measures is classified to provide a better overview of improvement. The key lever to generate savings in reinvestment is optimised planning of these measures. Other important levers include improved work organisation and waste disposal. From a life-cycle cost perspective it is necessary to align the measures for improving reinvestment with those for improving maintenance.
Improvements in verification processes became necessary a few years into implementation of the efficiency enhancement programme. Meanwhile so-called checklists are used as supporting documents concerning qualitative verification, while additional element costs are used as supporting records concerning the quantitative verification of reinvestments.
The outcome of efficiency enhancement efforts, i.e. implementation of the identified measures for improvement, is illustrated by the actual achievement of the planned objective of cost savings both for individual projects and reinvestments.
By way of conclusion and summary, the author will briefly discuss future activities made necessary by currently identified requirements.