With two in-house maintenance workshops and a total of 46 workshops in our network, GRE is taking the important step of digitalizing workflows in our maintenance shop network. Soon, the days of error-prone handwritten notes will be over. Here is how we at GRE are managing the transition without any setbacks to the efficiency of workshops.

“First, of course, we started with a concept and the development of our digital workshop portal together with our partner Unity Group. Then we set out to test and optimize the system in our in-house workshops, before starting the roll-out in four partner workshops across Europe,” says Hubert Gołębiewski, IT Project Manager at GRE, as he presents the two year roll-out plan that ensures that all 46 maintenance shops in the GRE partner network will be operating with the digital workshop portal until the end of 2022.

The GRE digital workshop portal allows for standardized digital messaging between the workshop and the wagon keeper and is the first workshop portal in the field to be compliant with the revised VPI08 standards. It improves data input and exchange, allowing for speech to text commands. It makes handwritten notes obsolete as all maintenance steps taken will be registered with electronic devices such as mobile phones or tablets. Setting validation rules and automating validation is an additional time-saver for the workshops.

“We do it for free. Any workshop interested to be next, can reach out to us now. We minimize the risk of losing efficiency by taking a step-by-step approach, introducing the new system at one repair area at a time, from the bogie station to the wheelset station, etc.,” said Hubert Gołębiewski.

“Yes, initially there was some concern about how this will impact our workflow and efficiency. But after two weeks of getting used to it, we wouldn’t want to miss it. It has increased the quality of our reports, particularly because of automated validations and the flexibility of the system to be configured to precisely fit our workshop processes. GRE training and support is excellent,” says our technology experts at Wagon Service Ostróda.

While the team around Hubert Gołębiewski is currently selecting the next group of six workshops to introduce to the digital workshop portal, we are happy to report that workshops that are already working with the digital workshop portal were able to reduce their time spent on administrative work by 50%.

This project will also make railcar leasing easier for GRE customers as maintenance downtimes will reduce simply because the time previously used for administrative purposes can now be spent on railcars. Also, for now, the digital workshop portal focuses on technical data, but our experts are already making plans to include warehouse management for spare parts and cost / order management in the future.