CSC Smart Business UK Edition August - Staying on track
Staying on track
CSC’s Garage Information System is helping Marussia Virgin Racing organise its team to hit multiple daily deadlines so its cars reach the grid on time
Marussia Virgin Racing faces the same challenge as any other business – how to keep a team focused on shared goals and working to strict deadlines. To help the F1 team CSC has developed a new information and timing system called the Garage Information Screen.
In business the technology is likely to have applications to alert financial services companies to markets opening, or giving large enterprises a dashboard on how well customer services or business processes are performing. In the Marussia Virgin Racing garage, however, deadlines revolve around the sport’s strict regulations. If they are not observed, the team risks not getting its two cars, driven by Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio, on to the grid for a Grand Prix.
Every day of a racing weekend is packed with eight or more deadlines for practice, qualification and race sessions as well as the many meetings to ensure the cars are running as well as possible. Also, strict rules dictate the cars cannot be touched during a six hour overnight ‘curfew’ to ensure engineers and mechanics rest instead of working all night on modifications.
It may come as a surprise, then, that F1 garages at Grand Prixs do not come equipped with a clock. Despite the racing rules imposing strict timing stipulations, which could result in a car not qualifying for a race, hitting deadlines relies on teams referring to their own watches.
Garage Information Screen
Hence, when the Marussia Virgin Racing team was discussing with IT partner, CSC, the advances it felt could make a real difference to its performance this season, the Garage Information Screen was born.
It is a large flat panel screen placed prominently on the garage wall. The main role is to provide countdowns to crucial deadlines which punctuate a Grand Prix meeting as well as scheduled team meetings where progress on the cars can be discussed. It also features a messaging capability, so approved team members can communicate with one another from anywhere around the world.
Before the end of the season, the Garage Information System is also due to be hooked up to the team’s pit stop cameras so it can be used to record and play back pit stops. Watching back and discussing practice pit stops is crucial to improving performance and so the team has asked for the system to double up as a training aid.
If the system works well in practice sessions, the new capability is likely to be added to the Garage Information System and used during Grand Prix weekends before the current season ends.
Living by the clock
The fact that Grand Prix garages do not have clocks came as a surprise to Simon Beniston, Head of Design and Innovation at CSC. As part of CSC’s technology partnership with the racing team, the service centre works on innovative IT solutions that can help the FT team fulfil its strategy of highlighting how best-in-breed technology is crucial for success on the track.
“Everything to do with an F1 car is incredibly sophisticated but when it comes to the team, deadlines and meetings are normally just jotted down on a piece of paper,” says Beniston.
“The team manager, Dave O’Neill, wanted to get away from this and have a common system everyone in the garage could refer to. They needed a single clock with countdowns to all the important deadlines of the day, such as when practice starts and when the cars need to be locked away for curfew overnight.
“They also wanted the system to countdown the team’s own schedule, such as lunch and meetings, so everyone is working to a common shared itinerary instead of a piece of paper folded in their pocket.”
A section of the screen is used to relay messages between the team both inside and outside the garage. This global messaging system aspect is vital for an F1 team such as Marussia Virgin Racing which is based in Britain, races around the world and is backed by the Russian supercar brand, Marussia.
Impressive performance
The team’s manager Dave O’Neill, has been impressed with how the system is enabling the garage team to prepare the cars for racing while meeting multiple daily deadlines. He is not alone. Rival F1 teams and corporate guests have openly admired the system which they believe could help them organise teams better, he reveals.
"The garage information system helps all staff working within our F1 garage to be better organised, ensuring they are always aware of the time remaining to the next deadline,” says O’Neill.
“It is unique amongst the F1 teams and has been greatly admired by guests and competitors alike. The system was conceived, designed and then delivered by CSC in a very short time scale and is now a valuable component of our garage IT systems. We're very happy to be working with CSC and the Garage Information System is a really neat IT solution which has provided us with real benefits."
In addition to interest from rival F1 teams, CSC’s Simon Beniston reveals the technology behind the system could have uses beyond F1 in any industry where staff are working to deadlines.
These could be the time by which tasks need to be completed for the smooth running of business processes, the opening of global markets or how quickly customer calls are being handled. Hence, in particular, the financial services and customer services industries have been identified as potential future benefactors of the technology, among others.
Learn more about CSC’s work with the Marussia Virgin Racing team