Case study

Westinghouse Rail Systems

A pioneering approach to accelerating high-risk product development projects

Westinghouse Rail Systems Limited, part of Invensys Plc, is a world leader in providing specialist safety products for the rail industry. They have installed some of the most complex and sophisticated train control and protection systems for UK and overseas railways.

Westinghouse now needed to deliver the next generation of higher-capacity, mass-transit signalling systems to a consortium expecting to take over the infrastructure for most of the London Underground rail network. Winning the contract respresented a major growth opportunity. To meet the contract deadlines, however, Westinghouse needed to change its management focus from tight control of development costs to accelerating its time to market. The current development capability was too slow-moving for delivery of the new Transmission-Based Signalling (TBS) programme.

PA Consulting Group was appointed to work closely with Westinghouse on the development programme. PA’s pragmatic approach to the implementation helped ensure its success by injecting the necessary delivery focus whilst building an organisation to suit the strengths of the existing team.

"On a very complex programme, PA's team provided us with clear insights, a rapid understanding of our key issues and a robust approach to solve these. They worked as an integral part of our team and through their "make it happen" attitude, they re-energised both our own people and our suppliers. This accelerated the programme in a sustainable way and gave us increased confidence in delivery on time."

Charles Riley, Technical Director, Westinghouse Rail Systems