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Freight
is the backbone of the Indian Railways
and contributes more than 66 per cent
of this organisation's earnings, even
subsidising the losses it makes on passenger
operations. The Indian Railways decided
to adopt the use of information technology
to improve the utilisation and maintenance
of its rolling stock, for better capacity
utilisation and increased output. This
led to CMC's freight operations information
system (FOIS), an integrated information
and management system for controlling
and monitoring the multifarious activities
in freight operations.
As a millennium gift to
its freight customers Indian Railways
have successfully launched a computerized
FOIS covering almost the entire Indian
Railways network. The design, development,
and implementation of the system is a
totally indigenous effort which has been
accomplished jointly by CMC and CRIS.
It
is most credible that FOIS is a 100 per
cent indigenous effort, uses state of
the art technology and has ample scope
for evolution as a harbinger of IT revolution
in railway management systems of a magnitude
that has not yet been tried on any of
south Asian railway systems. Once all
the phases / modules of the planned operating
information system (OIS) are integrated
and implemented it would catapult Indian
railways at par with any other railway
system even in the most developed countries
of the world.
For
any rail road company / organisation continuous
cargo visibility is viewed as the most
critical component of its physical distribution
system. FOIS enables freight customers
to have instant access to information
regarding the current status of their
consignments in transit, allowing them
to implement just in time inventory management
systems and better logistics management.
It is a system for management and control
of freight movement that also assists
managers to optimise their asset utilisation.
Strategic
advantages
The FOIS has been designed to give
major strategic advantages to both Indian
Railways and its customers, some of them
are:
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Extension of the current business
practice of bulk movement of freight
traffic in trainload formations
to piecemeal traffic to increase
the market share by clubbing and
moving together similar type of
stock in 'Hub and Spoke' arrangement.
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Global
tracking of consignments in real-time,
whether in rakes or in individual
wagons |
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Facilitate acceptance (customer's
orders), billing and cash accountal
of freight traffic from identified
nodal customer centers which may not
necessarily be the handling terminals. |
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Foundation for a complete logistics
management system furnishing real
time information on the chain of
physical distribution, an essential
element in reducing inventory costs,
is being laid through FOIS.
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History
of FOIS
The
FOIS Project for Indian Railways (IR)
was sanctioned and included in the northern
Railway works programme for 83-84. The
approach envisaged all-India implementation
of core functionalities in phase I. This
phase included train and wagon movement
control including empty wagon management
and locomotive control modules of TRACS
software, bought from CN. Yard and terminal
management system, was to be developed
indigenously. The implementation of the
remaining modules was to follow in phase
II.
The
TRACS based system after necessary modifications,
was subjected to field trials and the
efficacy of the system was periodically
evaluated jointly by northern Railway
and CRIS.
Failure of successive attempts to customize
the TRACS software to suit fundamental
IR requirements and operating practices
despite best efforts led to the appointment
of a committee of experts from IIT, Delhi
in October 1995, for a technical study
of various aspects of FOIS and to suggest
the future course of action. The essence
of the committee's recommendations was
to review and examine the periodicity
and sequence of events to arrive at the
best suited application and systems
architecture and to become free from technology
used by TRACS by migrating to the state-of-the-art
technology.
Based on an understanding between ministry
of railways and department of electronics
(DOE), CRIS and CMC were thereafter directed
to:
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Draw out an overall IT architecture
and an approach plan for implementation
and modular growth of FOIS on Indian
Railways.
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Design,
develop, and implement prototype systems
for rake and terminal management functions
on a test bed to demonstrate the efficacy
of the above. |
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Conduct
a techno-economic study of TRACS in
the interim as suggested by the Committee
and formulate a detailed strategy
for implementation of production system
for rake and terminal management functions
over a corridor. |
Revised
approach: The pilot project
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The overall architecture was drawn
jointly by CMC and CRIS based
on IR's organisation and hierarchy
and present and future requirements
of IR.
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The
business model that emerged was confirmed
from end users through a series of
interactions and presentations given
to the chief operating managers and
railway board. |
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CMC
developed a prototype of rake management
system (RMS) module of FOIS anddeployed
the same on all the divisions of northern
railway and received a positive
response from the users. |
In
the prototype developed basic functions
of freight operations on IR were defined
to constitute capturing of demand, supply
of rakes/wagons, planning and controlling
movement on one hand, and loading, unloading
and accountal of freight on the other.
The first part is generally referred to
as operating functions and the latter
as commercial functions. RMS addresses
the operating portion and terminal management
system (TMS) pertains to the commercial
portion. The phase I of FOIS as planned,
addresses rake and train movement, locomotive
movement and yard management. Phase II
extends the function of phase I to include
individual wagons. These two phases together
constitute RMS to complete the operating
portion. This is followed by Phase III
or terminal management which completes
the commercial portion. Further, it was
realized that benefits from these two
modules accrue only when end to end sharing
of information is achieved. It was therefore,
imperative to spread them quickly over
the entire Indian Railways instead of
confining them to a limited corridor.
FOIS
: Today
FOIS
as of now comprises the RMS which addresses
the operating portion and the TMS which
pertains to the commercial portion.
Systems
architecture
The system architecture is based on
client server technology using middleware
and RDBMS on an open platform, making
it highly scalable to meet growing requirements.
Data from the place of activity, viz.
control offices, yards, good - sheds,
etc., is captured through intelligent
terminals and sent to the computer centre
at CRIS through reliable communication
links for transaction processing. Application
servers at the centre are networked amongst
themselves and linked to a central database
for global level transactions. The central
database provides management reports both
at board and zonal levels and acts as
the repository of all the current and
historical data.
Functionality
The
system in use already performs the following
functions online:
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Live monitoring of all freight trains
giving their current position in computerised
territory and their expected time
of arrival at destination. |
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Commodity
wise flow of freight trains for customers
like power houses, refineries, fertilisers
and cement plants, steel depots and
public freight terminals, enabling
the recipients of consignments to
have an accurate forecast of cargo
arrivals, giving them adequate time
to complete preparatory arrangement
to handle the cargo. |
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Monitoring
of out bound loaded rakes in the same
manner. |
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Monitoring
of detachments from block rakes
to track wagons getting detached
at a location or missing.
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Analysis
of total demand for rail transport
and its logical matching with incoming
rakes to optimise supply of empty
rakes for loading. |
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Generates
as many as 163 managerial reports. |
With
the use of the system there has been a
visible reduction in the anxiety levels,
mental stress amongst operating staff.
The voluminous and repetitive exchange
of data on telephones round the clock
has now been replaced by minimum data
input. The improved work environment has
significantly simplified planning and
execution of assigned tasks.
The
lead taken by some of the zonal railways
like northern and western in using the
system information to club less than train
load consignments into train load has
helped them earn additional revenue besides
being lauded by the trade. The words of
appreciation from bulk customers like
FCI and IFFCO who are being advised through
e-mail the status of their consignments
regularly, is a clear indication that
the anticipated benefits from FOIS have
already begun to accrue.
Contact
Head
- Transportation
CMC Limited
C-18, Bandra Kurla Complex,
Bandra (East)
Mumbai 400051 India
Tel: 91-22-26591000/01/02
Fax: 91-22-26591046
Email:
transportation@cmcltd.com
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