Map-based Data Visualization and Business Intelligence Solutions
for Transportation
INFORMS, October 16, 2012
Ravindra K. Ahuja, Ph.D.,
How do Railroads Route Shipments?
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Shipment of various commodity types between thousands of
Origin-Destination Pairs
Routed on a Complex Train Network to Minimize Cost and Maximize Service
How do Railroads Route Shipments?
Shipment of various commodity types between thousands of
Origin-Destination Pairs
Railway Business Intelligence System
❖ Greater visibility of current operations. What is actually executing in the field.
❖ Comparison of service design with actual operations ❖ Trend analysis and root cause analysis
❖ Components of RailBIS: – Shipment Analysis
– Train Analysis
– Block Analysis
– Terminal Analysis
❖ One stop-shop for all data analytical need of the Service Design
department.
❖ Shipment volumes between any OD pairs of nodes. Trend analysis. ❖ Shipment transit time analysis between any OD pairs of nodes.
Trend analysis.
❖ Ability to filter shipments using various attributes.
❖ Measuring service quality. Determining service standards. ❖ From high-level picture to lowest level details.
Shipment Analysis
❖ View actual train volumes (cars, length, and weight) and comparison with design volumes.
❖ Perform train volume trend analysis.
❖ View block-to-train assignments and design compliance. ❖ Determine compliance to train schedules (on-time train
originations).
❖ View trains added/cancelled compared to design.
❖ View train’s actual work events and compliance with the design.
❖ View actual block volumes and compare with design volumes. ❖ Perform block volume trend analysis by date and day-of-week. ❖ View destinations carried by a block and compliance with the
design.
Block Analysis
❖ Perform terminal volume analysis including trend analysis and comparison with design.
❖ Determine car dwell time at terminals including trend analysis and comparison with design.
❖ View terminal timeline and comparison with the design. ❖ View block-to-block connection matrix.
❖ View train-to-train connection matrix.
RailBIS Data Processing Modules Overview
10 Shipment Data Warehouse Shipment, Shipment Move Data Shipment Data Processing Routine Daily Processed Shipment Data - Dwell Analysis - Route Analysis - Volume Patterns Actual to Design Mapping MREE to Actual Mapping rules MREETraffic, Trip Plan , Design Train, Block,
and Traffic Data
Actual to Design Comparison - Plan Compliance Train/Block Data Processing Routine Train Data Warehouse Train Details Train Route Details
Block Data Warehouse Block to Train Assignment Processed Actual Train and Block Data - Productivity/Utilization
- On-time performance
As Needed Daily Weekly
Fully automated process running daily to keep the system up-to-date. Network
Data (Nodes, Links,
Yards)
RBIS Platform Overview
RBIS Application Server RBIS Client WCF (HTTPS) WCF (HTTPS) REST (HTTPS) REST (HTTPS) DevForce App Server 6.1.x IIS 7.5 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows/Mac DevForce Client 6.1.x Silverlight 4.0 (5.0) IE/FF/Chrome/Safari SQL Ser ver 2008 R2 Windo w s Ser ver 2008 R2 RBIS Main DB RBIS Local Cache DB (SQL Server Compact) SQL Server Client Protocol SQL Server Client Protocol Windows Server 2008 R2 ESRI ArcGIS Server 10.x ESRI on‐line / Bing Background / Railroad Maps On‐line maps RBIS System DB (IIS User Authentication)❖ Web-based map-based application. Cloud application.
❖ Multi-user system. Multi-session. Easy to use and easy to learn. ❖ Large database and fast response time
❖ Big data analytics
❖ .NET application with scalable architecture.
System Overview
❖ Designed, developed and deployed in the past one year.
– Release early, release often methodology
❖ Work very closely with the user to understand and meeting needs. ❖ There are 50 users of the system within Service Design at
Canadian Pacific.
❖ One stop shop to meet the needs of Service Design.
❖ Use expected to grow with time as other departments showing interest in the project.
Case Study: Service Analysis for Customer
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Stakeholders: Service Design, Customer Service
Question: What is the level of service we are offering to a customer? Reason for poor service.
Motive: Present facts to customer service.
Tool Capability Desired:
– Ability to select a set of shipments using different filters and determine the service level.
Case Study: Cost Analysis for Customer
Stakeholders: Sales, Costing
Question: Is the service provided to the customer cost effective?
Motive: Present facts and negotiate the rate with the customer to make the business segments desirable to the railroad.
Tool Capability Desired:
– Select the shipments provided by the customer, and calculate the work effort needed by trains on the route to move the shipments. – Ability to fairly account for share of cost due to the shipment over
Case Study: Interchange Traffic
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Stakeholders: Service Design, Sales
Question: Where were the shipments interchanged with another railroad finally destined to?
Motive: Can the shipments be routed on our network for longer distance without increasing total miles for the shipments? This will bring more revenue.
Tool Capability Desired:
– Ability to select the set of shipments interchanged with a railroad. – Ability to group the routes and visualize the routing in map.
Case Study: Validate Train Design vs. Actual
Stakeholders: Service Design, Strategic Planning
Question: Is the average actual volume traveling on the train close to design? How are the volume fluctuations?
Motive: Low volume requires cancellation, high volume requires running extras. These creates imbalance in locomotive and crew network, thus adding cost.
Tool Capability Desired:
– Ability to compare both average and by day volume of train in design (planning world) and actual (real operations).
– Ability to review the volumes over the route of the train to identify the troublesome location, and do further root cause analysis.
Case Study: Relieve the Workload on a Train
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Stakeholders: Service Design, Yard Team
Question: What set of shipments can be moved from the train to relieve the amount of the work performed by the train?
Motive: Train has a varied mixture of shipments which require stopping at multiple stops for pickup and setoffs. Need to identify work stations with fewer number of cars and move these on local trains.
Tool Capability Desired:
– Ability to select a train, and review the set of cars (blocks) traveling on the train.
– Review the work performed on the train (on average, and by day). – Drilldown to shipment level to review the volume/route of the
Case Study: Start a New Train Service
Stakeholders: Service Design, Sales
Question: Can we justify starting a dedicated train service between two given locations?
Motive: Some clients are asking for better service which can only be addressed by introducing a direct service. However, the volume given by client cannot fill the whole train. Do we have other shipments to fill the train?
Tool Capability Desired:
– Select a corridor and find the traffic passing through.
– Review the consistency in the volume (volume trend) on the corridor to ensure the train will have consistent volume.
Case Study: Closure of a Major Yard
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Stakeholders: Executives, Infrastructure Teams
Question: What is the overall route of traffic flowing through the yard, and what traffic will still be remaining after the closure?
Motive: Prepare for alternate routing of traffic in case of inclement weather or other network disruption.
Tool Capability Desired:
– Ability to choose all traffic which go through the yard, and separate out the originating/terminating traffic.
– Ability to do directional and by corridor analysis.
❖ Make this system an integral part of service designer’s tool kit. ❖ Make it a complement of current planning system such as MREE. ❖ Continuous improvement of the plan through monitoring.
❖ Add hotspot prediction capabilities.
❖ Use historical trends and current state of the system to predict the future.