Engineering Award for Bombardier's Orbita

Bombardier's Orbita solution has been named winner of the Asset Management Innovation Award at the prestigious Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Innovation Awards 2009 at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.

IET Innovation Awards span 15 categories and attracted over 300 entries from around the world. They represent a unique opportunity for innovators to be recognised and provide a showcase for the brightest ideas, highlighting the importance of innovation by celebrating its application across a range of engineering disciplines.

Orbita is Bombardier's service capability: a set of people, processes and tools that help identify train service issues before they occur and pinpoint problems accurately when they have occurred. Orbita combines data gathered from the trains with Bombardier's global fleet knowledge and engineering expertise to enable active, holistic management of vehicle and infrastructure maintenance, performance and operation.

Using advanced tools and processes, Orbita provides advice and information that presents customers with the means to achieve new levels of operational efficiency, service availability and train reliability. Orbita is the future of intelligent maintenance and operation, available today.

Dr Michael Provost, Director of Predictive Services Engineering at Bombardier Transportation (pictured left), received the Award on behalf of the Orbita team from Chris Murray, Director, National Grid Transmission (pictured right) and commented: "The Orbita team, and partners such as NVable Ltd who have made major contributions to the project, are extremely pleased and proud to receive this prestigious innovation award from the Institution of Engineering and Technology. It confirms our view that Bombardier has created a world-class capability for the benefit of the railway industry, its customers and society."

Orbita team at award ceremony: (from left to right): Chris Bishop, Mike Provost, Mark Leahy, Stuart Walters, Angela Dean, Paul Forrest, Jeremy Lovell (all Bombardier Transportation), Debbie Cassels, Neil Burrows, Cameron Hood (all NVable Ltd)