How Onward Technologies helped a North American rail OEM streamline service data management across locomotive variants

Business challenge

As rail OEMs address the customer/operator demand for locomotive platforms for diverse freight applications, variant proliferation often creates downstream complexity in aftermarket engineering and service operations. That was the challenge facing a North American rail transportation leader whose locomotive platforms had evolved across technologies, emissions requirements, and customer-specific configurations. Over time, new Service Bills of Materials (SBOMs) were created for each variant.

The result was a fragmented SBOM landscape marked by inconsistent service philosophy, and structural inaccuracies. Maintaining this environment became increasingly resource intensive. Field-driven updates had to be made across multiple variant-specific SBOMs, driving avoidable effort, and increasing maintenance overhead. Excessive catalog size and document sprawl further impacted usability and long-term maintainability.

To address this, the client engaged Onward Technologies to assess the existing SBOM ecosystem and identify opportunities for consolidation, and standardization.

Onward Tech solution

We executed a structured review of the SBOM landscape across locomotive variants, evaluating whether components performing the same function could be standardized or replaced with improved-version parts for broader adoption. Each SBOM was assessed against a defined service philosophy to improve alignment and consistency across the installed base.

In parallel, pictorial representations were reviewed to enhance structural clarity and usability for downstream service stakeholders. Based on these findings, Onward Tech recommended targeted component-level and structural changes to rationalize the SBOM framework and reduce unnecessary duplication.

Business impact

The impact was immediate and measurable. By identifying consolidation opportunities and promoting common adoption of functionally similar or upgraded components, the initiative helped the client establish a leaner, more accurate, and more maintainable SBOM environment.

The client now benefits from a more rationalized service data model, improved consistency in service content of SBOM structures, and a framework that makes future updates significantly easier to implement.

For rail OEMs navigating platform complexity, and rising lifecycle service demands, SBOM rationalization is more than a documentation exercise, it is a strategic enabler of service excellence, operational efficiency, and digital continuity across the asset lifecycle.

Onward Technologies continues to help global OEMs modernize engineering operations, standardize complexity, and unlock smarter pathways to maintainability at scale. To learn more, write to us at railtech@onwardgroup.com.