Background

In April, 2000, the European Standardization Committee published a new quality standard for transportation called EN 13816, whose primary purpose is to promote an approach to public transportation from the quality standpoint, by focusing on users’ needs and expectations. This standard is based on a quality loop built around four concepts:

The standard deals with such criteria as availability, accessibility, information, time devoted to attending to the user, comfort, safety, environmental impact, calculation formulas, indicators, analysis of data sources, extraction and collection of information. All of these criteria are subjective and require systematizing.

To obtain EN 13816 certification, a transportation service organization must carry out a project that impacts on different corporate responsibilities: definition of criteria, setting of objectives, and measurement of results.

A real experience

Our client, Metro de Madrid, an emblematic enterprise in urban passenger transportation in Spain, is facing the challenge of obtaining EN 13816 certification. The subway company is, therefore, undertaking an organizational project and a review of its internal processes. This effort will culminate in the need to create a technological base for gathering data and calculating the quality perceived by subway users. The technological context is:

• A SAP R/3 central management system supporting the processes of administration and financial control, logistics, human resources management and train maintenance;
• A high number of satellite (non-SAP) systems that control, among other elements, user access and safety and incidents arising in the company’s service-providing facilities;
• The need to completely automate the calculation of at least 16 indicators. 

The model is based on the comparison and contrast of data that monitor the use of the service by the passengers with the data that monitor the availability of the subway facilities:

The base for the technological model is built on the SAP Business Warehouse system (our client’s corporate DWHouse).

Construction and start-up

DMR Consulting proposed to execute the project with the following scope:

The project was carried out over a period of four months, during which time we defined 16 indicators, 6 data sources, processes performed by Metro de Madrid, available data, the necessary comparisons of information, updating cycles, standardization of identification codes, definition of ratios, report design, review of the feasibility of the calculation model, review of the statistical orthodoxy of the calculation model, system construction, integration of source data, procedurizing operations, start-up and support to users.

Keys for success and lessons learned

The main keys to the success of the project were:

• The formulation of a clear definition of the indicators, one which eliminates uncertainties regarding the concepts the client wishes to measure and the type of information required for that purpose.
• The conduct of a meticulous study of the existing systems and applications that contributes data to the calculation model.
• The result of the analysis of data sources must serve as a basis for revising the model if necessary, and for planning the construction stage, determining what actions must be taken to adapt the operating procedures or the system base information.
• The basic rule is that we cannot measure what we have no information about; it is better to have a less precise calculation for some indicators than to have a completely invalid one.
• This type of project should involve all the individuals who are responsible for information or applications that serve as a base for the system, since any variation can invalidate the model.
• A validation task should be planned before going into production in order to avoid repeating the loading of data that can be highly complex and consume significant volumes of space and time.