How History of Freight Trains Reflect Operation Management (Research Paper Sample)

How History of Freight Trains Reflect Operation Management
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How History of Freight Trains Reflect Operation Management
Abstract
Freight shipments form an important part Americans railway transport. The freight trains play an important in the economy especially in moving of imports and exports using containers and for transportation of coal and oil. Americans freight railway system is uniquely profitable and therefore it has a lot of international attention from freight train companies from different parts of the world, with many sending representatives. The American freight railway system is run entirely by private companies that have made enormous investments in the industry. According to British magazine the Economist, the freight train system in America is regarded as the best in the industry. The purpose of writing this paper is to analyze how the history of freight trains in America reflects on the subjects of operation management.
In order to understand the subject, I will analyze the train freight process. First we have the order perspective and train perspective. The order perspective involves receiving orders, booking trains for the particular orders and receiving containers and invoice. The train perspective involves finding the desired train depending on the cargo that needs to be transported. In the paper, I will show how the strategic operations of the freight railway systems have made the industry competitive and profitable. I will also discuss how specialized freight scheduling system is used to streamline the operations, control the cost and to respond to changes in demand in the railway industry. It is important to note that most of the transformations in the freight train industry occurred during the industrial revolution.
Transformations in the freight train industry
The trains from the different parts of the world arrive at the bailey train yard where they are sorted and reassigned to ensure they arrive at the desired destination. Everything that is produced in the United States is transported through the railway system. All the train activity in the railway yard is monitored from the computer screens of the command centre. In the command centre scheduling takes place where the movement of the trains is coordinated to ensure efficient operation of the train yard. By utilizing the latest computer control software, the command centre monitors all the traffic in the yard. Scheduling ensures the times the freight trains spend in the yard to be minimized by ensuring that traffic is controlled and sorted out in the shortest time possible (Aalam, 2014).
The trains are then sorted in the classification yard where the incoming trains are reassigned to their intended destination. By using the latest computer technology, the speed of the train is controlled to ensure proper handling of the goods inside the containers. The destination of the computer is entered into the computer where scheduling takes place the ensuring that each train is directed to the track rail depending on the destination. When the trains arrive at the Bailey yard, mechanical maintenance that is vital to the operation of the freight system takes place.
The trains are attended by a team of qualified technicians that refuel the trains, check the train oil, and shine the windscreen. The maintenance period is restricted to forty five minutes to ensure that the time taken for the freight trains is minimized. Time management is critical to proper operation of the trains. The bailey yard boosts of a locomotive repair depot, in the depot over 350 trains are serviced every day. The bailey yard has over 4000 union pacific employees that run the facility. To meet the production targets, the employees must ensure that the bailey yard is operation throughout the year. This ensures that congestion does not occur on both sides of the yard (Aalam, 2014).
The transformation of the railway freight system to a multimillion dollar industry started with rudimentary horse carts that were used to transport minerals from the mines. The carts were passed over steel rails. After 1830, carts pulled by horses were used to transport goods which later transformation resulting in the invention of steam engines that replaced the horses. The invention of the steam engine laid the foundation for the freight industry and by 1850, railway tracks had be built from the east coast to the great lakes. The railway system expanded very rapidly because the business was lucrative and had the potential to make a lot of money (Aalam, 2014).
The rail system changed the landscape of America, creating new towns along the railway line, supplying the population with building materials and transporting of materials to markets in the east. In the 20th century railways continued to expand and develop faster than all the industries in the country. The American railway system was highly privatized, and this made it very competitive as the various companies claimed a share of the market. However, due to the infighting among the companies, there was lack of a system that ensured smooth operation of the railway industry, resulting into an inefficient system that could not meet customer due dates, hence the need for an operation management (Aalam, 2014).
By the time the First World War started there were fears that the railway system cannot achieve the production targets. Hence, the federal government took over the management of the rail system. The federal government hoped to streamline the operation of the rail system by standardization in operating procedures and to make the railroads more efficient, productive and profitable. However, soon after the war the railway industry was returned to private enterprises. The return of the rail industry to the private sector resulted in the operation of the industry as a coordinated system; hence no government intervention was required. The operation of the rail system continued to expand and meet the demand for transportation of goods (Aalam, 2014).
However, after the Second World War other means of transport such as the use of trucks emerged and this threatened to derail the progress the railway system had made in terms of profitability and the availability of goods for transportation. To respond to the external competition from trucks, the railway industry introduced some transformations to make their operations more efficient hence retain and attract more customers. The changes included: the merging of the private companies to from one powerful company and upgrading the trains and modernizing their operations. Fast forward to today and locomotives are still the preferred choice to move goods over long distances (Aalam, 2014).
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To ensure that the railway industry remains the undisputed leader in the industry, a number of transformations in their operation management are needed. These changes include the manufacturing of more powerful locomotives that will ensure faster delivery of goods and services. The advanced locomotives are being assembled at General Electric Motors where modern pieces of equipment are installed in the locomotives and more fuel efficient engines are installed. The use of more fuel efficient engine reduces the cost of fuel which has a direct impact on the overall operational cost of the locomotives making them more profitable. The manufacturing of the new locomotives on the assembly line is automated, and there is the division of labor that ensures that process is efficient by having workers work on different sections of the train (Aalam, 2014).
After the manufacturing is done, the new locomotive is high sophisticated with a better fuel management system and increased speeds. The new locomotives are better than the earlier locomotives that used coal or burned wood. The earlier locomotives were not efficient, their size was small and had limited power, they polluted the environment at alarming rates and their delivery time for goods was inefficient due to the low speeds. With the invention of the diesel engines, steam engines were phased out. The steam engines were highly labor intensive and required high maintenance, this increased the cost of operation significantly (Aalam, 2014).
The modern locomotives have been manufactured with latest engineering technology and, therefore, they carry million tonnes of goods and an overcome highly steep terrain such as hills. The earlier locomotives required a distance of about a mile after applying the brakes for the train to stop. This was very inefficient and often resulted in accidents that lead to loss of lives and damage to the cargo. This made the operation risky and inefficient interns of safety. The personnel that applied brakes the brakes worked in a dangerous environment and some would die by been thrown off the top of the train (Aalam, 2014).
The safety of personnel is fundamental to successful operation management and success of a business; hence engineers had to find more efficient ways to stop the locomotives. These lead to the invention of airbrakes. Airbrakes used compressed air from the locomotive to engage and disengage the brakes. Modern braking systems uses dynamic braking system, a more advanced technology that reduces the operation cost and maintenance costs, by reducing tear on the airbrake shoes (Aalam, 2014).
The use of containers has revolutionized the freight railway industry. Containers are easily transferred from one mode of transport to another. The use of freight trains to carry goods using containers helps in traffic reduction. This helps the operation of the cities as with reduced congestion in the city people are able to do travel in an efficient manner, and this helps to improve the economy of America.
By having less traffic, the American roads are less likely to develop potholes. With an improvement in technology, some of the containers are refrigera...