On behalf of a major regional passenger rail operator, as part of ongoing efforts to rightsize the Maintenance of Way (MOW) workforce, we led a team of production planners and analysts to conduct a zero-based budget assessment in all major MOW areas at the maintenance headquarters, gang, shift, and craft levels. In this study, we enumerated each railway infrastructure system that must be maintained by MOW personnel, including periodic and preventative (e.g., FRA, FTA, and non-regulatory) maintenance plans for each system, and determine the repair maintenance workload based on both historical trouble ticket data as well as asset quantities and probabilities of failure. We also included major repair workloads for such unforeseen situations as cable degradation, grade crossing accidents, long-term concrete and steel degradation, and interactions between asset renewal activities in the C&S, Track, and Power depts. The study recommended changes in personnel strength in a number of key crafts at several locations, to reduce overtime requirements, ensure that major project backlogs can be addressed in an efficient manner, and to provide preventative maintenance for new assets expected to be commissioned following major capital investment projects.
Related Publications/Presentations:
Rightsizing the Railway Signal Workforce: a Zero-Based Resourcing Approach Towards Asset Management
