09-01-2016, 05:49 PM
I don't even know where to begin with these comments!
Yes, FLEXITY Freedom is a derived variant of the FLEXITY 2 platform from Europe. So the designers over here had some stuff to work with - but they've never designed or built an LFLRV before. Thunder Bay has lots of experience with heavy rail and Millhaven had lots of experience with Monorail, ICTS and others. But it's a totally new thing for the North American design/build teams.
Then it has to meet Transport Canada and FRA regs and yadda yadda yadda. So that takes time. They could be using totally different CAD platforms. Which is awful to deal with. Thunder Bay is an older plant which definitely wasn't designed from day 1 (unlike the European plants) to build these things. Then there was the issues with the frame fabs from Mexico. Then management changed something like 8 times.
It's not simple - it's not like "oh they just suck" or "oh it's just a design issue". Someone should write a book or an article on why this project failed to deliver on time. None of us knows, and only a very few of us even have any insight into how custom manufacturing and design actually works in the real works (like me - sorry, but it's what I do all day).
Please read this: http://globalprojectstrategy.com/lessons/case.php?id=23
Yes, FLEXITY Freedom is a derived variant of the FLEXITY 2 platform from Europe. So the designers over here had some stuff to work with - but they've never designed or built an LFLRV before. Thunder Bay has lots of experience with heavy rail and Millhaven had lots of experience with Monorail, ICTS and others. But it's a totally new thing for the North American design/build teams.
Then it has to meet Transport Canada and FRA regs and yadda yadda yadda. So that takes time. They could be using totally different CAD platforms. Which is awful to deal with. Thunder Bay is an older plant which definitely wasn't designed from day 1 (unlike the European plants) to build these things. Then there was the issues with the frame fabs from Mexico. Then management changed something like 8 times.
It's not simple - it's not like "oh they just suck" or "oh it's just a design issue". Someone should write a book or an article on why this project failed to deliver on time. None of us knows, and only a very few of us even have any insight into how custom manufacturing and design actually works in the real works (like me - sorry, but it's what I do all day).
Please read this: http://globalprojectstrategy.com/lessons/case.php?id=23