Andrea Andrea Premoli, Marco Grossi for Quality, AICQ Magazine, issue 3 2024

L’industria ferroviaria si trova ad affrontare sfide sempre The railway industry is facing increasingly complex challenges, with the need to ensure maximum safety, efficiency and reliability of systems. In this context, digital checklists emerge as a powerful tool to optimize maintenance processes, improving the quality of work and reducing risks. This article will explore the role of digital checklists in railway maintenance, with particular attention to the qualifications required for maintainers following the ANSFISA Decree 2012. manutenzione, migliorando la qualità del lavoro e riducendo i rischi. Questo articolo esplorerà il ruolo delle checklist digitali nella manutenzione ferroviaria, con particolare attenzione alle abilitazioni richieste per i manutentori a seguito del Decreto ANSFISA 2012.

The ANSFISA Decree of 2012

The 2012 ANSFISA (National Agency for Safety of Railways and Road and Motorway Infrastructure) Decree introduced a series of regulations aimed at ensuring higher safety standards in the rail sector.

Among the various provisions, the decree has established that railway maintainers must have specific qualifications to operate on the following OdS (Safety Organs): Technological System of Board, Rodiggio, Bogies, Traction and Repulsion, Chassis-Box, Electrical circuits, Pneumatic and brake system, doors and fire-fighting system.

Le abilitazioni devono essere Qualifications shall be maintained through continuing training programmes and periodic refresher courses. These certifications cover both technical and safety skills; they are necessary to ensure that all maintenance work is carried out by properly trained and qualified personnel.

Transition from paper to digital

The shift from paper checklists to digital checklists represents a significant transition in the railway maintenance sector. This change is not only about the adoption of new technologies, but also involves a revision of the operational and cultural processes within organizations. Digitizing the process allows for greater efficiency in information management, eliminating the need to store and manage physical documents, which are often subject to deterioration and loss. Digital information is easier to update and share in real time, allowing faster and more accurate communication between maintenance teams. In addition, digital checklists allow for better analysis of historical data, facilitating preventive planning and forecasting future interventions.

Importance and benefits of digital checklists in railway maintenance

Digital checklists are revolutionizing the way maintenance activities are managed, offering a number of benefits over traditional paper checklists.

Accessibility and Ease of Use

One of the main features of digital checklists is their easy accessibility via various devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers; functionality that allows maintainers to consult and update checklists in real time directly on the field, with huge savings in time and resources. In addition, the intuitive and customizable user interfaces make use of the digital checklists easy for even the most inexperienced personnel with technology.

Automation and Integration

Digital checklist management solutions can be integrated with larger maintenance management systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). This integration allows for more coordinated and automated handling of maintenance tasks, facilitating data sharing between different systems and departments. For example, when a maintenance task is completed, the system can automatically update the maintenance log, inventory of spare parts and schedule the next inspection, improving operational efficiency.

Reduction of errors

Digital checklists often include automatic validation features that help reduce human errors. These functions can signal if a step has been omitted or if an operation is not in compliance with the standards, ensuring that all necessary steps are completed correctly. This not only improves the quality of work, butalso increases operator and plant safety, reducing the risk of accidents and malfunctions.

Sustainability

The transition from paper to digital checklists promotes the environmental sustainability of the maintenance system by drastically reducing the amount of paper and ink used for printing and manual compilation of checklists and attachments required by some specifications processing. With consequent reduction of consumption and emissions from maintenance.

Traceability and Reporting

Thanks to digitization, each operation can be recorded with precise details of who performed it, when and how, ensuring the traceability of the activities carried out. This level of detail is crucial for compliance checks and audits. In addition, generating detailed reports becomes much easier and faster, allowing maintenance managers to analyze data to identify trends, areas for improvement and ensure that activities are compliant with regulations.

Examples of applications of digital checklists in railway maintenance

Digital checklists can be used for a wide range of railway maintenance activities, including (but not limited to):

• Preventive maintenance: to plan and perform preventive maintenance activities, such as lubrication, cleaning and adjustment, helping to prevent failures and malfunctions;
• Corrective maintenance: to guide operators in the repair of faults and malfunctions, ensuring that work is carried out safely and correctly;
• Inspections: to assist engineers in the inspection of critical components such as tracks, exchanges, bridges and tunnels, ensuring that defects are identified and reported promptly;
• Inventory management: can be integrated with order management systems to ensure that the consumables needed for maintenance activities are always available.

Conclusions

The implementation of digital checklists can present some challenges: resistance to change by staff, the need for additional training and initial implementation costs, to name just a few common obstacles.

However, these challenges can be overcome through careful planning and effective change management.

Digitisation of maintenance documents is a revolution for rail maintenance, helping to improve efficiency, safety and quality of operations. Widespread adoption of these technologies is crucial for the future of the rail industry; ensuring sustainability and reliability of rail transport systems.