Optimization to deliver efficient locomotive planning at KCS

Optimisation to deliver efficient locomotive planning at KCS

/0 Comments/in , /by

CHICAGO, UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 2018 – Biarri Rail, a global provider of planning and scheduling software for freight railroads is pleased to announce a new contract with The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS). The contract will see Biarri Rail deliver its cloud based locomotive master planning software — Boss MP Loco. The software will enable KCS to quickly plan and optimize locomotives, leading to improved efficiencies and utilization of critical railway assets.

Mike Walczak, KCS vice president strategic operational planning said, “We engaged Biarri Rail to perform a Proof-of-Concept using the Boss MP Loco software and this clearly demonstrated that we could use the software package to identify potential fleet efficiencies and help make strategic decisions on the deployment and positioning of our locomotive fleet.”

“For example, we were able to run multiple scenarios examining how many of our fleet could be equipped for Positive Train Control (-PTC) based on how and where we may choose to assign power on our cross-border trains that operate in both the US and Mexico.Our current locomotive planning tools do not provide optimization or “what if” capabilities to deliver the most efficient plan.”

“The Biarri Rail software has an intuitive user interface and powerful optimization algorithms, which will provide a step change in our planning capability. Based on the successful outcome of the Proof-of-Concept we are now implementing Boss MP Loco into our planning environment.”

Tom Forbes, Biarri Rail CEO said, “We are excited to be working with the team at KCS to drive this innovation with them. Boss is a new concept in railroad planning and scheduling software as it brings man and machine together; excellent algorithms, and simple user interfaces, that deliver real world results.

“This contract with KCS combined with the recently announced contract with TasRail in Australia really speaks to the flexibility of the Boss platform to provide value for railroads of differing sizes and types.”

About Biarri Rail:

Biarri Rail is a global leader in planning and scheduling software for Railroads and Rail Shippers. Through automation and optimization technologies Biarri Rail works to improve service delivery and reduce costs through the smarter utilization of critical resources.

Boss is a cloud-based platform for scalable Railroad and Rail Shipper planning, scheduling and operations software. Boss provides integrated planning across resources including train services, locomotives, railcars, yards and crew.

About Kansas City Southern:

Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, serving the central and south central U.S. Its international holdings include Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent interest in Panama Canal Railway Company, providing ocean-to-ocean freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. Kansas City Southern’s North American rail holdings and strategic alliances are primary components of a railway network linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Coal Train Crew Scheduling

An optimised approach to Coal Train Crew Scheduling

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Rail is frequently used for moving coal between mines and ports, and interactions between train and crewing requirements can create highly complex problems.

Recently Matt Herbert, an optimisation consultant at Biarri Commercial Mathematics was invited to present an approach to Coal Train Crew Scheduling at the Queensland University of Technology, hosted by ASOR.

Matt provided insights into the problems many mining and rail companies face when scheduling their crews. His formulation considered many aspects of the real world problem, including restricting the number of crew changes on each service, and variable start times for crews.

This approach is able to produce weekly crew assignments with high utilisation in run times of around an hour, down from existing manual methods requiring a day or more.

Have a look at Matt’s Presentation

Dynamic scheduling in the face of uncertainty

/1 Comment/in , , , /by

Many businesses operate in uncertain environments, at the mercy of breakdowns, human error, traffic or the weather. The traditional approach is to build slack into a schedule, to survive some expected level of uncertainty, and then to hope this schedule can be executed in spite of whatever unforeseen events actually occur. In instances where the schedule cannot be implemented as expected, operational decisions are made to try to meet the business goals as much as possible. Under complexity and time pressure, decision makers must often resort to making short term, locally focused decisions without the time or tools to consider implications downstream.

In this blog post, optimisation consultant Dave Scerri describes how recent algorithmic advances and smart tools have enabled the best of both worlds: an operational scheduling approach that responds to changing circumstances while focusing on system wide efficiency.

Dealing with operational uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges facing many businesses today. The most well thought out plans and schedules rarely survive contact with the real world, and the consequences are often a loss of productivity and overall efficiency. Businesses should be endeavouring to make the best decision at any point in time given the current circumstances and the best information available to them. Operational scheduling, when done right, can allow businesses to make quality, timely decisions, maximising their productivity in the face of uncertainty.

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry

– Robert Burns