AI Case Study
The Hong Kong Metro saves 800,000 hours annually by optimising engineering work scheduling and resource allocation with AI
The Hong Kong Metro has been leveraging AI technology since July 2013. An AI engine schedules and manages all engineering work for all the rail lines in HK and ensures that all the scheduled engineering works are safe and successful. The technology solution has saved MTR two days a week of manually planning the repair schedule and has enabled its employees to have more time to finish their work, saving $800,000 each year.
Industry
Public And Social Sector
Public Services
Project Overview
"MTR is using AI to plan, schedule, and optimize their various engineering works at rail lines in Hong Kong. The AI Engine allows MTR to streamline the scheduling / rescheduling porcesses as well as optimize resource allocation to maximize the number of engineering works performed. AI is delivered as a unique cloud-based "AI as a Service" (AaaS) model, where AI services are provided via client-agnostic and rail-line agnostic REST APIs. The AI services include rule-based conflict-checking, scheduling, rescheduling, and resource optimization. The AaaS model allows AI to be easily deployed to server other rail lines through straightforward REST service calls."
Reported Results
"The new enhanced AI Engine has been in daily use to schedule and manage all engineering works for all the rail lines in Hong Kong since July 2013. All engineering works scheduled are ensured to be safe and satisfying all business and operational constraints. The schedule is also optimized so that MTR can perform more engineering works with its existing resources. In addition, valuable domain knowledge and expertise related to these regulations and guidelines are now quantified, coded and preserved within the organization, for use by anyone using the system."
"The AI overseer saves MTR two days a week of wrangling over the repair schedule. Also, MTR’s repair teams now have 30 minutes longer to finish their night’s work – a small time boost that saves MTR $800,000 a year." (newscientist)
Technology
"The AI Engine allows MTR to streamline the scheduling / rescheduling porcesses as well as optimize resource allocation to maximize the number of engineering works performed. AI is delivered as a unique cloud-based "AI as a Service" (AaaS) model, where AI services are provided via client-agnostic and rail-line agnostic REST APIs. The AI services include rule-based conflict-checking, scheduling, rescheduling, and resource optimization. The AaaS model allows AI to be easily deployed to server other rail lines through straightforward REST service calls."
Function
Operations
Field Services
Background
"In 2007, the KCRC merged with MTR to oversee all the railway lines in Hong Kong. After the merger, MTR operates 10 heavy rail lines and 12 light rail lines, spanning 218.2km and 152 stations. In 2010, MTR decided to create one AI system to schedule and manage all engineering works for all the rail lines. This new system is an enhanced and updated version of the AI Engine deployed in 2004 for the subway system.
Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC), manages all the railway lines in Hong Kong. In order to maintain service quality and performance, and to support various improvement and rail extension / construction projects, each week over 2,600 individual engineering works need to be performed, involving over 10,000 maintenance personnel.
MTR carries 5.2 million passengers on an average weekday, making it one of the busiest rail system in the world. Despite the large traffic-flow, the MTR has set for itself a very high service quality standard, consistenly delivering a 99.9% on-time rate. To ensure these standards are met, the scheduling of engineering works must be optimized so that all necessary maintenance tasks are done in a timely manner."
Benefits
Data