Adif - Abrimos caminos

New Model Criteria

The new organisational and operational model presented by the President will enable the company to consolidate its situation as a corporation and to face the important challenges assigned more efficiently. maximisation of railway freight transport, maintenance of an increasingly safe and higher quality network, and construction of new high-speed lines.

In this sense, the new organisation intends to achieve synergies and higher operating efficiency, hence transforming the activity model represented by the former business units.

Into a model that provides the three Activity/Service Departments with a greater executive nature, and a maximisation of the territorial organisation in business management.

Service-orientation is another of the new model’s management principles, which results in an adjustment of the organisational structure to the value chain in the production of activities and services.

The new organisation also provides territorial uniformity, unifying the geographical boundaries of the different areas and maximising and rationalising the territorial structures, and strenghtening their service-orientation.

In summary, the new organisation definitely exceeds the Business Units model, consolidating three executive Departments (Major Projects, Operations and Engineering, and Infrastructure Operation), and maximising and homogenising Adif’s territorial organisation.

Organisational Restructuring

A new organisational structure has been defined with a view to achieving greater management efficiency; this structure has two types of areas: Corporate and Activity/Service.

Corporate Areas have the capacity of managing the administration and control processes, and have been conceived as advising or support and coordination areas, with a global view of the process. Additionally, they are clearly internal client-oriented; they enable making the most of synergies and economies of scale; they are managed with maximisation criteria of the quality of service-cost of the same ratio and its management has an indirect effect on the Organisation’s results.

The following are included in these areas: the General Secretariat and Board, the Strategic Development and International Relations Department, the Safety, Organisation and Human Resources Department, the Financial-Economic and Management Department and the Communication and External Relations Department.

With regard to the Activity/Service Areas, they take part in the activity processes and at the same time interact directly with external clients or support their process, and they are distinguished because their management has an impact on the behaviour of revenue and costs, having a direct impact in the short term in the profit and loss account. Their objectives and planning are aligned with those of the Company. These include: the Major Projects Department, the Operations and Engineering Department and the Infrastructure Operation Department.

Main changes

The Infrastructure Operation Department concentrates the three territorial structures, to date differentiated in its domain (telecommunications and energy, passenger stations and logistics services), into one structure, which is dependant on the general manager, so in all these businesses there will be only one person responsible for each geographical area. The central structure of each one of these businesses will design the commercial policies, the management processes and systems and the technical projects.

The Infrastructure Development Department becomes the Operations and Engineering Department with three central operational organisations. One of these will be in charge of network management and innovation, another will be in charge of high-speed operations and engineering, and the other will be in charge of conventional network operations and engineering. The latter department will include the maintenance and traffic activities, which were carried out separately until now, in order to obtain a higher efficiency in the system and a maximisation of the economic resources allocated to the conventional network.

The High-Speed Major Projects Department becomes the Major Projects Department, extending its competences to all Adif building and civil works activities, which will result in a higher efficiency and economies of scale. It will act as an infrastructure and civil works provider for the other operative departments that operate the network and the freight logistics centres and stations.

The Strategic Planning Department becomes the Strategic Development and International Relations Department. It reduces the dependant departments from 4 to 3, that will focus on the development of the company’s strategic plan, on the planning and functional coordination of demand, corridors, functional projects and investment programmes, and on international relations, digging deep into the commercial aspect of the same and the sale of technology and experience in high-speed.

The Safety, Organisation and Human Resources Department reduces the dependant departments from 6 to 5, and will take care of the organisation, systems and executive management, safety and protection, traffic safety, human resources, quality and the environment.

In all the departmente the function is horizontal: legal advice, engagement and purchases, control in management and human resources are centralised, directly dependant on the General Manager, in order to achieve synergies and a greater administrative flexibility.

Adif’s new organisation entails a rationalisation of the company’s Management Structure, with a drop of 20 per cent of executive positions, which means a reduction of 54 positions.