Prsentation PowerPoint

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SNCF research on comfortand services

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Customers satisfaction researches

• This issue leads to two main problems that are
  tackled within SNCF research activities
• 1 to acquire knowledge on the customer
  satisfaction in order to exploit them for the
  identification of expectations and needs for
  comfort and services
• 2 To improve this satisfaction by setting up
  new services or increasing comfort, or even to
  improve are ability to carry out these services

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To acquire knowledge on the customer satisfaction

• To carry out new observation, interviews or
  enquiries methodologies
• To get individual feelings as regards comfort
• To detect representations and uses
• To get relevant knowledge to orientate the
  improvement of comfort and services

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New services and comfort improvement

• To carry out specific researches on comfort
  components or equipments
• lighting, acoustic, toilettes etc..
• To develop new information, ticketing and
  internet services
• TIKEFONE, INFOGARE etc..
• To carry out new researches for SNCF agent
  training within the field of services

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The research on comfort and services

• Main objectives
• To improve our knowledge about customers comfort
  perception and detect the trends for improvement
• To improve comfort specification for future
  trains (or stations)
• To help developing new products, new services in
  particular when new technologies are necessary
• A research activity organised with projects and
  partnerships (with universities, other industrial
  companies, engineering company, design schools or
  agencies)
• A wide domain treated
• Comfort inside trains or stations (global
  comfort, physical and sensorial comfort,
  equipment etc..)
• New services for ticketing (mobile phone), web
  travel services

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The specificity of comfort

• Comfort is a human concept associated to a
  perception phenomenon
• It evolves with time (linvention du confort by
  Le Goff)
• It is global, integrated
• It is the subject of judgement, assessment and
  production of meanings (individual but also
  collective and shared through the language)
• It is dependent of the context and of memory
  phenomena

Its a big ball !
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Methodological answers to this specificity as
regards researches on comfort

• To take into account the evolution of the concept
• to built methodologies to study it (not only
  knowledge at one time) !
• to innovate !

• To take into account the global and integrated
  characteristics of comfort (dont cut it into
  several parts if these parts are connected)

• To define global comfort, its components and
  connections between them

• To take into account individual and collective
  judgements and meanings

• To make recommendations as regards analytical
  studies of comfort

• To make analyses of customers speech

• To make research within the real context of
  assessment of comfort but also to detect memory
  influence with studies out of the context

Better understand (what, why, who and how)..
... and Innovate
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Two main changes

• To reverse our classical approaches
• To mix disciplines
• Physics human sciences creative design for
  innovation

Global comfort perception
Acoustics
Dynamics
Climatic
comfort perception as regards specific components
Activity
Noise
Train movements
Temperature, air
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Examples of projects and multidisciplinary
approaches undertaken

• Research on acoustic and kinaesthetic comfort
• Aconit (A research project on global comfort in
  trains)
• Psycholinguistics studies
• Psycho environmental studies
• Definition of customer references about trains
  (design approach)
• Physical measurements
• sensorial analyses (test)
• Concept train a new approach based on creative
  design to innovate (exploitation of the knowledge
  acquired on comfort and of customers enquiries)

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Focus on methodologies and tools developed to
study global comfort

• Psycholinguistic analysis of customers speech
  about comfort collected in real situation
• Open questionnaires first to detect without a
  priori components of comfort and their
  connections
• "Selon vous, en quoi votre trajet est
  confortable?" (semantic and syntactic analysis)
• Closed questionnaires built on the results of the
  first ones to be connected to physical
  measurements
• Lorsque vous étiez debout ou que vous vous êtes
  déplacé(e), les mouvements du train vous ont-ils
  été 

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Focus on methodologies and tools developed to
study global comfort

• Development of a specific measurement tool called
  OCTAVE (Outil de mesure du Confort Thermique,
  Acoustique Vibratoire et dEclairage)

Head"
Lighting
Climatic
Acoustic
 Chest"
1.2 m
0.6 m
0.1 m
Foot"
Dynamic
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Focus on methodologies and tools developed to
study global comfort

• Psycho environmental studies to detect different
  social representations of comfort and compare out
  of context enquiries with in situ enquiries and
  observations
• Genealogy of the train and travelling by train
  the customer references, the evolution of the
  object

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The kind of results obtained and expected

• Relevant knowledge on comfort for trains !
• The components and their importance as regards
  customers perception, and different variables
  (train, first or second class, time etc..)
• But also their connection between them
• Relevant recommendations
• To study and improve comfort
• To define new indicators for each components
• Innovation
• Analysis of what has evolved (or not)

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Focus on methodologies and tools developed to
innovate

• The concept train approach (Janus du design 2006
  given by the French institute of design)
• - starting without constraints
• - taking into account diagnoses and customers
  expectations and results about comfort
• - using the resources of design as a  global 
  approach (with student or professional designers)
• Since 2000, has been conducted to provide new
  concepts for future suburban trains, or for the
  space offer to the traveller, or any other aspect
  of comfort (luggage, toilettes,etc..)

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The kind of results obtained so far

• A real innovation process !
• Real applications
• Suburban trains specifications
• Mock up of new spaces for luggage that could lead
  to specifications
• One brevet for a luggage secured compartment
• Development of a specific comfort object for
  ID-TGV

Images And partenaires/AREP/Emilie Le Gulvout
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Conclusions

• The specificity of comfort requires specific
  methodologies and tools
• Two main changes are necessary to progress
• Reverse usual approaches and start from the
  customer perception
• Call the good competences and mix disciplines
• Take advantage of creative design in connection
  with scientific results to innovate

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Perspectives

• Analytical studies of comfort (with
  recommendations taken into account)
• Seats
• Toilets
• Lights
• Acoustics and dynamics
• Climatic
• Etc..

• Accessibility of sensorial disabled people
• Starting from their perception and the way they
  built it
• Using creative design to propose new ideas
• Using new technologies to provide new services

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Thank you for your attention !