Case Studies for local, independent,transport services

Case Study 1: Nissan Leaf - Rollout of Electric Cars

Background

Okinawa – Japanese holiday island. 5 million visitors a year, half rent a vehicle for average of 3 days
The EV rental service complements the aim of local organisations to improve the environmental sustainability of tourism on the island.
University of Tokyo designed the business model and conducted the technical and market research.
Travel agencies across Japan offer package holidays that include electric vehicle rentals.
Rental service companies provide 200 Nissan Leafs with a range of 160 km.
Car hirers either pay to use the 27 fast-charging stations or recharge for free at a slow-charging station, which takes about eight hours for a complete charge.

Location: Okinawa – Japanese holiday island. 5 million visitors a year, half rent a vehicle for average of 3 days;
Service composition: Rental Service well established. New technology for vehicle and charging system.
User Study carried out, but did not cover all Stakeholders
Information: lack of information for travel agents and users on Performance and Range. Leading to long queues at recharging stations at convenience stores.
Co-operation: no answers from Nissan about Performance and Range. No incentives for travel agents booking cars. Queues at charging stations caused loss of other business.
Feed-back: Issues found by early users led to customers renting standard cars.
Rentals of electric cars poor and resale values dropped.
Installation of more charging stations halted.

London Cycle Hire, prime contractor SERCO, went live in 2010.
Provides over 6,000 bicycles used in central London supporting over 50,000 journeys a day.
Hiring charges are £2-00 per day, to travel any number of journeys of 30 minutes or less: additional £2-00 fee for each further period of up to 30 minutes.
Over 400 Racks with over 10,000 docking stations where bicycles are stored, hired and returned.
Payment automated through use of credit cards
Congestion Charges leading to reduced motor traffic. Increasing use and congestion of rail, tube and bus services

Service composition: Service Architecture and Components were relatively simple and well tested
User Study: Extensive study of potential use and users, commuters and locals.
Information: Real-time provision of on-line information to the Service Users on mobile phones. Linked into TlC route planner App.
Co-operation: Service Provider and Service Customer worked together to determine the level of specification of the Service and extensive specification of Service User related aspects
Feed-back: Initial adopters found service worked and encouraged further users

The Systems Approach is needed for the development and delivery of Services.
Applied through-life, over time, end-to-end. The support system needs support.
Broad, coherent solutions are needed incorporating the Technical Solution, the Financial Solution and the Commercial Solution

Understanding Services: Understanding Stakeholders. S J Ashlin, I Cardow, A L Crawford, J K Davies, A Farncombe Paper presented at the 2016 INCOSE International Symposium

Weiller C. and Neely A. Cambridge Services Alliance. Electric Vehicle Rental Services: Project in Okinawa, Japan. http://cambridgeservicealliance.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/Okinawa Report Accessed 7th June 2016