Bohumín, 6th May 2010 – BONATRANS GROUP a.s., the largest European manufacturer of railway wheels and wheelsets, started providing a new service with its products. It can provide, for each delivered wheel, wheelset or axle, an analysis with estimation of costs on the whole life cycle of the products, from the very acquisition to disposal, including guarantee of reliability, availability, maintainability and safety. Therefore, prior to making a purchasing decision, the customer can decide not only on the basis of the purchase price but also on the grounds of an estimation of operational costs and provided guarantees. BONATRANS GROUP is among leading manufacturers in the field that can provide such analysis to its customers and operators of railway units.

“The aim of the company is to provide the customers with quality products for a competitive price and low costs on operation and maintenance. For that reason, close cooperation with operators of railway units is essential for us to be able to continuously improve our products.”, says Mr. Tomas Curda, the LCC Manager in BONATRANS GROUP.

Analyses must be able to look quite far into the future. “They are usually elaborated for the period of several decades, even for 30 years, which is approximately the lifetime of train units. We need to be able to make the best estimate of the product lifetime, how much maintenance will cost, what the prices of spare parts, consumable materials and labour will be”, adds Tomas Curda.

Beginnings of RAMS and LCC analyses can be traced back to 1970s and 1980s when they started to be applied in the US Army as well as in chemical, aviation, nuclear and other industries, where requirements on continuously improved standards of safety, reliability and maintainability were essential.

The situation in the railway industry is similar. As requirements grow, especially in the area of passenger transport, railway operators push on their suppliers to reduce costs while continuously improving products’ quality. This area is also an inseparable part of the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS), issued by UNIFE, the Association of the European Railway Industry, that gradually becomes a recognized standard of modern railways and their suppliers.