© railinc 2009 all rights reserved 1 railinc corporation – 7001 weston parkway, suite 200, cary,...

© Railinc 2009 All Rights Reserved 1Railinc Corporation – 7001 Weston Parkway, Suite 200, Cary, NC 27513 – 919.651.5000 -- www.railinc.com

Report on Railinc’s Umler Implementation for

ACACSO

New Orleans , November 12, 2009

Alan McDonaldDirector, Asset Services

©Railinc 2009 All Rights Reserved

© Railinc 2009 All Rights Reserved

For those of you that are new: Umler is THE rail industry’s central

equipment repository• All equipment in interchange service is in Umler

• Mandatory; required by rules as statutes• 1.9 Million units; over 250 million data elements• Includes characteristics, ownership, inspections and

handling instructions• Communicates over 600,000 updates per month• Facilitates shipment billing, interchange operations,

car hire and car repair billing

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The data in Umler DIRECTLY affects car hire rates and equipment use

• Umler provides car distribution systems with the data that they need to assign cars to shipments

• Umler determines the Equipment Type and other parameters used in rate calculations

• Umler defines the lineage of cars so that original default rates are carried forward through leases and ownership changes

• Umler transportation codes dictate the poolability and reverse routing of equipment

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The Umler/EMIS project is a multi-year initiative to modernize Umler

• Rescue the system from it’s 1960’s prison• Make it available to everyone• Make it easy to use and easy to connect to• Expand the data for today’s needs• Make it flexible and adaptable• Improve data accuracy

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Legacy Umler Laptop Version


August 31, 2009

The silence heard across the railroad industry:

UMLER became Umler

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Brand-new state-of-the-art Umler Website is now in place

• Point and click interface• Pull-down lists• Lookups• Extensive help• Easy navigation• Extensive editing

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Behind the scenes, much was happening

• Years of development comes to fruition• 2 Million records transformed into new format• Hundreds of thousands of test cases executed• Over 900 equipment owners transferred• Huge training and communications effort• Massive data clean-up campaign

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Many data quality improvements introduced to ensure accurate data

• Equipment Type code is generated, not input• More in-depth cross-element validation

• Eg. Tare + Load Limit <=> Maximum Rail Load• Clear error messages with remedies• Frequent revalidation to identify latent problems• Over 20,000 business rules in place and growing

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Data in error is not allowed on file

• Big change in concept from the old system• To get a car on file, it has to pass muster

• No more “force it in and fix it later”• 72 critical fields have to pass

• No more forcing bad information on the file. • If you want to update the record, what you are

updating has to be right. • Suspending work and storing error notices

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All Umler records were scrutinized before and during conversion

• Over 20,000 business rules executed on each record

• Any latent errors in legacy data was identified• Over 300,000 individual inconsistencies corrected• Any remaining errors resulted in “conflicts” being

generated.

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We’re almost there in having a 100% clean file – we need your help

• Starting at under 94% clean, with your help we’ve taken the file to 98.3% accuracy

• 525 companies have conflicts• 25 companies make 80% of conflicts• Key causes

• Missing data to generate ETC• Lineage

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To keep the file clean, “conflicts” have consequences

• Conflicts occur when any illogical data exists on file• Conflict aging “consequences”

• 30 days – Unit zero rated• 90 days – Unit restricted in interchange• 365 days – Unit subject to deletion from file

• Multiple email “ticklers” before each step

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Don’t panic – no automatic zero rating has happened yet!

• AAR committees sponsored a moratorium on conflict again to allow for clean-up time

• No auto zero rating until January 1, 2010

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Railinc is there to help you clean up the data

• Just logging on to Umler tells you if your equipment has conflicts

• Railinc is working with customers to get the data cleaned up

• Monthly reports are being sent to car owners• Reports and queries are available on line• Our CSC and Umler Support are there to help you

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Once again: January 1, 2010 the rules kick in

• Any cars with conflicts over 30 days will become zero rated• Will take effect for February CHARM file

• Any cars with conflict over 90 days will IMMEDIATELY become restricted in interchange

Get your conflicts cleaned-up!

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Full Disclosure: There have been a few burps and hiccups

• Ex-parte Sub 19 was not correctly applied• Private cars coming back from railroad use did not get

proper status• TTX rate updates were not carried into CHARM• Some grandfathered rates were not carried forward• Some challenges still exist with status management• Corrections have been made and reclaim letters have been

issued with our apologies

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Post-production support in place to support you and your customers

• Dedicated direct connect via CSC

• Comprehensive training demos and documentation• Real-time monitoring in place• Real-time status reports on messages and web

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www.railinc.com/umler

[email protected]


12 companies already cut-over

Remaining on schedule for

completion by year-end

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Company DateGE 9/12/2009UTLX 9/12/2009RMI 9/19/2009CP 9/19/2009KCS/KCSM 9/26/2009GATX 9/26/2009Greenbrier 10/10/2009First Union 10/10/2009CN 10/31/2009BNSF 11/7/2009NS 11/7/2009TTX 11/14/2009UP/FXE 11/21/2009CSX 12/5/2009Wabtec 12/11/2009Minor users 12/31/2009


Umler’s positioned for game-changing growth

• More rigor in business rules to be added• More information about equipment

• Improving both safety and efficieny• Integration with CRB, EHMS and other systems

• One-stop shopping and Self service• Access to Business Intelligence

• Automated reports• Studies• Trending

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…and introducing your new Umler guy:

Jerry Traynham, Director Asset Services919-651-5383

[email protected]

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© railinc 2009 all rights reserved 1 railinc corporation – 7001 weston parkway, suite 200, cary,...

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