Alstom and the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority (SFMTA) have signed a two-year, $18.2 million contract extension for an inventory control program to improve the agency’s fleet availability.
The city operates 151 light rail vehicles, 26 historic streetcars and 40 cable cars, and requires a continuous supply of spare parts and inventory from a variety of vendors. Alstom’s Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) program identifies the most-critical and used parts, manages the purchase of parts as well as the control and flow of the inventory, and provides reverse engineering for parts that are unavailable or obsolete.
Alstom has been managing inventory for the agency since 2013.
In a statement, Alstom said the VMI program, which is part of its services portfolio, has resulted in nearly 10% more cars available for revenue service each day and a 74% increase in the mean distance cars travel before requiring repair.
The VMI service is managed out of Alstom’s Mare Island facility.