This year we’ve all had to demonstrate a remarkable level of adaptability and flexibility as we’ve changed the way we work.

Change and changing well is always a part of successful businesses – albeit not normally to the extent we’ve all faced recently!

Our Newton Aycliffe site is now well used to transformational change; from initial opening five years ago and recruiting 700 people from scratch, to successfully delivering our first two programmes and now adapting our site to be set up for the future.

I’ve spent my career in manufacturing in the North East and have a passion for organisational transformation. The team at Newton Aycliffe is one of the most incredible I‘ve ever worked with and one which I’m incredibly proud to lead.

As we move forward building new and exciting projects, we continue to adapt our processes, improve efficiencies and exploit new technologies.

Digitisation

As a brand new facility, we’ve benefited from being able to leap straight to digitised processes. Being part of Hitachi, one of the world’s leading technology companies, we’ve been able to establish a cutting edge level of digitised process that touches every part of our onsite operations.

The introduction of data digitisation has enabled us to drive significant improvements in delivery output rate - increasing our efficiency and ultimately boosting productivity.

Examples include an 80% improvement in pick performance in our warehouse leading to more effective stock control and analysis and a 25% improvement in production efficiency thanks to the visualisation of data in each area.

From Safety to Production, Facilities to Testing – we have wall-to-wall digital tools.

The types of efficiencies delivered by digitalisation are particularly important as we move towards delivering multiple, different-sized projects simultaneously.

Through collaboration and partnerships, we’re also seeking to harness our expertise and innovation to deliver a lasting contribution to the decarbonisation agenda.

Last summer, we partnered with Sunderland-based business Hyperdrive to bring their cutting-edge battery technology to future rail fleets. In December, we announced our MoU with Eversholt Rail Group to trial a tri-mode battery train that we expect to cut carbon emissions by 20%.

This puts Hitachi Rail and North East manufacturing at the forefront of creating even more sustainable trains.

Looking to the future

From the very outset, Hitachi made a firm commitment to invest in the UK and North East local economy and supply chain.

We’ve stayed true to our word, investing over £110 million in the Newton Aycliffe facility in five years and continue to deliver highly-skilled jobs in the North East.

We now employ over 700 staff in Rolling Stock design & manufacture in the UK and have invested heavily in training and apprenticeships, including co-founding the South Durham University Technical College.

To me and our team it’s incredibly important that we continue to work closely with our education partners to inspire the engineers and train builders of the future.

We certainly haven’t stood still during the pandemic either.

Manufacturing has continued at pace and work has begun at our brand new welding and painting facilities with two fleets that we are delivering for East Midlands Rail and Avanti West Coast.

The facilities are the first of their kind to be created in Britain in decades and signal our intent to be grow our offer and capacity to deliver.

This increase in our capabilities meets our strategy of becoming an agile, fully flexible train design and delivery organisation with the expertise to deliver a full range of products.

I look forward to our journey from here as we continue to improve, adapt and drive change.