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Sihltal Zürich Uetliberg Bahn

Business Challenge

The SZU has been working with a 20 year old operating software package that it had developed in-house, but which is now no longer able to meet the company’s needs.

Excessive payroll costs, a lack of userfriendliness and breaks in sequences of operations made the old system expensive and ineffective. For example, some routes constantly had to be re-programmed by one individual person. Working out employees’ expenses and timesheets took up 1-2 days every month, and even then there was still a considerable risk of error, and so the results always had to be checked. Valuable time was wasted on an unnecessarily lengthy work process.
For this reason among others the SZU has been searching the market for a new software solution, testing five other alternatives in addition to the Trapeze system. In the end though only the Trapeze Group was able to meet all the demands.

The Objective

It was important for the SZU that the new system was able to present a coherent and clear work process and ensure savings on labour (e.g. in scheduling).

The scheduling was organised into short, medium and long-term scheduling - a task that was to be supported by a new planning tool.
Short-term scheduling was handed over to the stations inspector, so that he and another 2-3 people could do the scheduling work on working days from the office.

Installation

Installation, training and introduction of the software were completed in stages in close collaboration with SZU employees. The project was managed by a Trapeze project manager, who was available at all times and who decided on deadlines and activities on site. And not least, the enthusiasm and dependability of the SZU project team contributed to what was a very positive outcome for the project.

The safety margin that had been built in as a precaution was not needed, as a result of which the system was ready for use 2-3 months sooner than had been planned. This also meant that parallel operation could be significantly reduced and the implementation proceed without any problems.

The Solution

“The disposition is now entirely supported by the Trapeze System, an easy-to-use system that can also be understood by employees who only deal with it sporadically, rather than on a daily basis” says Markus Kern. Production Manager, SZU. “We can see that the system will also save on costs, and we assume that the investment will have paid for itself in one year.

Result

For the future, the SZU hopes to benefit from an expansion of the system with online information via its intranet or the Internet, where every employee can find out about his or her working hours, account status and leave or holiday planning. It is also important for the SZU to know that the Trapeze system already offers these expansion possibilities. Expansion to include journey and service planning is also possible as and when required.

Status APRIL 2007

“Trapeze continuously proves to be a competent cooperation partner. Not only did they manage to complete the implementation process faster than originally planned, but the following daily operation has also confirmed our positive experiences with Trapeze. This also applies to Trapeze Customer Care and their optimal response times. They reply instantly and our problems are solved quickly. Trapeze is not one of the cheapest software providers but you get full value for your money. We are very pleased with Trapeze,” says Markus Kern, OLV at SZU.

For further information, call Markus Kern
on: tel. +41 1206 45 10