Customer satisfaction is central to Hitachi Rail STS’s strategy: the ability to understand customers’ needs and expectations and meet them is the most important value upon which it bases its company culture. In general, each customer is assigned a specific contact at Hitachi Rail STS, generally the Project Manager overseeing its contract.
The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring the customer is satisfied, responding to any issues that might arise over the course of the contract.
Customer Satisfaction activities take place at various stages and are carried out using different tools to accurately monitor the level of customer satisfaction and project status until the completion of the project. These tools include:
Actions to mitigate risks and increase opportunities linked to the quality, timing and costs of projects include:
Hitachi Rail STS communicates with its customers and the market in general in order to contribute to the creation of value, improving the way in which the brand is perceived by the many professionals who participate the decision-making process regarding investments and the main operating activities.
For Hitachi Rail STS, the trade fair is one of the most important sales and marketing tools, where privileged contact is made between the exhibitor company and the stakeholder. It is a strategic tool for being in the front line and for building customer relations.
The following trade fairs are of particular note:
| Month | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| March 2018 | 26-28 UIC ERTMS World Conference |
Milan |
| April 2018 | 16-19 European Transport Research | Vienna |
| May 2018 | 22-24 RSSI | Omaha, USA |
| September 2018 | 18-21 Innotrans | Berlin |
| November 2018 | 6-8 CBTC World Congress | Paris |
| 7-9 Rail + Metro China | Shanghai | |
| 27-28 AusRail | Canberra | |
| February 2019 | 26-27 Middle East Rail | Dubai |
The advertising campaign implemented by Hitachi Rail STS aims to define the Company’s identity, constructing an increasingly consolidated and instantly recognisable brand identity and aiming to promote the brand’s values through a slogan. The advertising campaign that brought the best results was the one implemented in collaboration with the Cristoforo Colombo airport of Genoa.
AusRAIL, Canberra (Australia)
AusRAIL is the most important railway trade fair held in Australia. The event hosts over 400 exhibitors and stages the leading stakeholders of the rail transport industry. Hitachi Rail STS participated in this edition of AusRAIL to promote its skills in the field of automation thanks to the ATO (Automatic Train Control), ETCS L2 (European Train Control System) and GoA4 (Grade of Automation level 4) technologies applied to execution of the AutoHaul® project in Australia.
Innotrans (Berlin)
Hitachi Rail STS attended the most important international trade fair in the Rail sector with a high-impact stand shared with colleagues from Hitachi Rail S.p.A. Visitors and experts had access to special areas dedicated to meetings as well as an advanced virtual reality device made available by the Company, which enables users to explore driverless Hitachi Rail STS stations throughout the world.
Innovation never begins with an idea or an instrument. To the contrary, it begins with a need, the discovery of an opportunity. Hitachi meets these needs with new technologies for designing solutions that can create a tangible and positive social impact, and a visible and persistent change. This is how it manages its projects, by analysing them as plans or proposals able to display solutions that can work. It creates a prototype with the project, and demonstrates how to implement the idea and attain the expected results. This “scientific” approach allows it to assess the feasibility, costs, market and value of the solutions.
Therefore, Social Innovation for Hitachi is the way to:
In January 2019, Hitachi Rail STS has created a group explicitly and exclusively dedicated to the theme of innovation, to be developed over the next few years with dedicated budgets and resources.
The first objective was to give a clear definition of the concept of innovation by choosing the one given in The Little Black Book of Innovation by Scott D. Anthony “Blueprinting is an idea to seize that opportunity, and implementing that idea to achieve results: no impact, no innovation.”
This definition highlights how, for Hitachi Rail STS, innovation is a structured process that requires a rigorous approach and a well-defined set of activities. Starting from a need, a business opportunity is identified to satisfy it.
The best solutions (ideas) are identified, eventually resulting in new technologies and competences, according to the logic of ‘open innovation,’ and, finally the prototypes of these new solutions are created to demonstrate their effectiveness in satisfying the need. This creates a positive impact on the business and the community.
The second clearly-defined objective was the role and purpose of the new team’s work. The following figure summarizes the domain of the innovation team and where it is located — away from current solutions and business. As a result, it becomes a collector of opportunities, ideas and skills, delving into new technologies. The final objective is to create prototypes of new products and solutions that, transferred to the engineering and development bodies together with the related new skills, can enrich the Company’s product portfolio of tomorrow. Methods used by Hitachi Rail STS to eliminate and simplify hardware.
Over the years, its development of products and solutions (Development and Engineering) has enabled Hitachi Rail STS to seize a leading position in the Signalling Systems and Railway and Mass Transit Sectors.
The research and development expense ascribed directly to profit or loss, net of grants, shows significant growth and is broken down in the following table:
The majority of investments regarded the on-board systems product line aimed at facilitating alignment to the ERTMS standards and improving the performance of CBTC applications; furthermore, the new platform for automation products was launched, aimed at promoting the digital development of technology.
Hitachi Rail STS implements RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) activities to ensure that it develops and delivers products, applications and systems that are safe, in compliance with Italian and international laws applicable to railway systems, reliable and in line with its customers’ needs and its internal quality standards.
These activities are performed on all Hitachi Rail STS projects in which safety and reliability are relevant, which constitute over 90% of total business activities.
Safety and reliability are achieved through hazard analysis, a structured process in line with sector standards. It begins with the identification of hazards based on previous experience, the assessment of specifications for the various processes stages and Hazard workshops during which experts from the Company and from the customer discuss the various issues. Potential hazards are then included in a Hazard log, which is constantly updated over the life cycle of the project. For each hazard mapped, the log also includes the mitigation measures, activities to check that they were effectively implemented and an assessment of the residual hazard. The residual hazard level is assessed and accepted only if it is below the limits established by standards and customer requirements.
Hitachi Rail STS’s unwavering commitment to providing its customers and end users (passengers and freight) with the best products and system solutions, the use of the best design methodologies and procedures and the best existing construction methods and processes contributes to increasing safety and reducing direct and indirect impacts on the environment.
