TY - JOUR U1 - Wissenschaftlicher Artikel A1 - Bezuidenhout, Martin A1 - Jooste, Johannes A1 - Lucke, Dominik A1 - Fourie, Coenrad T1 - Leveraging digitilisation and machine learning for improved railway operations and maintenance JF - Procedia CIRP N2 - The efficient and safe movement of goods and people require reliable railway systems. Quality assurance of manufactured and assembled systems and correct maintenance of such systems are required to keep rolling stock in good operational condition. Quality assurance and maintenance in the railway industry can be costly and time-consuming, but the expansive growth of data due to smart sensors and monitoring technologies makes it possible to leverage the potential of machine learning to reduce cost and labour. Improved reliability and safety, and reduced costs are benefits that the use of “Big Data” and machine learning techniques can realise. However, despite these potential benefits for manufacturers, rail operators, and passengers, the rail industry is still labelled for its lack of innovation, while in most other industries, data is regarded as a strategic asset for competitive advantage. This paper demonstrates how machine learning and data analysis can be used to benefit railway industry manufacturers and operators when applied to rolling stock data. It also illustrates the lost opportunity in the rail industry for not applying data-driven solutions to their full potential. The paper also discusses the current applications of machine learning in the railway industry and provides the requirements for the implementation of machine learning techniques. Machine learning is applied to pantograph data of a South African railway operator's rolling stock. Classification – a machine learning technique – is used to identify and categorise events within the dataset to discover whether pantograph bounce occurs due to faulty sensors, faulty pantographs, or defective infrastructure. In this paper it is demonstrated how machine learning can benefit rail manufacturers and operators to improve manufacturing and assembly processes, as well as maintenance practices. It is concluded that railways should treat data similarly to other railway assets, with suitable management and governance practices. KW - machine learning KW - smart sensors KW - predictive maintenance, railway Y1 - 2024 UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:rt2-opus4-49149 SN - 2212-8271 SS - 2212-8271 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2023.09.062 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2023.09.062 VL - 120 IS - 56th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems, CIRP CMS ‘23, South Africa SP - 702 EP - 707 S1 - 6 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -