Innovation
Global insights from the rail supply chain Darren Leigh, CEO of supply chain performance improvement partner Unipart, shares his thoughts on how to deliver the resilient, efficient and sustainable rail network that Australia – and the world – needs. gives the company a unique view from the watchtower. “From Sydney to London and from New York to Dubai, universal challenges are impacting supply chains,” he said. “These challenges include geopolitical friction that turns proven trade routes and sourcing strategies upside down overnight, increasing extreme weather events and of course, the post-pandemic shifts in how people move and how freight is prioritised.” But the greatest challenge facing the rail industry right now is the endless cycle of “boom and bust” funding, he shared. “This stop-start investment stifles long-term planning, forces short-term maintenance decisions over long-term asset renewal, and tragically, creates a brain drain of skilled professionals who seek greater stability elsewhere.”
Darren Leigh, Chief Executive Officer of Unipart, addressing the crowd at AusRAIL PLUS 2025.
In today’s increasingly challenging rail environment, mastering supply chain complexity is not just a cost-saving exercise, but a source of competitive edge. And at the heart of that complexity is something many people in the rail industry know well – volatility. That was the message Darren Leigh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unipart, shared with the audience at the recent AusRAIL PLUS conference in Melbourne, which was attended by more than 7000 delegates and visitors. “If you ask any CEO today what keeps them
up at night, it's the sheer unpredictability of the world we operate in,” he said. “We are navigating a permanent state of volatility, and our industry, rail, is uniquely exposed.” For more than 50 years, Unipart has been a performance improvement partner to some of the world’s most complex and mission-critical organisations – designing, making, moving and improving components in its customers' supply chains. Leigh said that operating in 22 countries and serving customers in more than 100
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FROM REACTIVE TO PREDICTIVE Leigh said that Unipart’s conversations with customers around the world have fundamentally changed, signalling a vital evolution in the industry. “The initial request has moved from: ‘Can you supply this part?’ to: ‘How can you help us improve our performance and navigate this volatility?’” he said. “This demonstrates the shift from a transactional supplier-customer model to a deeply strategic partnership model.” Leigh said this change has taken place because the old model of managing failure is no longer sustainable. He reminded the audience that assets do not exist in isolation; they are part of a complex, interacting ecosystem of power, environment, and logistics. “Think about the classic ripple effect of failure: a component on a piece of rolling stock fails, which stops a train,” he said. “But it doesn't end there. The ripple spreads. “It's the passengers who miss connections, the engineer whose schedule collapses, the depot that goes out of sync, and the supplier who is now scrambling to provide a product that was unplanned. “Valuable time and asset availability