Strategies for maintenance management of railway track assets

M.Ing. (Engineering Management)Abstract: Population growth and environmental issues are revitalizing the railway sector in a tremendous way. An increase in frequency of passenger traffic and rising loads of freight trains has an impact on dynamic railway track properties and components thereof. The challenge from the railway fraternity is to rise to the challenge by ensuring a safe, reliable and affordable mode of transport. The purpose of this research is to investigate the capacity needed to meet demand by maintaining the track components of the railway infrastructure cost effectively. The railway track is the most critical in terms of safety, influence on maintenance costs, availability and reliability of the train service. Profillidis (2012) highlights the fact that track maintenance expenses represent a significant percentage of total railway infrastructure expenses. In literature, different maintenance strategies, approaches and concepts are discussed in light with arguments raised by different scholars and researchers. The main research methodology utilised was the case study on maintenance strategies from different countries where data was mostly available. The reason for the chosen method was to standardise the research method across different countries as this made it easy to obtain the findings and arrive at recommendations of the research. The broader findings from different maintenance strategies were that the track maintenance approach still has to evolve from working in silos to working in a system that acknowledges that decisions taken from other departments can affect the quality of maintenance in future. The deterioration of the track system is mostly affected by the initial quality of the railway track after commissioning due to workmanship and track design, maintenance approach, type of rolling stock tonnages, speed of rolling stock, and environmental related issues. Design phase of the track acknowledges the systems thinking approach for quality and structural integrity. However, more can still be done to adopt approaches that foster inter-departmental coordination in the maintenance phase of the railway track asset lifecycle. Transnet faces a challenge of fulfilling its obligation by providing quality and cost effective maintenance to increase the reliability, affordability, availability and safety of its infrastructure with the ever-increasing freight volumes. The traditional approach of maintaining railway track assets does not bring in required outcomes that ensure high quality and cost effective maintenance as required by high intensity asset utilisation. Data collected from the..

Small cities face greater impact from automation

The city has proven to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: How will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across U.S. urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and sub-sampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment

Information architecture for effective Workload Control: an insight from a successful implementation

The implementation of Workload Control (WLC), a Production Planning and Control concept uniquely designed for Make-To-Order companies, has been a constant challenge. Scholars argued that WLC is largely developed through simulations of well-defined environments while much more complex circumstances (e.g. information availability) have emerged in field research. A recent trend of WLC research is to improve the practical applicability of the concept, where empirical evidence is essential. However, success in WLC implementation remains impeded. The availability of data has been a significant area that frustrates the implementation process. While there is a tendency to simplify data requirements in recent WLC theory development, it is important to understand and maintain the information that is essential for the concept to be effective. For the first time in the field, this paper details the information architecture for WLC. Key informational entities of relevance to the input/output control functions in WLC as well as performance measurement are discussed based on evidence from a successful implementation. The paper not only sheds light for practitioners on how to construct an information system that facilitates successful WLC implementation but also has implications for future development of WLC mechanisms coping with information uncertainties in practice

Repair of Electronics for Long Duration Spaceflight

To reduce mission risk, long duration spaceflight and exploration activities will require greater degrees of self-sufficiency with regards to repair capability than have ever been employed before in space exploration. The current repair paradigm of replacing Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs) of malfunctioning avionics and electronic hardware will be impractical, since carrying all of the spares that could possibly be needed for a long duration mission would require upmass and volume at unprecedented and unacceptable levels. A strategy of component-level repair for electronics, however, could significantly reduce the mass and volume necessary for spares and enhance mission safety via a generic contingency capability. This approach is already used to varying degrees by the U.S. Navy, where vessels at sea experience some similar constraints such as the need for self sufficiency for moderately long time periods, and restrictions on volume of repair spares and infrastructure. The concept of conducting component-level repairs of electronics in spacecraft requires the development of design guidelines for future avionics (to enable repair), development of diagnostic techniques to allow an astronaut to pinpoint the faulty component aboard a vastly complex vehicle, and development of tools and methodologies for dealing with the physical processes of replacing the component. This physical process includes tasks such as conformal coating removal and replacement, component removal, replacement, and alignment--all in the difficulty of a reduced gravity environment. Further, the gravitational effects on the soldering process must be characterized and accounted for to ensure reliability of the newly repaired components. The Component-Level Electronics-Assembly Repair (CLEAR) project under the NASA Supportability program was established to develop and demonstrate the practicality of this repair approach. CLEAR involves collaborative efforts between NASA s Glenn Research Center, Langley Research Center, Johnson Space Center, the National Center for Space Exploration Research, and the U.S. Navy. The project goals are 1) develop and demonstrate a manually-operated electronics repair capability to be conducted in a spacecraft environment; and 2) develop guidelines for designs of electronics that facilitates component-level repair for future space exploration efforts. This multi-faceted program utilizes a cross-disciplinary approach to examine pre- and post-repair diagnostics, conformal coating removal and replacement, component soldering, and electronics design for supportability. These areas are investigated by a combination of trade studies, ground based testing, reduced gravity aircraft testing, and actual spaceflight testing on the International Space Station (ISS) in multiple experiments. This paper details the efforts of this program, with emphasis on early trade study results, ground-based efforts, and two upcoming ISS experiments

A Process Theory of Competency Rallying in Engineering Projects

Firms face an environment changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Market opportunities in particular can arise and disappear in a short time. Unfortunately, the speed with which organizations can adapt their strategies and competencies to meet these opportunities remains limited. We argue that firms can address these individual limitations by cooperating with others for access to market opportunities and needed competencies. In this paper, we present a process theory of how a network of firms can reliably engineering and deliver products in the face of rapid market changes. In this theory, the success of the network is predicated on 1) identification and development of competencies, 2) identification and facing of market opportunities, 3) marshalling of competencies and 4) a short-term cooperative effort. Our theory is based on the experiences of Virtual Factory, an organized network for regional cooperation in the manufacturing industry

Collaborative Networks, Decision Systems, Web Applications and Services for Supporting Engineering and Production Management

This book focused on fundamental and applied research on collaborative and intelligent networks and decision systems and services for supporting engineering and production management, along with other kinds of problems and services. The development and application of innovative collaborative approaches and systems are of primer importance currently, in Industry 4.0. Special attention is given to flexible and cyber-physical systems, and advanced design, manufacturing and management, based on artificial intelligence approaches and practices, among others, including social systems and services

A lean environmental benchmarking (LEB) method for the management of cutting tools

Manufacturing companies are striving hard to remain competitive hence, they rely on a number of resources to meet customers’ expectations, among which cutting tools are included. This paper addresses the problems faced in the management of cutting tools activities. Production managers have highlighted the lack of procedures containing metrics and targets that would show them whether their company is able to perform an efficient management, and if it is capable of supporting the deployment process. In this context, this paper presents a novel Lean Environmental Benchmarking (LEB) method for performing a diagnosis of practices and performances to support the implementation of a cutting tool management strategy and/or the effective management of these assets. Strategic, technical and logistical aspects are addressed, particularly, with regard to management focused on lean manufacturing and environmental aspects. Field studies were performed in nine Brazilian companies in the metal-mechanical sector to validate the LEB method proposed. The LEB method helped the participant organisations clarify the various activities that involved the management of their cutting tools, while the field studies indicated that all nine organisations had a great concern regarding the preservations of the environment, and also an effective utilisation of resources spent for machining components.N/

Industry 4.0 in maintenance: Using condition monitoring in electric machines

Industry traditionally considered maintenance as a cost and a necessity to replace equipment and machines, but the path has changed to better focus on maintenance to prevent faults and it was designated as predictive. The ones motivated to take these advantages are faced with two of the biggest barriers: the investment it requires and the difficulty to develop algorithms. The costs of installation are still high, but the avoided costs surpass it. Also, Internet of Things (IoT) has brought a big shift, which is been known as the industry 4.0. One of the potentials in maintenance is the conditioning monitoring. Condition monitoring sensors and devices are now linked to maintenance platforms, providing real-time data. This new connectivity is both more affordable and easier to implement than predictive maintenance. Real-time data allows managers to adjust preventive maintenance plans while providing greater reliability. At the same time, artificial intelligence manages this data to recognize patterns, which is one of the most promising advances in digital reliability. So, regardless of the ability to immediately implement a preventive maintenance plan, condition monitoring is an asset itself. The present paper presents the common faults on electric machines, their effects, their impact on the industry and the main techniques on condition control to prevent them. It is also added the reflection on the use of IoT to enhance the potential of condition control maintenance. The implementation of continuous improvement actions throughout the life of the equipment allows to increase efficiency, either by overcoming weaknesses or by adapting production or operational capacities to processes, production or maintenance, avoiding under maintenance or over maintenance and minimizing operating costs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio