Coal Supply Chain Capacity Increase
Implementing a railyard operating system inspired by Formula 1
- 3 minutes read
Our client had recently transitioned from a state-owned entity to an ASX-listed company and was pursuing several significant transformation projects simultaneously.
Increased global coal demand and years of underinvestment in rail infrastructure resulted in a coal supply chain that could not service customer capacity requirements from pit to port.
With capital investment to raise capacity in the rail corridor approved but years from completion, a project focused on increasing volume with the existing rail infrastructure was launched.
20%
4.5 Mtpa
$45M
The approach
The improvement proposed was a new management operating system made up of a series of processes designed to strengthen operational control across the railyard, improving coal loop turnaround times and on-time departure to the mines.
A vision was created across the yard for operational teams to adopt the approach of a “Formula 1” motor racing team and pit crew.
Each yard activity, including unloading, inspection, maintenance, shunting, and driver changes, would be meticulously planned before the train arrived. Then, each process would be scheduled to the minute so that the time back into the corridor could be accurately forecasted and then tightly managed.
The solutions
The team digested the Formula 1 strategy document, conducted comprehensive observations across the current rail yard operation, and designed a series of management processes based on lean methodologies to bring the strategy to life.
Communication systems and processes across the rail corridor were upgraded, with a significant focus on standardising communication times, the information to share, and the language to use, ensuring all communications would be coherent and efficient.
The new processes introduced included standard operating procedures to complete all repeatable tasks across the rail yard, supported by target process times and governed by a daily audit program. The audit program enabled compliance performance reporting in the form of KPIs.
A tiered visual management system was introduced to present the compliance KPIs alongside other operational performance KPIs for safety, delivery, cost, and people. The Visual Performance Centres (VPC) became the forums for managing operational performance and problem-solving through regular meetings.
Formally documenting the entire system in a user playbook, branded the ‘F1 Toolkit’, provided all stakeholders with a simple training tool and system guide.
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