Published: 15/07/2026
Customer Success Stories
How RATP Modernized its Rolling Stock Lifecycle Management
To prepare for the arrival of new metro trains, RATP faced a major technical challenge: migrating complex and critical product lifecycle management processes without disrupting operations.
How do you migrate an IT system when its processes never stop? This was the challenge faced by RATP, which uses complex workflows to document the approval process for any modifications made to metro, RER, or tram trains. “We have workflows that have been open for more than ten years. If we had had to close them, we would have lost part of the history,” explained Eric Cossin, head of the Rail Information Systems unit at RATP.
This was precisely the dilemma that the Greenwich project was designed to solve. Until then, RATP had been operating two separate PLM (product lifecycle management) systems. On one hand, there was SRTV8, an aging application based on an older version of the Windchill software suite; on the other, SRTV11, which was newer but dedicated solely to new hardware. The goal was to merge them into a single platform, SRTV12, without losing any data or interrupting ongoing processes.
Like Russian Nesting Dolls
The challenge lay in the very nature of the approval processes used by RATP. “We’re dealing with workflows of formidable complexity, layered like Russian dolls,” explained Johann Joffrin, Program Director in the Industry 4.0 Business Unit at Inetum. Four levels of processes are nested within one another to manage the procurement and validation of rolling stock.
RATP placed its trust in Inetum, which proposed implementing a tool called Slide. This “ETL” was developed specifically for large-scale Windchill migrations.
The project spanned from January 2022 to November 2025. The first year was dedicated to design, followed by six development iterations in 2023 involving about ten consultants, and then an acceptance testing phase in 2024. Data from the SRTV8 went live in the spring of 2025, and data from the SRTV11 in November.
This timeline was carefully planned: it was essential to ensure a completely “seamless” transition for users, in parallel with the deployment of the MF-19, the new metro train inaugurated in October 2025. “We are preparing for the arrival of the new equipment,” emphasized Eric Cossin.
Seamless Traceability
The PLM centralizes all technical data related to trains: component bills of materials, design files exchanged with manufacturers, traceability of modifications… “If an incident occurs tomorrow, we need to be able to prove that we did everything by the book,” emphasized the manager. This compliance requirement explains the importance of preserving the entire history.
For users, engineers and design teams in the RATP Group’s Rail Rolling Stock Division; the transition was intended to be seamless. “It’s a real streamlining: we used to have two tools; now we have just one. A single login, a single point of access,” summarized Éric Cossin. The project is part of the division’s information systems modernization program.
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