| Programme Management Tools |
| A ProjectSolve Application to Manage Track
Possessions |
| By John Baesch, Baltimore,
MD 1-410-385-4160, baesch@pbworld.com |
| Our team developed a custom designed ProjectSolve
application to manage track possessions for the WCRM programme. It
has proven to be a success since coming on line in September 2001
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Related Web Sites:
- The ProjectSolve home page: www.projectsolve.com
- The WCRM site:
www.wcrm.co.uk.
The gateway to ProjectSolve is through the "Programme
Management” icon on the WCRM home page.
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The enormous task of delivering Railtrack’s
WCRM includes bundling a number of discreet work packages into a number
of track outages. These outages, called possessions, are times when
trains do not run and construction/upgrade activities take place.
For fiscal year 2001/02, there were 4525 distinct possessions containing
13,590 worksites, with attention focused on the delivery of mission-critical
work.
Needs for New Information Platform Surface
Railtrack uses PRIDE, a possessions database, for requesting and scheduling
possessions. More than twenty major contractors, all of which have
their own business systems, are doing the construction/ upgrade work.
They are required to use Railtrack’s system for arranging their
possessions. In addition, PRIDE is a legacy DOS-based FoxPro system
that is rather rigid and not terribly user friendly for those who
are not steeped in its use.
Figure 1A: The project files section is useful because it allows
the sharing of documents amongst WCRM and contractors that do
not have access to each others’ servers. |
Figure 1B: The Pride database can now be queried over the Web.
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Figure 1C: The results from querying the Pride database—a
list of “possessions” (engineering worksites). |
Figure 1D: If you click on the Pride reference, you get more
detailed information on the worksite. |
With this in mind, a two-fold need emerged.
First, there was a need to harness the PRIDE data in a more user friendly
format and make that data available to a wider user community. Second,
there was a requirement for a common information platform whereby
Railtrack, the infrastructure owner, and Railtrack’s major contractors
and contractor’s alliances could share track possession information.1
For the WCRM, the information platform is the Internet and the way
to make PRIDE user-friendly was the bespoke software package—PB’s
ProjectSolve.
ProjectSolve Meets Both Needs
ProjectSolve displays the PRIDE database on the Internet, where it
is updated regularly to coincide with the receipt of the files that
contain the master updates to PRIDE from each of the three Railtrack
zones on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) route. The result is the
ability, through the Internet, to provide reliable, user-friendly
and remote access to possession details for every line of route for
each zone.
Supplementing the PRIDE data is a custom-designed database that captures
user interactions with each possession for production and performance
information. In other words, a line manager can interrogate the PRIDE
database to access the information regarding the individual possessions
and worksites, and annotate that information with either production
notes, instructions, or supplemental information that explains more
about the work. Similarly, performance notes explain what was achieved.
By doing this, a new database is created, PRIDE PLUS, that enables
senior managers to monitor performance across the WCML.
Through the ProjectSolve software, the West Coast Internet Possession
Management System produces a selection of reports on planned and past
possessions. The reports can be customized by use of the filter page.
Completed reports can be stored on a prompt against the user’s
login with the option to move them from private to public folders.
All facilities within this application can be tailored to suit the
individual’s needs.
Users React Enthusiastically
The contractors have generally reacted enthusiastically as the ProjectSolve
application was demonstrated because with it users can interrogate
PRIDE in a way that users of PRIDE alone are unable to do. Project
Solve also features an MS Windows file manager that stores documents
with the proviso that they will be accessible to all on a read-only
basis. Possession managers can create folders and collate information
gathered from several sources electronically into project files (Figure
1). As a result, this facility creates a virtual bulletin board because
the various engineering instructions, informational bulletins, and
operating notices needed to manage specific possessions properly are
now posted to the Internet in a single place in the project files
where every Internet-enabled user can access them. In effect, all
the documents relating to the possession activity are put in one place
by managers who have a higher level of access so they are easily accessible
to the people who do the work in the field. It’s a total possession
management kit in a laptop.
“Test” is a Success
The first practical test of the system came as a result of Railtrack’s
Scotland Zone’s pilot project to improve possession planning
and execution. The ProjectSolve possessions application was the method
of working for the possessions throughout Scotland the weekend of
14/15 July 2001 from the planning stages to the actual possession.
All the relevant documents and notices pertaining to the weekend’s
possessions were put in the project files, as were the possession
managers’ notes and corrections. Managers updated progress real
time in the possessions database as the jobs were worked over the
weekend. At the end of the work, the performance reports were drawn
from ProjectSolve instead of being prepared manually and entered into
several stand-alone systems. Strengthened by this successful operation,
the effort is ongoing to introduce the system throughout the WCML.
Lessons
Learned
Development of the system took months longer than expected because
the PRIDE database turned out to be much more difficult to harness
than what was originally thought. If anyone is interested in
tackling a similar type project, I would be happy to discuss
the details. We have also been challenged by getting people
to abandon a familiar but clumsy data system and switch to something
new. |
Originally developed by PB Manchester, the system was taken over and
readied for production by Company 39. As delivered, ProjectSolve is
rather modular, and so it lends itself to be used in parts rather
than as a whole. Various contractors have adapted elements of the
project files as their own working system. The Program Management
Centre uses Project Solve to make reports on possession performance.
And, WCRM benefits from having this information readily available
to all.
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1The
importance of possession management is illustrated in a following
article, “Origins
of the Track Relaying Train” by Nermeen Latif and David
Greenaway.]
John Baesch works for PB T&RS in Baltimore on several rail related
projects. He spent two years in England working on the West Coast
Route Modernisation Programme where he designed, staffed, and managed
a 24-hour programme management centre for day-to-day operations. Before
joining PB, he worked for 23 years for Amtrak in various operating
assignments. |
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