ENGINEERING THE FUTURE
Hitachi’s presence in the UK is about far more than building trains, says HRE Managing Director KAREN BOSWELL
Winning contracts and building innovative train fleets for the UK may be vital for Hitachi Rail Europe, but leaving a lasting skills and engineering legacy here is perhaps even more important for its leaders.
HRE had a humble beginning, a little over a decade ago, and only a handful of staff. Today it has more than 2,400 and that will increase again over the next couple of years.
The company will have 281 trains in passenger service by the end of 2020 and it is bidding for both the HS2 classic-compatible and Deep Tube Upgrade fleets. Both the latter contracts are massive, and both will likely require more innovation and more staff.
It is estimated that over the next five years, some 182,000 new engineers will be required by British businesses. But at the current rate of engineers entering the industry, the projected number falls woefully short. In the rail industry, one in five engineers are over 55.
It is believed that HS2 alone will create 25,000 new jobs, including 2,000 apprenticeships.
Hitachi is leading the way when it comes to countering this problem, and it is an issue HRE Managing Director Karen Boswell is keen to address. She says: “While we were setting up the business we were also working with schools and university technical colleges [UTCs] teaching people about the future.
“We now have over 100 trainees. There are 58 apprenticeships at Newton Aycliffe and 14 graduates.
“I am passionate about working with the UTCs. There are 600 students in Durham UTC and we are setting up visits to our site for them. We also want to do that in Doncaster, Bristol, Swansea and London. You have to go back in history quite a way to find a similar level of encouragement for young staff.”
She says that the original Hitachi Train Maintenance Centre (TMC) in the UK, at Ashford, is not left out in this. “Ashford does some amazing stuff with the local schools and work placements, in which pupils can go to the depot for a week and learn valuable skills.
“I want to see us build more and more deeprooted relationships like that.”
Boswell explains that there is a clear plan off the back of the current contract wins, as well as those it is bidding for. “The 27½-year maintenance deal we have enables us to do great things around innovations and creating a legacy. It gives us time and opportunities to develop.”
She points out that the company’s legacy will be the performance of the trains it is building and maintaining, while regions in which the TMCs are located will also benefit.
By the end of the decade, HRE will have trains running to Inverness and Penzance (and all locations inbetween), with trains operated by Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, TransPennine Express and ScotRail. There will be TMCs at North Pole, Stoke Gifford, Swansea Maliphant, Bounds Green, Doncaster and Craigentinny, as well as the Newton Aycliffe site. “All the regions we interface with will benefit,” she says.
Boswell believes there is now an opportunity for substantial development of the railway workforce.
“The length of these deals means we can afford people opportunities to develop and learn, and to be able to take those skills elsewhere in the the world. We have a diverse staff, and that brings us new and different ways of thinking. That inevitably leads to new ideas.”
She embraces the family atmosphere created at Ashford and hopes it will spread to the other TMCs within the UK, as the company grows.
“We have a fantastic philosophy at Hitachi. It’s based on values set in 1910 about embracing and joining part of the family. If you engage with your people and empower your workforce then it will work well for you.”
But the company is not about to rest on its laurels. It’s not just in technology that Hitachi seeks to innovate and grow ideas. Recruitment and training is vital, but so is offering opportunities to people who might otherwise be overlooked.
“We are socially innovating. We have a role to play, to develop the society. Hitachi is doing a lot with career transitions for ex-Forces people, injured servicemen and women and mental health groups.
“We are embracing a broad church, because that represents the diverse society we have today. How can you possibly know the answers to what people want if they are not represented?”
“Underpinning and inspiring the next generation is key to what we are doing,” she says.
For Hitachi, this is not rocket science. Boswell says there is so much evidence to support the belief that if you look after staff through training and engagement then the pride they feel for working for the company will have a positive effect. “You get a better business outcome through engaging with staff.
“Thinking about people’s work/life balance, and how they impact each other, is important. We have a unique environment here.” Indeed, shift patterns have been changed at both
Ourinvestmentin thefutureknowsno bounds.Ifwehave customerswhofeel thesameway,then allthebetter. Karen Boswell, Managing Director, HRE
Ashford and Newton Aycliffe, and staff have shown appreciation for this, while senior managers have also noticed positive results.
Lessons have been transferred from Ashford since it opened in September 2007. Both the positive and negative experiences have helped to develop what is carried out across the UK at the new TMCs. Says Boswell: “When the TMCs are established they will be staffed by excellent teams sharing in the benefits of that experience.”
Hitachi intends to innovate in technology by drawing on the expertise and capability within the global firm.
“Our investment in the future knows no bounds. If we have customers who feel the same way, then all the better,” she says.
Boswell cites recent discussions with HS1 Chief Executive Dyan Crowther, who wants to work with the firm to introduce what she believes is much-needed innovation on Britain’s only high-speed line, HS1, where the UK’s only domestic High Speed Train fleet, Hitachi’s Class 395 Javelins, operate.
“My customers have that drive and determination. We need to help the businesses to innovate,” adds Boswell.
“We can draw on many different Hitachi companies, as we have done on maintenance optimisation.”
She discusses the possibilities surrounding smart technology and data, and says that there are real opportunities in this field. “One thing the rail industry is not short of is data, but how you use it is what counts. How do you use that information to pull ideas together?
“Our technological optimisation is driving costs down. There’s evidence of that at Stoke Gifford and Doncaster, where you can see the technology on the depots and the trains. The number of sensors on trains is staggering, as is the number of sensors on the depots.”
She says that the maintenance techniques developed at Ashford show what is possible. “Javelin performance figures are proof of what we can do.”
The performance of the ‘395s’ is such that Crowther says HS1’s delays are measured in seconds, while Transport Focus’ National Rail Passenger Survey shows passengers now take punctuality and reliability as a given and have shifted their focus to other aspects of the service, such as station facilities.
“Our vision is to bring the benefits of experience from Ashford to all the TMCs. At every depot, we are working with the teams there and improving them,” she says.
Nationally, Boswell explains, Hitachi has a dedicated team for maintenance. That is the culture and the philosophy of the company, she says. “We will have a team of over 1,000 by 2020.”
This is needed as Boswell believes there are plenty of opportunities out there. “There is a healthy pipeline [of contracts] in the UK and it is great to be a part of that. We will have trains running from the south west of England to the north of Scotland in the here and now. And there is plenty more to come.
“We want to bring the technology developed in Japan to this country. Exciting things are afoot.”