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Choo Siew Aun Senior Manager, Signals

SMRT Trains Ltd. Singapore

Mike Harris Project Manager

Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd. United Kingdom

Which comes first – technology or business innovation? In the technological age, is necessity still the mother of invention? The technological approach would argue that organisations should embrace as much leading edge technology as possible to capitalise on expected emergent benefits. Traditionalists would argue that one needs to identify the business need first and then carefully fit the technology to a business case based on tangible foreseen benefits. There is, in reality a spectrum of approaches between these two extremes depending on the type of business, its market and its rate of organisational change. So how does a railway organisation balance its approach on this spectrum in terms of the risks and benefits?

Recently SMRT Trains Ltd, with Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd (WRSL) as its supplier, has completed the renewal of its Automatic Train Supervision System (ATSS) covering the North-South and East-West MRT lines. The solution to the technology introduction balance had essentially three main components. Firstly, identifying the needs of the operational railway, secondly, deciding on the optimum level of technology advancement to be introduced, and thirdly, managing the introduction closely with all the stakeholders.