GATX Rail Europe gained pace on its digitalization advancement as the new Digital Maintenance Workshop Portal – Release 2.0 went live in March. In terms of User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX), the innovative features were all distinguished and evaluated as better and more optimized than the previous version.

What is New?

The state-of-the-art portal involves a GATX European maintenance workshop network of nearly twenty partners, offering a new responsive design that both facilitates integration and is adaptable to all screens, including mobile.

The workshop interface incorporates our workflows even better as it serves beyond the function of digital task exchange and better integrates the entire process in the 2.0 web portal. For instance, the scope of the work process definition involves a complete digital exchange, allowing for greater efficiency as the necessary documents and messaging occur in one place. Furthermore, the portal is fully integrated with GATX systems, such as a document’s management system (DMS), and allows for the maintenance workshop to upload technical documentation directly into that system.

Currently, we are working with the workshop partners using the new Application Programming Interface (API) to further integrate the workshop’s portal with the Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) system that workshops use. With the workshop portal 2.0 we have added a new interface related to material management. More interfaces will follow.

Fully Digital Workflow – the Highlights

The fully digital workflow facilitates the follow-up on the crucial exchange between the maintenance workshop and railcar stops during the maintenance process.

Such flow of information involves a work-scope definition of all necessary maintenance work and documents, in addition to photos and work cost estimates.

The efficient reporting of all material movements is highly relevant to the respective repair. In the case of a broken buffer, for example, as the new one is installed, the user is provided with the necessary information on the consumption and return flow of used materials.

Technical data availability is improved as the exchange of wagon-specific data occurs in both directions. In turn, the working stand recording tool offers technical data directly to the portal, with tablet-optimized functionality in order to maintain the wagon-specific data. In turn, the validation involves the portal’s place of where created documents are approved and checked for completeness, and thus supplemented when necessary.

Via the portal’s documentation module, the PDF files’ uploading and other document generations are based on the maintained technical data.

Last but not least, the events feature is used to create greater wagon transparency and a place to note all circumstances that may influence the maintenance process, such as existing delays, recommendations, and decisions. This action further optimizes the process on a per rail basis while making it faster and more transparent. In parallel, we keep our customers up-to-date and implement actions to further decrease downtimes.

Digitalization of Railcar Maintenance is Welcomed by Customers and Workshops

Gerrit Otto, responsible for the German and Scandinavian GATX Rail Europe maintenance workshop network, said, “Just recently, GATX went live with the new 2.0 portal’s release. It has been very well received and we’ve gotten great feedback already. This is very exciting because more workshops are reaching out to us, ready to jump onboard and start working in digital way with the portal.”

True to our motto, we always strive to make railcar leasing easier with the latest innovative solutions.