BPM - The Engine of Railways
Every day I travel 3 hours in train to Infosys Technologies Limited. On an average I spend around 20 minutes every day waiting for the train due to its unscheduled delays. This pops up several questions in my mind. Doesn't BPM provide a solution? Aren't there any other ways BPM can add value to the railway industry as a whole? What are the ways BPM can bring about Operational excellence in Railways apart from creating Customer loyalty?
Indian Railways has the world's fourth largest railway network with more than 64,015 kms of track and 6,909 stations. It carries over 20 million passengers and 2 million tons of freight daily with more than 1.6 million employees. Also IR owns over 200,000 wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. Managing and monitoring such huge network is the biggest challenge of Indian Railways. If BPM is implemented in such a huge network, what would be the outcome? In what ways BPM improves efficiency and effectiveness of the existing network?
My views on BPM + Indian Railways. . .
The few areas where I feel BPM can create huge difference in Indian Railways are:
o Asset management -
BPM tracks the lifecycle and maintenance schedule of the various assets of Indian railway including wagons, coaches, locomotives etc. Material procurement and management will be made easier resulting in efficient data exchange between stakeholders leading to a collaborative environment.
o Traffic management -
BPM identifies and monitors the traffic across various railway tracks and optimizing line capacity thereby running more trains on the same track without collision , saving huge investment and space. Simulation helps to optimize the fault clearing process and thereby reducing fault Detection-to-Correction cycle.
o Freight management -
70% of Indian Railways revenue is from the freight sector. Improvements in freight sector generate tremendous revenue to railway as a whole. BPM creates integrated network ensuring optimum utilization of freight wagons, providing better information available to its customers for booking, payment and real-time consignment tracking thereby increasing customer loyalty.
o Compliance management -
BPM facilitates railway budget compliance. The changes in the budget can be easily implemented to achieve overall end results. It helps in data capture, analysis of demands and creating estimations for Railway Budget.
To conclude, I personally feel BPM in railways would definitely enhance operational flexibility without compromising on safety....
