Untitled

[jasonrupert-blog]

Role of cloud & big data in railroad crew management

One of the most gratifying things that any Big Data Analytics firm can be a part of is the transformation of an established company. Big Data helps in integrating new practices and insights generated by the company’s data.  Here’s an example of the digital transformation in railroads crew management which happened in the collaboration between CloudMoyo and a North American railroad operator.

Logistics are the lifeblood of a transportation company. This North American railroad company has been in operation even before the 1900s and operates in central U.S, Mexico, and Canada. It has over 10000 freight cars, 1050 locomotives and their rail network comprises approximately 7000+ route miles that link commercial and industrial markets in North America.  It has approx 500 trains running per day with an average of 800+ crew members daily across 180+ interchange points with other railroads. Add to this the complexities of repairs, re-crews, duty allocations, scheduling, incidents, services, people & goods movement, vacations, communications and it turns out to be a heck of a day. Needless to say, it’s a massive transportation and logistics business with mountains of data.  In order to get its operations right, the railroad turned to Big Data for a solution.

Why do you need a cloud-based rail crew management system?

Thanks to Cloud and Big Data analytics, CloudMoyo was able to come into this industry as a relative outsider and deliver a next generation, cloud native crew management system that addresses all the challenges of managing complex transit operations. In order to implement the crew management software, a 12-month schedule was created with the aim of turning the client from a company without a centralized or integrated system that relied on text messaging for duty notification into an information-centric, data-smart organization. As a result of the new system, 100% of all the train scheduling, as well as the deadheading (the movement of commercial vehicles or crews in non-revenue mode for logistical reasons) are managed through railroads crew management solution.

But while infrastructural efficiency has been greatly improved, that was only half the problem solved. As in most businesses, the improved management of the workforce is where the real value lies. Without a centralized and integrated system, all crew tracking was done manually, and there was a text-message based system of duty notification. Outdated processes and human error often came together to create train delays, spoiled goods and many wasted man hours for the nearly 2000 employees of the company.

CloudMoyo CrewCall System

CloudMoyo developed a CrewCall system, which was able to schedule crews effectively by managing crew availability, crew allocation order and train schedule compliance, as well as assigning crew to trains with a cloud-based notification and acceptance system. Attendance records, automatic crew selection, member availability and tracking were all new and vital aspects of crew management that were built into CrewCall and transformed the workforce management for the client.

Ultimately, the system uses Microsoft Azure cloud and the advances in mobile technology to balance crew and equipment needs in a cost-effective way and enables quicker time to deployment for the operators, thereby leading to quicker ROI. Workforce and logistics management, which is delivered via a state-of-the-art user experience, leads to improved work experience for all the crews involved, as well as a reduction in overtime and therefore cost savings, and stricter adherence to labor laws.

A happier, more efficient and more productive workforce are all huge benefits derived directly from excellent Big Data analysis. That intervention allowed a company to look towards the future and expand its operations with the knowledge that they now have, all system in place which can scale easily and can carry them into the future effectively.

[jasonrupert-blog]

Moving towards a predictive analytics approach for railroad safety and compliance with an intelligent operational testing system (iOTS)

Freight railroads, regardless of size, are always working towards the goal of zero accidents. Through consistent, effective operational testing, rail employees are held accountable to safety procedures that comply with Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) safety rules and regulations.

But while the road to safety may be paved with good intentions, it can also be complicated by a lack of visibility into how safety standards are enforced enterprise-wide, or how effective your operational testing program is.

What’s causing this?

The state of ops testing

Operational testing (also known as ops-testing) is nothing new for Class I, II, and short line and regional railroads in North America. Mandated by the FRA, railroads must ensure that their employees are complying with safety procedures that, at the end of the day, keep them safe, and create a safe work environment.

But over time, accidents and incidents occur. They pile up—to the point that 39% of accidents and incidents from 2013-2017 were due to human error. There may be a higher rate of accidents in one geographic location or due to conductor errors, but how do you know? Since the operational tests are conducted and captured on paper spreadsheets, the task of shifting through file after file and try to make sense of all the data without a tool to facilitate insights is daunting. It’s hard to tell if testing officers are meeting test quotas, and you may suspect that testing is more reactive to upcoming audits or following accidents, as opposed to empowering your employees to predict and stay prepared for the next inspection.

Is there an alternative approach to operational testing that ensures that good intentions align with measurable, trackable results?

Adding intelligence to ops testing

With intelligent operational testing, leveraging BI and data analytics, testing optimization, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), freight railroads can identify and respond to trends to ensure more effective, efficient, and compliant operational testing.

Intelligence takes your ops testing program farther than a series of checklists and to-do’s conducted on a—hopefully—regularly basis. For example, business intelligence (BI) and analytics dashboards help you monitor safety parameters in a way that is hard to accomplish manually, scanning through paper sheets containing rows and rows of data. There’s a shift from responsive, time-consuming testing to repeatable, trigger-based test plan creation.

No matter if you’re a short line or Class I railroad, there are several ways that you can add intelligence to your operational testing

Set up a strong data management process. Gather and store measurable and measured ops testing data in a cloud environment for cross-department visibility, quick accessibility, and future data analysis.

Conduct trend analysis: Once you’ve migrated your data to the cloud, you can leverage data analysis to identify trends and patterns, and then respond to trends in your ops testing. You’re using your data to make smart business decisions, not just safety decisions. Where are you allocating your resources, be they money or manpower? You’ll be able to see where test failures are periodically occurring by location, role, time of day, weather conditions or employee. With trend analysis, you can harness the power of analytics to optimize your inspection allocations, increasing inspection frequency where the risks are highest.

4. Respond to AI/ML recommendations: This takes your intelligence a step farther. AI and ML capabilities can enable reporting for senior leadership, making the story of your safety clearer. You can also get recommendations so you can focus on departments or territories and see where compliance breaches are happening more often historically, and then predict where and when safety incidents are likely to occur, based on causal factor correlations as well as historical trends.

Where intelligent operational field testing can take you

Bringing together what-if scenarios that help you optimize your testing and AI/ML algorithms to provide intelligent recommendations, railroads can move from minimum to intelligent ops testing, resulting in comprehensive test plans, better test schedules, and enhanced employee and department tracking. Applying this approach to your operational field testing leads to higher enforcement and efficiency (thus, cost savings) of ops testing and safety procedures, reduced penalties, and increased safety.

The operational field testing journey with Kansas City Southern

Kansas City Southern (KCS) is one of today’s innovative, visionary railroads. Recognizing the value of applying leading-edge, innovative technologies such as cloud, big data analytics, and machine learning, they partnered with us to leverage these technologies to drive improved efficiency of operational testing.

[jasonrupert-blog]

Increasing safety and security through testing of rail operating rules

At the forefront of every duty and task that freight railroads engage in or carry out is safety. You want to guarantee that infrastructure, employees, and the environment are kept safe.

To support this, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requires that railroad companies (from a Class I to a regional or short line railroad) adhere to safety rules. Many railroads also adhere to the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR). These rules encompass a range of safety-related concerns, from employee responsibilities to signaling equipment, responding to accidents, and carrying hazardous materials, to safety rules for crew working in a railroad yard or track.

Each individual railroad is responsible for making sure that they’re remaining compliant with every rule, regardless of their operating capacity, budgets, or the number of employees, and they do so through operational testing. In today’s competitive and quickly modernizing transportation industry, railroads can benefit from digital operational testing to support their safety and compliance goals.

The current state of operational testing

At a basic level, many of the core railroad operations that consume the day-to-day of a railroader must undergo periodic inspection. Not only do tests have to be created, executed, and logged, but railroads are also required to conduct a 6-month review of tests, inspections, and adjustment to the operational tests and inspections program.

Not only that, but railroads then have to maintain records of all inspections and tests, as well as records of their periodic, operational testing program reviews.

If you don’t remain compliant, you run into safety and security risks, resulting in penalties, fines, and liabilities for mistakes. The best way to avoid this is by achieving a higher level of compliance with FRA regulations and General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR).

It’s easier said than done.

The sheer number of operational rules that railroads must adhere to is daunting. How are you going to make sure that you cross your t’s and dot your i’s and avoid running into noncompliance and, ultimately, penalties? Manual creation and logging of tests makes the process time-consuming and far from the level of efficiency that railroads strive for.

[jasonrupert-blog]

Key system capabilities of cloud-based interline settlement systems for freight railroads

A look at interline settlements in freight railroads today

Interline settlements for the freight rail industry represent an integral line of business for railroads across North America. By opening up new geographies and developing a new customer base, interline shipments contribute substantially to the overall revenue generation and growth strategy of freight railroads.

As interline shipments continue to increase, railroads are working to streamline their interline settlement processes in order to accurately determine revenue distributions quantities for every interline shipment. The variables brought in by bi-lateral agreements, disputes, and differential pricing models create complexities in calculations. They also prove to be a hindrance for the timely and accurate realization of interline shipment freight revenues.

Complexities of legacy applications for interline settlements

Traditionally, the interline revenue settlement process via the Railinc Central Interline Settlement System (CISS) has been tedious and time-consuming for revenue and accounting departments. This is due to the huge volumes of interline shipments, the complex nature of calculations, and many variables. Disparate data systems lead to dependencies on technical staff, and many railroads are left without a mechanism to settle overcharge claims exceeding the CISS-prescribed resolution timeline.

Overcharge claims are on the rise. Railroads are unable to identify areas with revenue leakage. Docket IDs are manually generated. Yet many freight railroads are unable to tackle these challenges while working with legacy or aging systems that provide limited flexibility, visibility, and automation capabilities.

With the introduction of CISS, Railinc has encouraged standardization in interline settlement processes among freight railroads. And by being a certified member of the CISS, railroads can simultaneously accelerate revenue interline settlement cycles, reduce and mitigate settlement disputes, and comply with Railway Accounting Rules (RAR).

In this scenario, a digitally-enabled, modern interline settlement brings in the capabilities to optimize, streamline, and accelerate the settlement process with minimal human intervention.

The move towards next-generation interline settlement systems

Whether it is a Class I railroad or a short line, the innovative, agile enterprise of today is taking steps towards exchanging legacy or aging systems for cloud-based interline settlement systems. Manual, paper-based processes that provided little visibility into settlement data or opportunities for improvements are being replaced with intuitive desktop and mobile-friendly applications created in a cloud environment.

The modern interline settlement system is driving significant business value for freight railroads today. Analysts are saving time and manual effort involved in manual management of interline settlements, and concurrence ratios are improving. Leveraging this application, the settlement cycle is being reduced. Railroads are better able to manage risks and minimize disputes through algorithms that find priority URWIN pre- and post-disputes. Now, they can better achieve compliance with AAR, RAR, and Railinc’s ISS Front Matter in line with prescribed standards and document formats.

[jasonrupert-blog]

Empowering your employees with technology for effective rail on-the-job training

Across industries and job roles, training is an essential part of learning and mastering a new skill. But for a railroader working as a conductor or track maintenance worker, the need for immersive, thorough, on-the-job training is ever more important.

Just imagine the myriad situations where safety procedures can save a life, ensure that a train runs safely, and guarantee that an employee can get home safely at the end of their shift.

To best ensure this, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has enforced mandates for on-the-job training that fall under 49 CFR 243. One of the primary goals of this mandate is to improve OJT, and improve the understanding of the roles, responsibilities, administration, and implementation of OJT programs.

On-the-job training for railroads

From new hire on boarding to annual refresher training, railroad employees need to possess a basic mastery of new skills that equip them to enter their new role. This means that they have to undergo a series of training that is specific to their craft or job role, and the duties they fall under it, whether you drive a train, run the track cards, or conduct track maintenance and repairs.

Technology can be a powerful enabler of increased safety and more effective training in your railroad, empowering employees with the right tools they need to receive applicable, immersive training at the right time. In turn, the organization benefits from a high-trained and efficient workforce and can make sure that they are compliant with industry requirements for on-the-job training.

Bumps in the road

What has the potential to be a streamlined, smooth, and easy process quickly becomes complicated when a railroad has to rely on paper-based methods for on-the-job training.

Ideally, the on-the-job training process should empower your employee towards better safety behaviors and support your railroad’s safety goals. Without a centralized, structured program, on-the-job training can quickly become complicated when it comes to managing training schedules and communicating between qualified personnel training employees.

Paper, Excel-based spreadsheets are often carried for on-field for training and then stored in a folder for future reference. Imagine the difficulty of identifying trends in your training program and employee training and performance over time when the data isn’t aggregated and there are no insights available. Take this a step further and picture the hassle of pulling reports and documentary evidence of training for compliance audits (both FRA and internal audits).

[jasonrupert-blog]

Increasing safety and security through testing of rail operating rules

At the forefront of every duty and task that freight railroads engage in or carry out is safety. You want to guarantee that infrastructure, employees, and the environment are kept safe.

To support this, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requires that railroad companies (from a Class I to a regional or short line railroad) adhere to safety rules. Many railroads also adhere to the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR). These rules encompass a range of safety-related concerns, from employee responsibilities to signaling equipment, responding to accidents, and carrying hazardous materials, to safety rules for crew working in a railroad yard or track.

Each individual railroad is responsible for making sure that they’re remaining compliant with every rule, regardless of their operating capacity, budgets, or the number of employees, and they do so through operational testing. In today’s competitive and quickly modernizing transportation industry, railroads can benefit from digital operational testing to support their safety and compliance goals.

The current state of operational testing

At a basic level, many of the core railroad operations that consume the day-to-day of a railroader must undergo periodic inspection. Not only do tests have to be created, executed, and logged, but railroads are also required to conduct a 6-month review of tests, inspections, and adjustment to the operational tests and inspections program.

Not only that, but railroads then have to maintain records of all inspections and tests, as well as records of their periodic, operational testing program reviews.

[jasonrupert-blog]

Here’s what a modern Crew Management solution can do for you

Remember the days of tedious, manual timekeeping, clocking in crew hours of service and allocations in a terminal? This often led to redundancies and incorrect pay calculations, which meant you had to go back and adjust payroll, resulting in a loss of time and an increase in cost. If your railroad company is looking to make those days a thing of the past and transform your crew management through a digital solution, then think of automation and optimization as two of the biggest ways to modernize railroads – yours included. Navigating train crew management in an increasingly digitalized world means that the railroad can also benefit from the modernization of their crew management systems. This will impact every facet of crew management, and today we’re going to talk about how a modern crew management software solution for railroads can benefit your timekeeping operations, resulting in rapid crew allocations and automated timekeeping data and reports for auditing and payroll. By making strides in integrating a cloud-based crew management solution into your railroad, you’ll insure that you’re making continuous improvements to your crew management system and staying innovative within the railroad industry. Major challenges for crew managers The logistics of running a crew are complex and tricky, not to mention overwhelming if you don’t have the right tools to do it. Functioning under a manual system, the chance of making errors or experiencing redundancies and making erroneous pay calculations increases. Working within an inflexible system isn’t the best way to optimize your processes and make timekeeping and tracking crew allocation more efficient. Here are some of the major challenges that crew managers face in their daily operations: Manual notifications resulting in communication breakdowns Decentralized data Inefficient use of crew and long layover times A slow learning curve But the prognosis for the future isn’t all doom and gloom for railroad companies – especially if you’re ready to take the next steps and digitalize your crew management solution. Cloud-based systems have gone a long way in addressing the challenges of a multi-faceted transportation organization, including the ones listed above. You don’t have to stay stuck at step one: identify your pain points. Let’s talk about the next step in your crew management modernization. Integrate a centralized, rail crew management system An important step in modernizing (thus, digitalizing) your crew management system is to centralize all your data in one location. You want to make sure that crew availability and allocation is tracked continuously in real-time. That way you avoid having to go back later and manually input crew hours of service (HoS) or crew allocation. Within this crew management solution, an automated pool order is created, and an optimal crew rotation plan is delivered that complies with both crew union rules and FRA regulations. Valuable data is then delivered in real-time, via a that is accessible through a desktop computer or mobile device.

[jasonrupert-blog]

CloudMoyo Crew Management System | Automate and Optimize Rail Crew Management

CloudMoyo Crew Management (CCM) is a cloud-based, SaaS product that optimizes crew management and scheduling process for freight railroads. CCM automates crew scheduling workflows for crew dispatchers, enables crew members to track and manage duties, empowers railroad leadership to drive operational efficiencies in crew management through predictive analytics, and enhance compliance with FRA regulations and Hours of Service rules.

[jasonrupert-blog]

CloudMoyo Operational Testing System

From manual to mobile, operational and efficiency testing in today’s digital environment streamlines the testing process from rule plan creation to compliance reporting.

Discover how regulatory compliance, safety, and HR officers at a North American railroad leveraged the cloud-based CloudMoyo Operational Testing System (OTS) for:

Repeatable, test plan creation

Importing of GCOR and other rules libraries

Guaranteed, randomized selection for drug and alcohol testing

Mobile and tablet accessibility on-field

Dynamic dashboards for program status

[jasonrupert-blog]

CloudMoyo Operational Testing System

The next-generation CloudMoyo Operational Testing System (OTS) streamlines the rail operational test management program in entirety, by facilitating the planning, execution, and reporting of tests in a cloud-based environment. OTS uses advanced analytics to intelligently configure master test plans, schedule workflows, and import multiple rules libraries to ensure compliance with FRA safety regulations and guidelines and GCOR. This solution leverages AI/ML technologies to identify trends and make recommendations to ensure more effective testing. With OTS, railroad operators or inspectors can record results of drug and alcohol testing, signaling, movement, and switching, continuing to ensure railroad safety across the organization.