From Procurement to Performance – why the most expensive decisions are made by people who will never pay the bill.
From June 28 to July 1, 2026, Detroit hosted the International Conference on Automated People Movers and Automated Transit Systems, the world’s leading forum for automated transit. The event was organized by the ASCE Transportation & Development Institute in partnership with the Michigan Department of Transportation. At the Detroit Marriott at Renaissance Center, planners, engineers, operators, manufacturers and government officials from around the world came together. For claystreetX it was a privilege to take the stage as a speaker within this international community.
In their talk „From Procurement to Performance”, Johannes Winter and Dieter Haas of claystreetX GmbH put the spotlight on a topic that is too often overlooked in APM planning, namely the full life cycle of a system.
The core thesis struck a nerve across the industry. The most expensive decisions in an APM project are made by people who will never pay the bill. What looks like a saving during procurement frequently turns out, over decades of operation and maintenance, to be the single biggest cost driver. This is precisely where the claystreetX approach comes in, because it thinks about mobility systems holistically, from the first tender to long-term performance in daily operation.
Cost tells you what you paid. Performance tells you what you built. And it starts with the people you hire, the contracts you write, and the day you start thinking about operations.
Put simply, this means that cost tells you what you paid, while performance shows you what you actually built. And that performance begins long before the first ride. It takes shape in the people you hire, in the contracts you write, and on the day you start thinking about operations and maintenance.
The exchange with the industry leaders gathered in Detroit reaffirmed once again how essential this shift in perspective is. Operators, manufacturers and public authorities all share the same challenge, which is to plan and run systems that remain economical, reliable and future-proof across their entire life cycle.
Our thanks go to ASCE and the Michigan DOT for organizing this outstanding event, and to all participants for the inspiring conversations. We look forward to continuing the dialogue around sustainable, life-cycle-driven transit systems.
