RADIS - system features

Three key principles accompanied and guided the development of RADIS:

• The need for a constant, unrestricted and up-to-date overall view of all operations.
• The need for optimum user operations – as users (e.g. operating resources managers) are involved in a constant exchange of information and are thus frequently heavily occupied by other, parallel activities.
• The need for high availability – as such systems quickly become indispensable tools within an organization.

The first two principles are maintained by employing a second monitor to separate user dialogues (search lists, mask/window dialogues, etc.) as much as possible from graphic displays of the current operating status. No awkward window management is necessary, e.g. iconizing, enlarging, repositioning, in order to be able to view current operations. The third principle is being taken care of by a well-devised security concept.

Track diagrams

The graphic representation of operations is based on the classic track diagrams - well known from modern signal boxes. Apart from the advantage of familiarity, better use of the screen is achieved compared to true-scale layouts.

Displaying rolling stock

All rolling stock is shown to scale corresponding to its real length in proportion to the track length. This provides an impression of the degree of track utilization.

Individual wagons and locomotives can be represented in diverse ways in terms of...

...the width:

national railway wagons

internal (industrial) wagons

...the colour:

type of goods for loaded wagons / type of wagon when empty

...symbols:

complete train-loads (various colours)

part-loads

wagons to be weighed

defective wagons

shock-absorbing (protection) wagons

wagons retained (for commercial reasons)

wagons rejected by national railways

locomotive numbers

...etc.

Task orientation

The operating status is updated either by entering tasks or by changing track occupancies. Incoming and outgoing wagons as well as changes to wagon status, can be implemented through appropriate functions. Transport orders play a crucial role, particularly for subsequent cost accounting. These enable

• quantities transported in kilograms,
• marshalling costs in locomotive hours/minutes, and
• number of wagons

to be dynamically assigned to the operating cost centers.

Applications

The functionality of RADIS is spread over various applications matched to the needs of the respective area of operations:

Operational applications:

management

order processing (locomotive via data radio link)

recording of incoming and outgoing wagons

wagon registration (shunting gangs via data radio link)

loading center application

information terminal

Office applications:

operations controlling

graphic information application

supervisor application

Use is made of menu-led and toolbar-type user interfaces. Existing terminals can be incorporated in RADIS because alphanumeric user interfaces are also available for all applications.

Correction features

The gathering of up-to-date data generally exhibits an intitially relatively high degree of incompleteness and incorrectness. Therefore, users are able to employ comprehensive correction and reworking functions which can make consistent corrections to all the data of the complete wagon cycle. This also applies to wagon cycles already completed (i.e. the wagon has already left the plant or, conversely, already returned to it).

Information options / Reporting

Numerous information options are available in the applications:

• Track occupancy views
• Current wagon status
• Wagon residence times
• Siding rent situation
• Search functions (with combined criteria)
• etc.

Furthermore, a server-based asynchronous reporting service is offered, which accepts orders for printer lists or file creation. The user can choose between numerous parameter-based reports:

• Order data
• Incoming and outgoing
• Internal transport activities
• Diverse types of tracking functions
• Locomotive status and locations
• Wagon status and locations
• Dispatch (current status)
• Locomotive utilization times
• Locomotive hours allocation
• Hire wagons: inspection times and cycling
• Proofs of return
• Cases of damage
• Diverse daily, monthly and annual reports
• Interface logs
• Use of new master data
• Shift statistics
• etc.

In addition, corresponding reports are available for all master data.

If a backup server is installed, it used for the reporting in orderto distribute the load.

Online language switching

The dialogue language of the user can be changed at any time during operations. A default language is allocated to and activated for each user after logging on.

Interfaces

The provision of external data opens up further potential savings for an information system like RADIS. This is primarily applicable for the complex compilation of incoming items by using the advance registration data supplied by national railways. However, as the respective current database grows, it results in better productivity through consistent use of the data.

The following diagram shows all the interfaces implemented up to now.

Basically, the following technical communications options are available with RADIS:

• File exchange (freely defined by the user)
• User-defined functions (cyclic or as required)
• Paper (automatic creation of printer lists or faxes)
• Data radio
• Serial interfaces (e.g. wagon weighbridges)
• Internet
• ODBC access via desktop computer (and hence transfer to spreadsheets, word-processing and desktop computer data bank programs)
• Data export to RASIM simulation system