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Carmen Systems: Carmen Rail Solution Improves Operational Efficiency at Rail Gourmet

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 09:01 CST

Carmen Systems AB has successfully completed delivery of the Carmen Rail Solution (CRS) to the Spanish operations of Rail Gourmet, a European rail catering and passenger care company. 450 restaurant staff on Spanish trains are now scheduled with CRS Shifts (Pairing) and Rosters.

Indications are that the Carmen Rail Solution should be able to save Rail Gourmet more than EUR 700,000 each year, mainly due to an estimated 7% reduction in crew costs when staffing the network. The Carmen Rail Solution also reduces the dependency of Rail Gourmet on a small number of key planners, as well as giving Rail Gourmet the capability to simulate different business scenarios in order to further develop their operations.

Implementation work included the complete modelling of all crew rules and regulations, deployment of the software solution enabling the generation of optimized shifts and rosters, plus training of staff in the use of the system for production planning and simulation work. The system was taken into full production during January 2006.

Anders Liestam, CEO of Rail Gourmet Espana said, "We are very pleased with the project results. The most important benefits achieved are substantial crew savings, a stable planning process and reduced dependency on key planners. We were also impressed by the result and the commitment of Carmen's friendly and efficient team."

Joe Forbes, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Carmen Systems said, "The challenge was to reduce operational costs of Rail Gourmet, whilst delivering to a tight time frame. This was achieved due to the close co-operation between Carmen's delivery team and Rail Gourmet's project team."

Rail Gourmet is a European rail catering and passenger care company who operate services for major railways in Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, and China. Their staffs cater for over 34 million passengers per day. Rail Gourmet provides all services related to rail catering, including turnkey rolling bistros. Rail Gourmet's Spanish operations deliver on-board catering services to Spanish rail operator RENFE. Rail Gourmet's staff run restaurant cars on over 500 train services per week.

Carmen Systems AB develops, markets and implements resource optimization software and services solutions for clients in the transportation industry, primarily the airline and railway industries. Clients include, among others; Aeromexico, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Finnair, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), Amtrak, Green Cargo, National Rail Enquiries (UK), RailCorp - New South Wales (Australia) and SNCF (French National Railways). Carmen Systems is a rapidly expanding organization and today has 310 employees from 34 nationalities. Carmen Systems' headquarters is in Goteborg, Sweden with additional offices in Austin (Texas), Brisbane (Australia), Copenhagen, London, Montreal, Paris, Singapore and Stockholm.

Carmen Systems announced March 3 that the Boeing company has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Carmen Systems AB. Boeing is one of the world's leading aerospace companies. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and the relevant authorities' approval. www.carmensystems.com

This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net

Source: Business Wire

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