What was the problem?
Engineers were allocated to a rail service as each train arrived at a designated depot. In principle, this was done on a last out, first in basis. With the absence of a workforce schedule, this system was adopted as a result of historical work practices and a mostly unscheduled rail service. The Engineers, were impacted by not being able to plan their rest or other activities.
What did we do?
InterDynamics developed the Assigned Service Planning Tool to explore and potentially transition the allocation of Engineers to trains in a more scheduled manner. The application statistically explores the likelihood of a train arriving at given windows of time throughout a week and then generates a work schedule. This output schedule is probabilistically robust, cost effective and fatigue friendly (incorporating InterDynamics’ FAID® software).
Many benefits come from operating on a planned work schedule. Engineers will be scheduled meeting legislative requirements. Their schedules will be safer as they are fatigue friendly. They’ll have the benefit of knowing when they are scheduled to work allowing them to better plan personal activities including sleep. Employers benefit from Service Planning by having a well-rested, healthy workforce with reduced absenteeism and incidents.
Currently, the Assigned Service Planning application is in use and depots are being investigated as candidates to trial a transition from a haphazard work schedule, to a robust planned work scheduling system.