BNSF News

Barstow Mechanical Car Team Does Its Part to Improve On-Time Departures

2010-08-09

One of the goals of Best Way: Improve and sustain on-time departures.

The Mechanical team in Barstow, Calif., continues to do its part to improve on-time performance and deliver reliable rolling stock as it implements new Best Way processes.

"The Barstow Mechanical team has enhanced communication between leadership and employees in all crafts, defined specific roles and responsibilities in the locomotive and car shops and implemented and documented several new processes," said Brian Coburn, manager, Mechanical Service Excellence. "All of this builds on the work that the Terminal Best Way team commenced at Barstow in 2009."

The Barstow Mechanical Best Way team's first challenge was to help improve communication and processes so the approximately 550 employees working there could build on their safety and quality performance numbers. To date, the Mechanical Car team has achieved the following:

• Contributed to the success of 87 percent on-time departures.
• Completed 95 percent of outbound inspections at least one hour prior to the Transportation Service Plan (TSP).
• Improved communications so all employees understand the Best Way dashboard metrics, how each person contributes to the team's success and why it's important to make the right decisions.

Some of the processes used to accomplish those goals are outlined below:

• A daily dashboard message: Similar to the daily metrics message communicated to Transportation employees, this supervisor-to-employee metric review is used at each shift briefing to align safety and performance expectations and celebrate success. Supervisors also cover detailed performance information including train yard inspection start and stop times, as well as repair track release-to-plan results.

• Implementing and documenting new processes: Processes are designed collaboratively by the Mechanical and Transportation teams. For example:
  • Cars are prioritized and repaired in the order in which the delivery is due to the customer, not necessarily in the order the cars were received at the shop.
  • New repair coding on each car helps the Mechanical team identify how much work needs to be done and which track needs to be used, reducing the time and resources needed to re-spot cars.

"Mechanical employees are taking ownership of Best Way in their shops and enhancing processes to help other departments and our customers," said Coburn. "It's great to see our numbers improve as everyone works together toward a common goal."

Below is a view of the key Terminal and Mechanical metrics that align all employees toward a common goal.

Terminal Dashboard - Barstow, Calif.
Percentages are year-to-date Updated as of Aug. 9, 2010
	Threshold	Goal	Actual
Originating Trains	81%	90%	87%
% of trains made > 3 hrs from TSP	64%	80%	97%
% of consists built > 3 hrs from TSP	64%	80%	78%
% inspection complete > 1 hr from TSP	81%	90%	95%

About the photo: Mike W. Leonard, carman, Barstow, Calif., uses new tool in TSS to identify bad order freight cars.

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