The implementation of a digital twin as an intelligent asset management system of a railway infrastructure: application to the work scheduling process at SNCF Réseau

Abstract

The goal this paper is to design an intelligent asset management (IAM) system that can support the stakeholders' coordination to produce an optimized work schedule. Based on insight from the socio-technical state-of-the-art and the railway system's digital twin, authors have used a three-step methodology: an ethnographic study of current practices to identify stakeholders' information needs, a technological study of the digital twin capability to design a technology probe and the implementation of a technology probe to collect stakeholders' feedback. The implementation of the authors' method on the work scheduling activity at SNCF Réseau shows: First, the digital twin technology provides an asset data model relevant to design IAM system; second, the socio-technical methods lead to an IAM system that offers decision aid information to facilitate the stakeholders' coordination.