Accelerating Capital Project Delivery Through Optimized Crossing Changeouts
Client Context
A major freight rail operator aimed to increase the pace of crossing changeouts during peak maintenance months—spring through fall. However, doing so risked extended outages that would take revenue trains out of service. The organization sought to minimize changeout time while maintaining safety standards, in order to restore revenue service more rapidly.
Key Challenges
-
Planned increase in crossing changeouts threatened to significantly disrupt revenue service.
-
Crossing replacement processes were inefficient and time-consuming.
-
Need to accelerate project delivery without compromising safety.
-
Limited cross-functional coordination between engineering, frontline leadership, and capital delivery crews.
Approach & Key Success Factors
EFESO facilitated a collaborative approach to streamline project execution:
-
Lean Workshops: Brought together frontline leaders, engineers, and capital crafts in guided sessions to apply Lean and Industrial Engineering tools.
-
Waste Identification: Taught field teams to identify inefficiencies in their own processes.
-
Optimized Block Planning: Enabled capital delivery crews to co-develop a streamlined plan for faster, safer crossing changeouts.
-
Cross-Functional Alignment: Fostered better coordination across disciplines to reduce handoff delays and non-value-added time.
Results
55%
Reduction in outage days for crossing changeouts
17%
Additional improvement enabling faster return of track to revenue service.