How Important Is Asset Tracking Software for the Railway Industry?

A train is a combination of many different parts and each part has a different roleplay. So, we can say that a train a complex system where coordination and collaboration are significant. Undoubtedly, the rail industry is huge & still expanding.

According to Markets and Markets projects the global rail asset management market size to grow from USD 9.0 billion in 2019 to USD 12.3 billion by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.4% during the forecast period.

Major factors expected to drive the growth of the rail asset management market include the increasing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and government initiatives, high demographic growth and hyper-urbanization, and adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other automation technologies to enhance optimization.

What Is Asset Tracking Software?

It enables you to track your asset movement. Assets include costly items such as laptops, computers, vehicles & other equipment or something which is very important to a business. It provides information such as asset status, location, etc.

Asset tracking software benefits are accomplished via NFC, IoT, BLE, RFID Tag, GPS, QR Code (asset tracking techniques). The main objective of the software is to refine the asset usage, provide security to valuable items & scheduling maintenance.

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Another objective is to increase asset control efficiency and decrease equipment loss. This software provides several ways through which you will be able to save money & time for your organization.

Indeed, asset tracking is crucial to your organization's business growth and compliance.

What Is the Importance of Asset Tracking in Railway Industry?

Asset tracking in railway industry is very important due to several reasons that we have discussed below:

Maintenance

Maintenance is one of the most important parts of the railway industry. For example, a train works vigorously, it runs fast, with a lot of carried weight & it has thousands of moving parts. Hence it takes a lot of energy. Hence, it needs maintenance very frequently.

Bad management of equipment not only leads to unnecessary money spend on maintenance, but it also results in decreased equipment life.

During the whole equipment lifecycle, a business firm can confront several maintenance issues. Maintenance issues can cut into the benefits of the organization.

Asset tracking management software does the job for you; keeping all in the information & data of all equipment. It also helps in scheduling a maintenance job as well and create alerts for you. It assists in growing your business by identifying unproductive items.

Then again, under-maintenance can prompt to diminished efficiency. So, maintenance should be done on a regular basis & you can keep track of maintenance with the software.

Therefore, with asset tracking software assistance you can keep track of your equipment, moreover, you can easily see records through which you can identify which asset needs maintenance and avoid unexpected maintenance and save those expenses.

Also Read: Which Industries Can Benefit from EAM Software?

Inventory Tracking

Tracking of Inventory is one of the most important parts of the rail industry. Inventory may include spare parts of the train, train track (permanent way), rails, fasteners, railroad ties, etc.

When inventory is not available in stock, it results in decreased productivity, business loss & delivery is not done on time.

If a machine fails and spare parts are not available in stock, then it can affect your organization's productivity. The lacking part is the centralization of information, it often leads to passing wrong information & mismanagement of work.

The asset management system or inventory tracking software centralizes your business; therefore, no wrong information is passed and also lets you know how much inventory is left in the stock.

Asset Life Cycle

When an asset is purchased, it is obvious to expect revenue generation from the asset. Asset managers know the importance of keeping an asset in the running condition. When an asset tracking plan is executed then it is important to keep a clear picture of assets so that plans can be me accordingly.

With the asset management software, you have the capability to see if any asset functioning properly or not, if the asset is working properly & performing as per expectation or not.

When you know what's going on with an asset you can make a reasonable decision in order to save expenses and extend the life of an asset.

Asset Tracking

In railway industry assets can be divided into infrastructure assets and rolling stock assets. However, there are assets as well other than these that need to have cared and properly maintained.

Assets come in all sizes and that's what them difficult to keep their track.  The asset tracking software enables you to track assets in real-time.

The tracking software gives you accurate and exact information. It is one of the best options for tracking assets and equipment.

The software always plays an important role in maintenance activity. Therefore, it keeps them in a good position and efficient. It also helps in improving the asset's performance.

Analytics

Asset tracking software offers a better way to gather, analyze, and apply equipment information to enhance efficiency and productivity. Track how your assets such as trains are being utilized and how they are performing, like operational hours, mileage, etc.

Through the data, managers can review, prioritize, assign, and track work orders from their desktop, mobile phone, or tablet. Technicians are notified of new work orders. It enables managers to generate a customized report from the asset's downtime to its maintenance.

This software provides crucial data & information that assists higher management to take decisions, make future plans. It also alerts the team about the recent work order.

This software allows the management to identify potential problems and resolve them as quickly as possible so that they don't become an actual issue.

Conclusion

If asset tracking is implemented then the outcome will be enhanced productivity, efficiency, save unnecessary expenses, improved daily operation.

We know that for rail industry maintenance is the most important activity and a small error can lead to the misfortunate event. Asset tracking in railway industry provides a systematic approach for the management of assets, assisting organizations that are working towards industry best practice compliance.

Also Read: Why Asset Tracking Software Is Crucial for Transport Industry?

Therefore, trains need maintenance consistently, if it's not done properly and time to time, there can be serious consequences.

After all, the railway industry is not just about trains, there are signals, switches, platforms, overhead wiring & other costly equipment too which also needs to be maintained.