Transcript Maintenance and Shipment Management

Railcar 101
The Basics of Railcars: Car Types,
Components and Rules
Maintenance and Shipment
Management Importance to Assets
Charlene Martinez
Today’s Fleet Manager
Has many tasks
to juggle…
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Tracking
Problem
Resolution
Auditing
Maintenance
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Administration
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Technology
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For help, many railroads, private car owners, shippers
and receivers are turning to technology.
Technology can facilitate utilization in Fleet
Management.
Today, there are many choices of Fleet Management
tools.
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Railcar Asset Management
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Two main areas of asset management are:
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Shipment Management
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Managing Railcar Shipments
Maintenance Management
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Managing Railcar Repairs
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Shipment Management
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Why should I track my fleet?
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You know when your loaded cars will get to destination
You know when empties will arrive for re-loading
You know what cars are in exception status
You know what cars are experiencing delays
Measure how many turns your cars are making
You can be pro-active in problem resolution
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Shipment Management
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What technologies can I use to track my fleet?
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Use the railroad’s websites
Use industry supported tools, such as Steelroads
Utilize third party logistics companies to track your trains and cars
for you on their tracking systems and you handle the problem
resolution
Outsource the entire process to a third party logistics company to
handle not only tracking, but problem resolution and
measurement
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Shipment Management
Advantages of using the
Railroad’s Website
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No cost to you
Most up-to-date reporting of
cars current location as
reported by the railroad the car
is moving on
Ability to show remaining
schedule for movements on
their line
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Disadvantages of using
the Railroad’s Website
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Only reports moves on their
line
Does not retain history
Does not show a complete
picture of shipment
movements
No ability to create
management reports
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Railroad Website Examples
ShipCSX
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BNSF
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Shipment Management
Advantages of using
Steelroads
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Low cost
Disadvantages of using
Steelroads
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You have to run the process to
get the car location information
Does not retain your fleet
information
Does not keep historical CLM
data for car movements
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Steelroads - Track & Trace
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Shipment Management
Advantages of 3rd Party
Tracking Systems
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24/7 CLM information
Complete CLM information for
entire trip
Retain history of CLM’s
Have all your cars in one place
Some 3rd Party system have
the ability to track Unit Trains
Ability to group cars
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Disadvantages of 3rd Party
tracking Systems
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Can be expensive
Many choices with different
levels of data integrity
Can be labor intensive
Training required
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Shipment Management
Advantages of 3rd Party
Tracking Systems &
Problem Resolution
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Use the expertise of
Transportation/Logistics
specialist
Use their relationships with
the railroads to get problems
solved
Leaves you the time to focus
on your core business
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Disadvantages of 3rd Party
Tracking Systems &
Problem Resolution
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Decrease knowledge of your
plant operations
Loss of autonomy
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Shipment Management
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How can I manage my fleet?
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Develop an exception reporting process to identify when trains
are delayed and new ETA’s
Actively push or expedite your delayed cars with the railroad’s
customer service reps
Maintain log of problem resolution communications
Update plants and customers of ETA’s
Be “proactive”, don’t let problems linger
Create cycle time and average transit reports
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Cycle Times and Average Transit
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Components of Cycle Time:
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Loading Time
Load time in transit
Unloading Time
Empty time to return for unloading
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Cycle Time Measurement
Average Cycle Time - Overall by Fleet
All Origin – Destinations
18
16
15.7
14
13.1
Days
12
10
11.58
10.27
Entire
Fleet
8
6
4
2
0
January
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February
March
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Cycle Time Measurement
Average Cycle Time – By Segment
Origin (Big Coal Mine) to Destination (Utility)
Empty
Plant
Loaded
Mine
Total
25
21.33
20
Days
16.61
15
13.09
10
11.1
5
0
January
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February
March
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Tracking and Cycle Time
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What good is all this tracking?
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Service reviews with railroads
Identify performance problem area
Provide solid historical transit estimates for planning
Document service guarantee failure or success
For private car owners/lessees = more accurate fleet size
requirements
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Maintenance Management
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Why do I need a maintenance management system?
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Audit Repair Bills
Receive repair bills from data exchange
Highlight exceptions on the repair bills
Submit Counter Bill Authority through data exchange
View your EHMS windows
Retain car repairs in history
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Maintenance Management
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How can I maintain my assets?
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Use alerts and windows to shop cars for repairs under
Predictive Maintenance
Dispute charges for second repair resulting from an Unclosed
EHMS Window
Dispute charges for Exceptions on Car Repair Bills
Run analytical reports on railcars, contract shops and railroads
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Maintenance Management
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Mechanized Auditing Benefits:
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Consistency to ensure that all subscribers comply with AAR
pricing procedures as dictated by the AAR/Railinc Pricing
Program and Price Master File
Data Exchange minimizes the need to manually enter BRC’s
prior to internal audit
Potential revenue recovery increase from improper billing
charges
Facilitates paperless Re-billing
Extends the auditing capability to more types of audits with
greater accuracy
Allows automatic separation of data required by industry for
analytical purposes to identify repairs where owner’s permission
is needed
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Maintenance Management
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Maintenance History Benefits
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Support decision to repair or scrap cars
Support decisions to shop car(s)
Provide a research databank to support technical and cost benefit
studies
Increase the flexibility of retrieving data for special studies
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Maintenance Management System
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Considerations for designing a MM System
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Use of Railinc Data Exchange Procedures
Method for identifying exceptions
Retention of all repair detail
Method to include machine generated exception letters
Integration with other asset management systems
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Conclusion
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Railcar fleets are expensive
Through Proactive planning and management
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Costs can be planned for and budgeted
Cars can experience higher utilization
Emphasis on railcar ownership is changing
Private companies will have to own or lease cars
There are new rules in the industry, such as ATSI
Effectively managed, the private car owner can get the most
value from their investment in railcars
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