Analytics in railways
- 1. DATA ANALYTICS IN RAILWAYS INDUSTRY Name - Anusha HR Register number - 2037033 2Applied Economics Christ University
- 2. DATA IN INDIAN RAILWAYS Indian Railways is an organisation of such epic proportions that words such as ‘gigantic’ and ‘enormous’ seems inadequate. With route length of 95,981km, Indian Railway (IR) carried 1.2 billion tonnes of freight and 8.4 billion passengers during 2018-2019, making it the world’s largest passenger carrier and fourth largest freight carrier. What this also means, from an operational analytics standpoint, is a lot of data. Data analytics technologies and techniques provide a means to analyse data sets and draw conclusions about them which help organisations make informed business decisions. Big data analytics is a form of advanced analytics, which involves complex applications with elements such as predictive models, statistical algorithms and what-if analysis powered by high-performance analytics systems.
- 3. APPLICATION OF DATA ANALYTICS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS There is a whole range of opportunities which IR can explore in the area of big data analytics. Some of these applications include customer experience, train scheduling, timetabling, improving security at railway stations, automatic charting, network optimisation, crew management, inventory management, and IRCTC ticket management. The existing data from the passenger reservation system, operating control, CCTV cameras at stations, maintenance depots and stores, can be used intelligently to yield business benefits in the above areas. Using connected IoT sensors, historic data and analytics, the data can be turned into useful information to improve asset utilisation and availability
- 4. ASSET MANAGEMENT IN INDIAN RAILWAYS Indian Railways maintains huge terabytes of asset data. Using connected IoT sensors, historic data and analytics, the data can be turned into useful information to improve asset utilisation and availability. As of now, some efforts have been made to improve asset availability by adopting better maintenance strategies. These efforts have been made in departmental silos and lack a comprehensive approach. There is an opportunity to take a collective initiative to improve overall asset utilisation on Pan-India basis
- 5. Indian Railways is envisaging converting its ‘freight examination yards’ into technology- driven ‘Smart Yards’ for automatic detection of faults/defects/deficiencies in freight wagons. Though several systems have been installed for data collection and condition monitoring for different assets, the analytics capacity of these systems is very limited. Furthermore, all these data collection systems work in technical silos, each with its own acronym, making it difficult to integrate data to acquire useful information.
- 6. CREATING A DATA DRIVEN RAILWAY A lot of work is required to be carried out in the area of data collection, data management and data service provision, so that the benefits of data analytics can be reaped for improved asset reliability. A lot of work is required to be carried out in the area of data collection, data management and data service provision, so that the benefits of data analytics can be reaped for improved asset reliability. A lot of work is required to be carried out in the area of data collection, data management and data service provision, so that the benefits of data analytics can be reaped for improved asset reliability.
- 7. POINTERS TO BE NOTED 1.The creation of a supplier ecosystem with IoT-based capability 2.Data collection across all asset types and provision of new data collection equipment and platforms 3.The opportunity for managed services through a single service integrator 4.Integration of asset data, operation data, asset data and maintenance using adequate interfaces 5.Easy mechanism to exchange asset data throughout the lifecycle of assets 6.Decision modelling and risk analysis tools to identify bottlenecks 7.Raise maintenance alerts for different assets to enable safe, efficient and effective delivery of the operational railway 8.Strategic maintenance planning and creation of reports for easy accessibility of asset information. 9.Distribution of tablets to field maintainers and direct access to asset data and maintenance requests from central system through existing Wi-Fi facility, thus removing paperwork
- 8. Indian Railways must absorb these huge banks of data and capture them in a national intelligence model; one that can serve this data-driven railway in a cohesive, safe and cost-effective manner. THANK YOU