19 Sep 2023

Celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year, SBS Transit has achieved significant milestones over the past five decades. SBS Transit has grown into a world-class rail and bus operator with a workforce of more than 10,000 people – operating over 3,500 buses, serving some 200 bus routes. The company also operates the North East MRT Line, which is the world's first fully automated, underground heavy rail system, as well as the Downtown Line and Sengkang-Punggol Light Rail Transit (SPLRT) systems.

Their winning formula? A mindset of continuous learning and openness to change.

Linus Hoon, a Human Resource Manager from SBS Transit’s Leadership Academy, speaks about their Learning and Development (L&D) focused approach. “Increasingly, we are facing emerging issues such as higher operational costs and manpower challenges in the current business climate. To counter this, we are looking towards transforming our business through digitalisation, upskilling our staff and re-engineering our operational processes to improve efficiency and productivity.”

Adopting new technologies for more reliable train operations

One example of the organisation’s digital transformation efforts is its shift from ‘corrective maintenance’ to ‘condition-based maintenance’ for its train networks. Essentially, this means moving from a process of ‘fixing the part or system when it fail’ to ‘performing early maintenance as needed based on the condition of the part or system’ – and it’s enabled by data analytics. With condition-based maintenance, the engineers can receive early alerts about potential equipment failures and can pre-emptively undertake the necessary corrective actions to avoid unplanned downtime for train operations. This is an area that SBS Transit has invested over 3,000 man-hours to date.

“Traditionally, our people had to manually check every part of our train assets, which was a very time-consuming process. With the help of data analytics, we can analyse the massive amounts of data generated every day to identify meaningful insights and trends, which can then be used to help us conduct these checks in a more targeted manner and recommend the next best course of action. New technology and connectivity also enables us to monitor the status of equipment at multiple locations simultaneously, which is a massive boost to our productivity.”

Even more crucially, Alan points out that having the know-how to analyse large amounts of data, has provided his team with new ways of looking at things and helped to enhance the reliability of train operations. “With data analytics, we can quickly predict future trends and patterns based on historical data. For instance, we can derive the estimated lifespan of a particular train component and predict when it needs repairing or replacing. With this, we can plan and schedule our train maintenance to minimise the risk of faults occurring due to failing components, thus leading to smoother operations and happier commuters.”

Learning never ends, it evolves

As SBS Transit commemorates 50 years of progress this year, the company is already looking forward to their next milestone, and have identified key learning focuses for their team. These include diving deeper into data analytics, as well as training in cybersecurity to enhance the stability and security of its public transport networks.

Stay ahead of the curve: Invest in your team’s success

Keen on driving change across your organisation through upskilling? Explore NUS’ suite of L&D solutions for companies here, or speak with us for advice and options on customising training programmes for your teams. 

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