PSC Group – “Tomorrow’s Train Today”
A site in the greater Chicago area was struggling to have a complete set of outbound cars each day by car shipment deadlines due to inconsistency in railroad arrival times. Each day, time pressure to prepare outbound cars created issues like maintaining safety of switch crews and resulted in supply chain effects of missed car shipments.
PSC Goal
- Create and implement new process to improve scheduling
- Implement methodologies to manage inconsistency of railroad arrivals
- Reduce risks to switch crew caused by working under time pressure
PSC Approach
- Create and implement new process to improve scheduling
- PSC initiated a process overhaul between the customer’s site logistics and respective customer service representatives (CSR’s) to ensure communication breakdowns did not lead to railcar shipment delays
- Implement methodologies to manage inconsistency of railroad arrivals
- PSC developed a new process called “tomorrow’s train today” which aligned production planning, switching activities, and CSR requirements
- Reduce risks to switch crew caused by the rushed schedule
- New process allowed switch crew to fully assemble trains ahead of time
Positive Customer Outcome
- Improved KPI’s for missed shipments and delays
- Our switch crew was able to effectively work a day ahead of schedule
- Errors caused by schedule pressures significantly reduced