News

Network Rail puts its Product Acceptance Process on a smarter track

23rd of July 2024

Network Rail owns, operates and develops Britain’s railway infrastructure. Everything from the tracks, bridges, tunnels and viaducts, signals, level crossings and train stations. Of course, to support this infrastructure there are many products and systems from different manufacturers in the mix. Many of these products, deemed safety critical, have to go through the Product Acceptance process to ensure that they are safe, reliable, compatible and fit for purpose.

The role of Product Acceptance at Network Rail is to ensure safety critical products accepted for use (on or about the operational UK rail infrastructure) are safe, compatible, reliable and fit for purpose. Accepted products should not expose the operational infrastructure to unacceptable risk. Only accepted products that fall within scope of the Product Acceptance process can be used on the rail infrastructure. The Product Acceptance Process was built using Liberty Create, Netcall’s low-code platform.

Building a Product Acceptance process using Liberty Create

The product acceptance team oversees the process from a central base in accordance with standard NR/L2/RSE/100/05. Their rigorous checks include making sure supplies meet exact requirements in terms of technical standards, specifications and legislation. The team engages with various stakeholders involved in the end-to-end process to progress products as efficiently as possible.

The previous systems used were very manual and inefficient. Many of the administration tasks involve lots of copy and pasting and manually checking the status of product acceptance across four stages. If a process stage is delayed, it meant chasing individuals. And a lack of visibility meant it was difficult to tell where things were in the process for some stakeholders (or who’s doing what and when).

The team were eager to drive efficiency and has identified an opportunity to automate the process stages – application, assessment, operational trial and full acceptance. Using low-code technology, they’ve automated the process to meet strict governance conditions. And by removing room for human error, it means the process is more efficient and fluid.

“Using the Liberty Create low-code platform we’ve been able to automate and improve our product acceptance process even further. It’s much easier for users to navigate the process and see the latest status of acceptance. We’ve seen a huge reduction in unnecessary communication and duplication of effort. And there’s a clear audit trail for people, duties and timings. It’s helping us create efficiencies in the process and ensures we meet strict governance conditions.”

Roger Moore

Senior Product Acceptance Specialist, Network Rail

These process improvements mean that employees can now:

• Easily navigate the process
• Simply press a button for the latest status of product acceptance
• Reduce unnecessary communication and duplication of effort
• Clearly view who’s involved at each stage of the process
• Access an audit trail with people, duties and timings

Further information on the Network Rail Product Acceptance process.