Quality experts and rail customers have long admonished rail management for the need to improve service reliability and consistency.Investigation has discovered that most of the variance in rail transit times, wrongful charges, and so forth stem from origin, intermediate, and destination yard procedures and information processing. Although there are known problems, little constructive assistance is typically offered in the literature. The use of statistical process control (SPC) quality tools to address this common railroad problem is discussed. A brief explanation of SPC is followed by an examination of a typical rail freight classification yard and discussion of how these tools can be used to identify and prioritize problems. Special emphasis is placed on the need to bring these yard operations under control, thereby eliminating special causes of variation. With yard operations under control and predictable, rail operations can work on common causes to improve service delivery. Management can then redesign procedures to structurally improve the systems process. Both approaches are necessary to attract quality-conscious shippers. Procedures include the use of flowcharts, control charts, and Pareto analysis. Implications for management are also discussed.
Abstract