Watch: NS ‘War Room’ Boosts Team Collaboration, Network Performance
According to NS, the NOC “is fast-tracking performance improvements” throughout its 22-state network. Located at the Class I’s Atlanta, Ga., headquarters, it is staffed by leaders from all operating divisions to solve both short- and long-term problems. They address issues in real time and make adjustments based on inbound and outbound train connection data, the railroad says.
“The war room finds the best solutions possible, communicates to the field, stress tests the solutions with the field, and the task force in the field, and implements them very quickly,” Chief Operating Officer John Orr explains in the video (see below). “We have people from Engineering, from Mechanical, from Transportation, from Network Planning all here under one roof assessing the plan and have that same grouping of skills out in the field executing.”
“For example, Mechanical is making light repairs to our cars outside of the repair shops, which allows the cars to continue on their trip plan; Engineering is identifying opportunities for improvements in the track structure that will allow us to increase our speed,” Moore reports. He points out in the video that the team also looks “to balance the terminal clock, reducing the dwell in terminals to further reduce handlings.” Additionally, he says, the team works “with Network Operations personnel to ensure fluid main line operations can be achieved with any proposed schedule changes.”
According to NS, recent war room successes include:
- Implementation of three new continuous schedules between Chattanooga to Savannah, Savannah to Chattanooga, and Chattanooga to Valdosta, Ga. “These trains are now scheduled to travel to the freight’s final designation instead of stopping at an intermediate terminal to be processed,” according to the Class I.
- A newly developed Northern Region plan allows, for example, traffic from Croxton, N.J., that formerly processed at Conway, Pa., to now travel directly to its destination in Elkhart, Ind., without dwelling.
NS reports that a key member of the war room team is Russell Strickland, Director, Network Optimization, who is helping to design a new train network for the Southern Region’s production yards. “Working in conjunction with Transportation and the NOC, the team successfully redistributed trains across multiple terminal operating plans to help spread inbound volume and to optimize both dwell and connections performance,” the railroad says.
“We have been utilizing a matrix that shows inbound trains and their outbound connections to find the ‘sweet spot’ for these trains’ departure schedules to capture the most traffic in those optimal windows thereby reducing dwell,” Strickland says.
“So far, our war room has delivered tremendous results: our train speed, our terminal velocity, our car and car miles per day have all increased,” John Orr concludes in the video. “We’re running our railway more effectively and more efficiently, creating safe, reliable, cost-effective transportation for our customers. That’s the power of a team coming together; that’s the power of bringing a war room together.”
