Download PDF
CFL's Innovation Journey with Scalable IoT Platform
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Machine Learning
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Buildings
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Smart Parking
- Track & Trace of Assets
Services
- System Integration
- Training
The Challenge
Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL), Luxembourg’s national rail company, was faced with the challenge of improving customer experience and increasing efficiency by leveraging the vast amount of data generated by their trains and infrastructure. As one of the country's largest employers, with over 3,000 employees, CFL served 14.5 million passengers and transported 2.3 million tonne-kilometers of freight in 2020. The company needed to balance the management of track, rolling stock, station buildings, and other infrastructure with the needs of its passengers and freight customers. To explore emerging technologies like robotics, multimedia, unified communications, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, CFL established a new department within its IT organization, known as Operational Technology. The challenge was to turn the large quantities of data generated by high-tech sensors and control systems into actionable insights with real business value.
About The Customer
Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL) is Luxembourg’s national rail company. In 2020, they served 14.5 million passengers and transported 2.3 million tonne-kilometers of freight. They employed over 3,000 people making them one of the country’s largest employers. CFL manages trains, buildings, and other assets that are often equipped with high-tech sensors and control systems that generate large quantities of data every day. The company sees digital transformation and the adoption of innovative technologies as a key enabler for next-generation rail services and improved customer experience.
The Solution
CFL decided to build a flexible and scalable IoT platform. After evaluating several vendors, they chose Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, delivered by Pentaho, as the core of their new IoT platform. The Operational Technology team began by porting CFL’s existing IoT solutions over to Lumada Data Integration, which not only proved the technical capabilities of the new platform but also led to savings of several thousand Euros per month by cancelling subscriptions to external IoT vendors. The team then started developing new IoT use cases. For instance, CFL started using Lumada to capture video data from CCTV cameras in its station parking lots and apply artificial intelligence to predict the number of parking spaces that will be available. Another use case involved using onboard sensors to monitor the water levels in real time, ensuring compliance with German railway regulations when trains cross the border from Luxembourg into Germany.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Energy Saving & Power Monitoring System
Recently a university in Taiwan was experiencing dramatic power usage increases due to its growing number of campus buildings and students. Aiming to analyze their power consumption and increase their power efficiency across 52 buildings, the university wanted to build a power management system utilizing web-based hardware and software. With these goals in mind, they contacted Advantech to help them develop their system and provide them with the means to save energy in the years to come.
Case Study
Airport SCADA Systems Improve Service Levels
Modern airports are one of the busiest environments on Earth and rely on process automation equipment to ensure service operators achieve their KPIs. Increasingly airport SCADA systems are being used to control all aspects of the operation and associated facilities. This is because unplanned system downtime can cost dearly, both in terms of reduced revenues and the associated loss of customer satisfaction due to inevitable travel inconvenience and disruption.
Case Study
IoT-based Fleet Intelligence Innovation
Speed to market is precious for DRVR, a rapidly growing start-up company. With a business model dependent on reliable mobile data, managers were spending their lives trying to negotiate data roaming deals with mobile network operators in different countries. And, even then, service quality was a constant concern.
Case Study
Digitize Railway with Deutsche Bahn
To reduce maintenance costs and delay-causing failures for Deutsche Bahn. They need manual measurements by a position measurement system based on custom-made MEMS sensor clusters, which allow autonomous and continuous monitoring with wireless data transmission and long battery. They were looking for data pre-processing solution in the sensor and machine learning algorithms in the cloud so as to detect critical wear.
Case Study
Cold Chain Transportation and Refrigerated Fleet Management System
1) Create a digital connected transportation solution to retrofit cold chain trailers with real-time tracking and controls. 2) Prevent multi-million dollar losses due to theft or spoilage. 3) Deliver a digital chain-of-custody solution for door to door load monitoring and security. 4) Provide a trusted multi-fleet solution in a single application with granular data and access controls.
Case Study
Intelligent Building Automation System and Energy Saving Solution
One of the most difficult problems facing the world is conserving energy in buildings. However, it is not easy to have a cost-effective solution to reduce energy usage in a building. One solution for saving energy is to implement an intelligent building automation system (BAS) which can be controlled according to its schedule. In Indonesia a large university with a five floor building and 22 classrooms wanted to save the amount of energy being used.
