Rail transportation is a crucial element of the global supply chain. As the most sustainable method of land-based freight, rail freight companies are at the forefront of the transition to more sustainable supply chains.

But the complexity of planning for large rail freight operations can make it challenging for rail freight companies to achieve their targets for multiple conflicting KPIs. To cater to as many customers as possible, you need to maximize your organization’s capacity to deliver within the limits of your available resources—crew, rolling stock and yard facilities.

With customer demands growing ever more complex, and with shorter delivery deadlines, piecing the enormous scheduling puzzle together becomes difficult for a human planner without specialized solutions. How can planners maximize efficient use of resources to optimize delivery and drive improved business performance?

Innovation is key to unlocking sustainability and resilience

Rail transportation offers incredible potential for lowering carbon emissions—a reduction of 80% in CO2 emissions and 50% in costs compared to road transportation—making it a highly attractive prospect to many companies seeking to meet their own sustainability KPIs.

However, not only does rail face stiff competition from other modes of transport—logistics companies in the road sector have also been quicker to adopt innovations that help them drive more efficient and sustainable operations. Some of these innovations include AI, IoT, automation and green propulsion technology.

In order for rail freight companies to increase their capacity to serve the rising demand and build a competitive advantage, companies have an urgent need to seize the opportunity to adopt new strategies and digital transformation—enabling them to drive improved customer satisfaction, more sustainable operations and better business performance.

DELMIA has the capabilities rail freight companies need to drive significant improvements for sustainability and profitability. With capabilities across all freight rail operations that enable planning, execution, monitoring, management and analytics across different time horizons, companies will be equipping themselves with a holistic integrated solution that unlocks tremendous value and benefits:

• Create optimal plans by comparing ‘what-if’ scenarios based on data
• Take slack out of the organization through better utilization of resources
• Reduce operating costs through optimized use of crew, locomotives and wagons
• Enable visibility on possible effects of disruptions, reducing the time needed to resolve them
• Keep customers happy by improving delivery performance and reducing cancellations
• Increase planning productivity and share updated plans with stakeholders in real time
• Reduce carbon emissions by optimizing loads and creating efficient travel plans
• Unlock better work-life balance for employees with scheduling that considers their preferences

Learn more about the DELMIA Rail Planning, Scheduling and Optimization Solution. Discover 4 key capabilities that rail freight companies need to resolve last-minute disruptions quickly and build resiliency in their services. Download the infographic here.

Learn about 5 key challenges faced by rail freight planners and how the DELMIA solution can help make rail freight planning more efficient. Download the eBook here.