7 minute read
Jump on i-TRACE and don’t get left behind
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. 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
industry standard to work with in relation to barcoding and tagging their parts and components, eliminating ambiguity of requirements from customer to customer and providing certainty of a return of investment as it can be leveraged across multiple stakeholders.
Contractors will be better placed to capture and provide accurate maintenance history of assets to both customers and suppliers, as an agreed standard will enable information upstream and downstream much easier to get and to provide.
For operators, Repaci said the initiative would deliver better control of inventory, saving time and money.
“It will also allow for automation and an improved customer focus. GS1 standards are technology agnostic and therefore not dependent on any specific software platform,” he said.
“While changes may be needed to a system, they are likely to be cost comparable to changes that would be made to the system anyhow. Major software vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft have built in support of GS1 standards in their solutions.”
Repaci said GS1 standards are the most comprehensive and widely used supply chain standards in the world.
“They are open, global, industry and technology neutral providing wide choice of available technologies and confidence that any investment based on GS1 standards will be scalable and future proof,” he said.
GS1 is a global organisation with direct representation in 112 countries. The national GS1 Australia office has 156 staff based in Melbourne and Sydney supporting multiple industries including the rail sector. It provides a range of services to assist industry with their GS1 related projects.
END OF THE LINE … AND BEYOND
Looking to the future, Repaci said that laying the correct foundations for the industry will mean that more advanced supply chain and asset management processes will be easier and more cost effective to achieve.
“The industry needs to move forward, and suppliers using the system do not necessarily have to retroactively start barcoding all the products that are already installed,” he said.
“We encourage them to start barcoding from a certain date, as soon as possible, so that their products are correctly marked and able to be managed over the next 20 or 30 years.
“Australia is geographically very large and our rail infrastructure network is extensive: the task to digitise is large but the rail industry has proven to be up to the task, as it is innovative, forward thinking and a global leader in this sector.
“Simplifying the identification of parts and components will enable tracking or components and asset management systems to more easily integrate information across organisational boundaries – connecting the end-to-end value chain for the benefit of the entire industry.
“So if you’re a manufacturer, make sure you jump on the Project i-TRACE Express .. and don’t get left behind.”
GS1 will be presenting more information about Project i-TRACE at the AusRAIL PLUS conference in Sydney, from 28 February to 2 March, 2022.
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