Hatch Mott MacDonald's Intelligent Rail Signal Design: A Case Study
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases
Applicable Industries
- Electronics
- Railway & Metro
Applicable Functions
- Maintenance
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Time Sensitive Networking
- Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services
- System Integration
- Testing & Certification
About The Customer
Hatch Mott MacDonald is a global consulting engineering firm that provides services to public and private clients around the world. The firm was using a conventional CAD-based system to design rail signal systems for its clients. However, this approach had significant limitations in an industry where building information modeling (BIM) and its processes and standards are becoming critical success factors. The firm's in-house design workflow, while trusted and proven, was manual, time-consuming, and tedious, with no automated controls to ensure the latest versions of CAD elements were used. Design checking involved significant manual effort, everyone worked sequentially, and there was little collaboration.
The Challenge
Global consulting engineering firm Hatch Mott MacDonald was using a conventional CAD-based system to design rail signal systems for its clients worldwide. However, this approach had significant limitations in an industry where building information modeling (BIM) and its processes and standards are becoming critical success factors. Traditional methods meant designs lacked intelligence or connections to related documents, including bills of material (BOM). Designers had no way to model their work in 3D or collaborate on designs, which slowed down projects and made adherence to required standards a challenge. The firm's in-house design workflow, while trusted and proven, was manual, time-consuming, and tedious, with no automated controls to ensure the latest versions of CAD elements were used. Design checking involved significant manual effort, everyone worked sequentially, and there was little collaboration.
The Solution
Hatch Mott MacDonald invested in a new system powered by Bentley software that introduced the required intelligence into the rail signal design process, significantly reducing design time and effort, improving accuracy, enabling collaboration, and driving standardization. The firm used a combination of solutions from Bentley to work with intelligent 3D models linked directly to the electrical schematics required for signal design, costing, and construction. The new system automated the creation of project workflows via templates that also streamlined basic checking processes. The firm operationalized its intelligent system for rail signal design using Promis.e, Bentley Navigator, and ProjectWise. The system allowed designers to leverage information mobility to develop all client deliverables, and as a result, Hatch Mott MacDonald designs held an abundance of information never before seen in rail signal design. With each component placed into a drawing, a bill of material was created automatically along with associated project estimates and updated budgets.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Remote Temperature Monitoring of Perishable Goods Saves Money
RMONI was facing temperature monitoring challenges in a cold chain business. A cold chain must be established and maintained to ensure goods have been properly refrigerated during every step of the process, making temperature monitoring a critical business function. Manual registration practice can be very costly, labor intensive and prone to mistakes.
Case Study
Predictive maintenance in Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric Le Vaudreuil factory in France is recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the world’s top nine most advanced “lighthouse” sites, applying Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies at large scale. It was experiencing machine-health and unplanned downtime issues on a critical machine within their manufacturing process. They were looking for a solution that could easily leverage existing machine data feeds, be used by machine operators without requiring complex setup or extensive training, and with a fast return on investment.
Case Study
Cloud Solution for Energy Management Platform-Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric required a cloud solution for its energy management platform to manage high computational operations, which were essential for catering to client requirements. As the business involves storage and analysis of huge amounts of data, the company also needed a convenient and scalable storage solution to facilitate operations efficiently.
Case Study
Leveraging the IoT to Gain a Competitive Edge in International Competition
Many large manufacturers in and outside Japan are competing for larger market share in the same space, expecting a growing demand for projectors in the areas of entertainment, which requires glamor and strong visual performance as well as digital signage that can attract people’s attention. “It is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate ourselves with stand-alone hardware products,” says Kazuyuki Kitagawa, Director of Service & Support at Panasonic AVC Networks. “In order for Panasonic to grow market share and overall business, it is essential for us to develop solutions that deliver significant added value.” Panasonic believes projection failure and quality deterioration should never happen. This is what and has driven them to make their projectors IoT-enabled. More specifically, Panasonic has developed a system that collects data from projectors, visualizes detailed operational statuses, and predicts issues and address them before failure occurs. Their projectors are embedded with a variety of sensors that measure power supply, voltage, video input/ output signals, intake/exhaust air temperatures, cooling fan operations, and light bulb operating time. These sensors have been used to make the projector more intelligent, automatically suspending operation when the temperature rises excessively, and automatically switching light bulbs. Although this was a great first step, Panasonic projectors were still not equipped with any capability to send the data over a network.
