TFD Group Announces contracts with Montreal Metro

Montreal Metro selects TFD Group’s VMetric software to optimize the inventory on their $1.2 Billion replacement of their MR-62 fleet

Monterey, CA – October 5, 2007 -Following an independent analysis of all available methods of spares calculation methods Montreal Metro held a competitive tender in June 2007. They selected TFD Group’s V-METRIC software to optimize the inventory on their $1.2 Billion replacement of their MR-63 metro fleet. A contract for the acquisition of TFD Group’s V-METRIC capability (including training and on-site consultancy support) was issued in August 2007 and work on optimizing Inventory for Montreal Metro’s new trains is due to commence before the end of 2007.

V-METRIC is already in use with the French national railway Inventory (the SNCF) and has been used extensively in commercial air transport, space and military aerospace organizations. Montreal Metro savings are expected to provide a Return on Investments of many tens of thousand percent over the cost of acquiring V-METRIC.

In May 2006, the Quebec Government announced the negotiation of a $1.2 Billion contract with Bombardier to replace their existing Canadian Vickers MR-63 metro fleet at the Montreal Metro the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM). Production of the new Metro cars will start in 2009 with the first trains becoming operational between 2010 and 2012. These new trains will conduct more than ¾ Million passenger-journeys per day between 65 stations across a completely underground network of over 60 kilometers of tracks.

Montreal Metro faced the usual difficulty of accurately targeting their initial procurement spares budget to acquire exactly the right resources for the new fleet before they could accumulate and analyze several years of operational history. They engaged an independent team of consultants to systematically analyze all available methods of spares calculation and to recommend the best solution.

During their research, the Montreal Metro Consultants discovered the French national railway: la Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) was already evaluating a method called Variable Multi-Echelon, Technique for Repairable Item Control (V-METRIC). V-METRIC harnesses the power of sophisticated mathematical equations (optimization algorithms) derived in the 1960s by professor Sherbrooke of the RAND Corporation (a nonprofit research and analysis institution that helps improve policy and decision making). The United States Air Force was the first to recognize the potential of V-METRIC and quickly implemented it on their operational aircraft fleets. They realized unprecedented improvements in inventory costs and operational availability. NASA was among the next to adopt V-METRIC, followed by several major commercial airlines. All made significant savings (of between 15%-50%) on their inventory holdings yet each achieved measurable improvement in the availability of their equipment.
TFD Group, headquartered in Monterey, California, is a world leader in the development of analytical methods and software tools that support the economic and strategic decisions of both DoD and commercial system planners. These professional tools are an integral part of any Performance Based Logistics (PBL) system and include: TFD Data Vault, MAAP^®, VMetric^®, EDCAS^®; ACA™ and SCO™.

Numbered among TFD^® clients are a variety of military establishments, virtually all the significant aerospace and defense companies in the world, and a growing list of organizations in the commercial sphere. Notable clients include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE SYSTEMS, General Electric, General Motors, Parker Hannifin, Raytheon, the Royal Air Force, and the US Coast Guard. There are more than 600 separate TFD software installations.

For more information about TFD Group please visit our website. at www.tfdg.com.