Railway Track & Structures - August 2008 - (Page 22)

Choosing the best m/w machinery not just one or two years after the initial sale. Going forward, the manufacturer will need to evaluate how they see the customer and how they respond. If not, they may find themselves wondering where the orders went. “Clearly all the examples given are important,” Robey said. “Safety of operation is always the most-important feature. Without safety, there will not be a purchase. Reliability is the next priority. Speed without reliability is like the tortoise and the hare. Reliability is heavily correlated to customer service. Customer service is built on technical support, parts availability and flexibility in working with the customer.” “Ease of operation, especially if it’s safe to operate economically,” said Richard Keller, chief engineer for Montana Rail Link. “It shouldn’t cost a fortune and it must be able to do the work it is supposed to do.” “The primary features evaluated are safety, productivity and reliability,” said Tim Drake, vice president-engineering, Norfolk Southern. “We also consider terms of network velocity, as well as overall unit cost. We are continually looking at all of our maintenance work processes and trying to become more efficient in all that we do so when we look for a new piece of equipment we are looking to reduce our overall unit cost, as well as reducing track-occupancy requirements.” “All of these, including ease of training and ergonomic design for optimal operator satisfaction,” said Vernon Graham, vice president engineering for Canadian Pacific Railway. “Customer Service!,” said Donald Robey, assistant chief engineer - work equipment for CSX Transportation. “It is obvious that you want the machine to do the task for which it was purchased and you want it to be safe, reliable and cost effective. However, as we go forward, we need manufacturers who are going to be sensitive to what the customer wants, listen to the customer and respond accordingly when things are wrong or not performing. The support needs to be for the life of the machine, 22 Railway Track & Structures August 2008 www.rtands.com http://www.loram.com http://www.loram.com http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track & Structures - August 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Wish List: What Chief Engineers Really Want in M/W Machinery Keeping Ballast in Shape Amtrak Turns to Sophisticated System to Manage NEC Assets Supplier Profiles Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Website Directory Advertisers Index Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - August 2008

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