Complex regulations and an aging workforce led Infrabel, the owner and overseer of Belgium’s rail infrastructure, to look for a new planning and scheduling solution. The optimal scheduling and assignment of personnel was a vital necessity which could not be attainted using the company’s former tools and process. Infrabel chose to implement ORTEC Workforce Scheduling and was able to allocate the workload more evenly for over 3,500 traffic control employees stationed in signalling boxes and traffic control centers.

1. Complex regulations and an aging workforce led Infrabel, the owner and overseer of Belgium’s rail infrastructure, to look
for a new planning and scheduling solution. The optimal scheduling and assignment of personnel was a vital necessity
which could not be attainted using the company’s former tools and process. Infrabel chose to implement ORTEC
Workforce Scheduling and was able to allocate the workload more evenly for over 3,500 traffic control employees
stationed in signalling boxes and traffic control centers.
Casesheet
Challenges in the world of Infrabel
 The schedule of 3,500 employees stationed in
340 signalling boxes was drawn up by hand by
52 planners working from 13 locations.
This situation was no longer tenable, as
complex labor regulations inevitably caused
mistakes resulting in sub-optimal planning.
 Sixty per cent of the company’s personnel
will reach retirement age in the next ten years
and will leave the company in the near future.
Planners had to form blended teams in order
to ensure that the knowledge and experience
at each work location could be shared.
 All of the relevant knowledge was stored
in planners’ heads. A tool was needed to
keep schedules more accessible, clear and
manageable for everyone.
 A number of complex health and safety
regulations must be taken into consideration
when drawing up schedules.
 Social requirements stipulate that the
workload has to be evenly distributed over all
employees. Infrabel also wanted to introduce
the principle of ‘healthy scheduling – healthy
employees.’
How Infrabel aimed to optimize its world
 With ORTEC Workforce Scheduling, Infrabel
purposely chose a system that was not
only capable of taking complex regulations
into consideration, but could also cater to
employee preferences.
 Scheduling, time recording and cost allocation
is now an integrated process at Infrabel.
On the one hand, employee master data
with relevant training information and safety
requirements, is automatically updated
in ORTEC Workforce Scheduling using an
integration with Infrabel’s SAP ERP system.
On the other, ORTEC Workforce Scheduling
calculates costs per cost center and
automatically transfers them to SAP for
payroll and review purposes.
 The company uses our solution’s Budget &
Control and Employee Self-service modules.
Industry
Professional and public services
About Infrabel
Infrabel is the Belgian rail infra-
structure administrator.
 Total number of employees:
12,564
 177 signalling boxes
 Signal and traffic control
staff work in shifts of 3
times 8 hours, 7 days on and
7 days off
Infrabel
Insights shown by this tool can
mean so much for your company
“This tool can do so much
more than you think”
Lucien De Keersmaeker

2. The solution
 ORTEC Workforce Scheduling
The results
+ Optimal distribution of the work load
+ Less scheduling errors
+ Better implementation and monitoring of the
complex HR regulations
+ More efficient scheduling process
+ Increased productivity
+ Increased customer and stakeholder satisfaction
+ Improved insight into the schedule
+ Ability to track who attended which training courses
and when
+ Policy making is supported by improved access
to information
+ Balanced teams of experienced and less
experienced employees
Scheduling structure
ORTEC Workforce Scheduling takes workload constraints,
as well as organizational and staffing needs into account
to build a shift schedule per location. After the tasks have
been performed and recorded in the solution, the model
determining staffing levels can be adjusted as needed
to improve the overall plan. Infrabel Manager Lucien De
Keersmaeker says: “Thanks to ORTEC, we can constantly
improve our schedule. Now, supply and demand are
optimally balanced.”
Objective scheduling
With the introduction of ORTEC Workforce Scheduling,
Infrabel can not only create optimal work schedules,
but also accommodate employee preferences. “We now
have a wonderful tool to support planners and to make
their work much easier”, De Keersmaeker states. The
company is very pleased with the system.
“It’s great that we can optimally assign our personnel and
increase our productivity. But one of the most important
reasons driving this change has been to improve our
employees’ satisfaction. ORTEC Workforce Scheduling
does not only take very complex regulations into
consideration; it also accounts for employees’ preferences
and distributes the workload evenly. We can adequately
react to ad hoc disruptions with the insight that we
now have into our staff’s schedule. In addition, ORTEC
Workforce Scheduling enables us to draw up an objective
schedule.”
Safety and Situational Knowledge
Lucien De Keersmaeker adds: “ORTEC Workforce
Scheduling truly offers the right support to planners to
help them draw up a schedule and adjust it to deal with
unexpected disruptions. It is immediately apparent who
is available and who has the right competencies (and has
completed the right training) with the new system, which is
extremely important to Infrabel.”
Management analyses
“This tool can do so much more than you think”, says
Lucien De Keersmaeker. “It allows for management
analysis, gives us more insight, and makes corrections
along the way as it analyzes trends.’
Want to learn more about our solutions? Contact us at: info@ortec.com www.ortec.com