Safety and Standards
Don’t get left behind Standardising the way materials in the rail industry supply chain are identified and marked will bring industry-wide efficiencies, and the I-TRACE project is leading the way. Project i-TRACE, the standardised barcoding system to collate data on assets and materials used across the rail industry, has been in development now for almost five years. Participating organisations use it to meet global data standards and support the growing use of automation in rail, to better leverage data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive new efficiency gains and cost savings in their business. The industry-wide initiative resulted from a collaboration between global standards specialists GS1 Australia, the Australasian Railway Association and participating organisations to develop an inventory management program aimed at reducing costs and improving the quality of materials management processes. And as GS1 Freight, Logistics and Industrial Sectors account director Tony Repaci explains, the demand for standardised parts and components identification has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. “There are so many rail projects underway at the moment,” he said. “There’s been a ramp-up of momentum behind the program, and it’s primarily come from the increased activity of the rail operators working with their suppliers. “It makes it so much easier for operators to know they can access part and component information which guarantee they meet required standards. “For example, if a rail operator must order more of a particular part, they may not always have the necessary information available, so they might have to go back to engineering diagrams or look at the parts of the track that they’re working on, and in most instances they’ll re engineer a
solution for that length of track. “Whereas if they had components tied to a GS1 product identification number, then they can just order that product and they know that it’s suitable and fit for purpose. It’s engineered, approved and suitable to be used. “I think the overwhelming consensus has been that if rail suppliers can mark their product in a consistent way no matter where, whether they supply that product to Sydney Trains, Queensland Rail, V Line, METRONET or other major rail operators, they increase their chances of the product being correctly purchased.” GETTING ON BOARD Standard identifiers and data capture technologies developed by GS1, including barcoding and RFID (radio frequency identification) tagging, are fundamental components of Project i-TRACE. “Efficiency is heavily reliant on effective supply chain management practices to assure material availability of the right quantity, the right quality, at the right place and time with minimum effort and cost,” Repaci said. “Manufacturers, operators and contractors alike agree that a collaborative industry approach to improving the inbound materials supply chain to the rail industry will have significant, positive bottom-line effects for individual organisations and for the industry as a whole.” Appropriately, using rail analogies, the Project i-TRACE journey can be broken up into several stations. So far, businesses should have progressed through the first four: project overview, rail guideline, supplier workshop, and business case.
Identification elements include locations, logistics and transport units, serial numbers, production dates, and expiry dates.
46 | ISSUE 11 - DECEMBER 2021 | RAIL EXPRESS
GS1 Freight, Logistics and Industrial Sectors account director Tony Repaci.
“Suppliers to the rail industry should now have left station 5: join GS1 so they can start assigning globally unique identifiers to parts, components, and assets,” Repaci said. “Adoption of a common language offers consistency, cost savings and lays a solid foundation for the automation of the rail industry supply chain.” The primary identification elements that have been agreed by industry are: • Locations • Trade Items • Assets • Logistics and Transport Units Additional information such as serial numbers, batch and lot numbers, production dates, expiry dates and other relevant information can be captured within a consistent framework. This means that information can be more easily exchanged regardless of different stakeholder enterprise systems. Standardising the way materials in the rail industry supply chain are identified and marked will bring industry-wide efficiencies. “Systems integrators and solution providers will have clear direction as to the industry’s requirements in relation to identification codes and data capture technologies to aid successful implementations,” Repaci said. “The industry as a whole will benefit by lowering its overall cost base making the industry more competitive and more profitable. Removing unnecessary cost and waste in the way it manages materials and assets, is critical to the long term health of the Australian rail industry.” By adopting these supply chain digital data standards, rail and network operators will have a universal baseline for identifying parts and components when they are received from suppliers, enabling improved inventory management which will translate into lower cost of doing business and better quality asset management practices. Manufacturers will have a common, agreed
