As the primary train operator in Italy, Trenitalia has 8,000 trains that are traveling around the country per day. Recently, it has announced a plan to revamp its fleet by introducing IoT technologies, which would make it easier to keep track of all its vehicles and design a better maintenance schedule for each train.
Previously, maintenance efforts were arranged based on how long the train had been in service and how much distance it had traveled. This led to unnecessary costs of repairs and maintenance. With the newly installed 500-1000 sensors, 5000 data points containing the real-time information of motor temperature and line voltage would be generated per second and allow the management team to monitor the performance the trains in use. Another goal of integrating IoT with the current business is to increase safety and reliability of Trenitalia’s services in the hope of boosting customer satisfaction.
The initial investment of €50 million for the implementation of IoT applications may sound like much. Nonetheless, according to Danilo Gismondi, the CIO of Trenitalia, Trenitalia expects there to be a saving of €104m – €130m per annum, which represents 10% of the annual maintenance budget. Furthermore, train delays and failures are likely to be greatly reduced, resulting in a sum of €10m – €20m being saved from not having to pay refunds to customers bothered by unexpected inconvenience.
References
- Ryan Daws. (October 12th, 2016). “Trenitalia is the next train operator to adopt the IoT.” IoT Tech News. Retrieved from http://www.iottechnews.com/news/2016/oct/12/Trenitalia-next-train-operator-adopt-iot/
- Tom Raftery. (October 13th, 2016). “All aboard: how IoT is changing the game for Trenitalia.” The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sap-partner-zone/2016/oct/13/all-aboard-how-iot-is-changing-the-game-for-Trenitalia
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