Spotlight on Development Interfleet has an ongoing Research & Development programme, led by our Development Director David Curtis, in order to ensure our consultancy skills remain at the very forefront of international railway technology. In this section of the website, David outlines just some of his current Development activities: Industrial Design Interfleet has a well-established capability in Industrial Design, with the ability to undertake conceptual exterior designs and interior layouts, together with interior design and styling. Our Industrial Design team forms part of Interfleet's wider Vehicle Engineering & Design Group, ensuring that any concept-designs produced take account of the practical constraints within railway vehicles. Interfleet has recently invested in new hardware and software systems which enable very high quality 3-D visualisations and "walk through" animations to be produced. This is a very exciting development - clients can for example review a range of alternative proposals for refurbishment, and see exactly how each will appear in reality! Software Products Interfleet is developing an increasing range of specialist software products, including the "Mapyx" software which supports Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) studies and software for use with Failure Impact Reduction. Recent additions include a Vehicle Acceptance Body (VAB) Certification Database, a Warranty Defects Database, Project Correspondence Database and the "Arboretum" software for managing maintenance documentation. The VAB Certificate Database is used to keep these essential mandatory records, and can be supplied as a software product. Alternatively Interfleet can manage clients' certificates on their behalf, whilst still retaining the ability for clients to make enquiries at any time, on-line via the Internet. The Interfleet Warranty Defects Database ensures that defects are logged and properly managed. Again, the database is available as a stand-alone product, or Interfleet can offer Warranty Management as a complete service, with direct on-line Internet access for clients. Interfleet's Project Correspondence Database is an essential tool for project managers to manage and control both incoming and outgoing project correspondence. The "Arboretum" software is a database which records the parent/child relationships between suites of maintenance documentation as a tree-format, to assist in accessing, managing and updating this data. The system can be fully customized to individual requirements and can be designed to link into client's own Electronic Data Management (EDM) systems, or alternatively, can be run as a standalone system on a conventional computer network. A wide range of Bespoke software can also be produced to suit clients' needs.