In an environment as large and demanding as SNCF, ensuring the availability of parts for trains in operation is a daily challenge. With thousands of part numbers, constantly changing demand, and strict reliability requirements, every stockout can have major consequences on rail service.
To address these challenges, SNCF Voyageurs decided to undertake a deep transformation of its flow management by deploying DDMRP (Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning), supported by b2wise, at a first pilot site: the Romilly-sur-Seine facility.
This project, started in 2021 during the Covid period, is now considered a real success—operationally, technologically, and humanly.
A Complex Context and a Clear Ambition
For SNCF Voyageurs, parts demand is highly volatile.François Fournier, Supply Chain Operations Director at SNCF Voyageurs, summarizes the situation:
“Demand is extremely variable and constantly changing. The goal of DDMRP is to ensure a precise correlation between this fluctuating demand and our need to make our industrial activity as predictable as possible.”
DDMRP became a method capable of bringing structure, visibility, and stability in a context historically difficult to control.
A Strong Partnership with b2wise
The choice of b2wise quickly became essential to drive this strategic project. Despite the Covid situation, teams were able to build a working pilot in record time. Servane Morin-Badier, who later became Industrial Director of the Saint Pierre des Corps maintenance center, testifies:
“During Covid, we managed to set up a pilot quickly. Today we have a functional tool that users use every day.”
The adoption was immediate and largely facilitated by the intuitive design of the b2wise tool, even for teams initially unfamiliar with DDMRP concepts.
The Romilly-sur-Seine Pilot: Driving Transformation on the Ground
The latter plays a key role in gaining buy-in:
“DDBrix shows, using simple Lego bricks, how to improve logistics performance. It’s fun, and by the end of the day, you’re convinced by the method.”— Léa Merlier, DDMRP Project Assistant, SNCF.
Even employees who were initially skeptical eventually joined the movement.
Servane confirms this:
“Even people who were not convinced at first were won over and went on to promote DDBrix as a tool for understanding DDMRP.”
Immediate Operational Results
But it is on the results side that the project is most impressive.
François Fournier emphasizes the direct impact of the pilot:
“This pilot enabled us to achieve very strong buy-in from frontline teams. They now know that every production order responds to updated demand, rather than outdated and irrelevant demand.”
And the figures speak for themselves.
Léa Merlier highlights one of the most striking benefits:
“Since the deployment of DDMRP at our site, we have no longer had any TGV trainsets immobilized due to items covered by the method.”
For a rail operator like SNCF, this is a major result:
--> No more immobilizations caused by parts managed through DDMRP.
At the same time, buffers fully play their role as shock absorbers:
“Buffers are true variability absorbers. They strengthen the flexibility of our production system.”— F. Fournier
Operators, in turn, gain confidence and visibility. DDMRP gives meaning to their actions—an element that is often underestimated in transformation projects.
DDMRP as a Strategic Performance Lever
The DDMRP project carried out with b2wise is now recognized as a benchmark case. In just a few months, SNCF has:
- Improved the availability of its parts,
- Stabilized its flows,
- Strengthened the flexibility of its industrial system,
- And engaged its teams through powerful educational tools.
As Servane Morin-Badier summarizes:
“DDMRP projects are great projects, and we hope to move even faster and go even further.”
This partnership confirms that when the method, the tool, and the support are aligned, DDMRP becomes a true performance and transformation lever for complex industrial organizations.
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