Digitization of work instructions and checklists for improved data management and work productivity

Overhaul of trains is essential to maintain the reliability and availability of trains for operations. Work instructions (WI) and checklists are used during overhaul. Documentation of work done is currently in the form of hardcopy, which is administratively time-consuming, inconvenient, and inefficient. To overcome the drawbacks of hardcopy documents, this paper presents and discusses the implementation of digitization through a rail mobile maintenance system, in which WI are digitized onto a tablet, and checklists are uploaded to a common server for easy data management. Furthermore, the improvement of work productivity for overhaul with digitalization process is evaluated using various lean principles and tools, for example, gemba walk, root cause analysis, 5 Whys and 5S techniques, value stream mapping, process cycle efficiency, just-in-time concept, and cost analysis. Results from bogie, electrical, and pneumatic teams reveal an average process cycle efficiency improvement of 14.5%, ranging from 11.9% to 18.9%, during overhaul with digitization process, thereby improving data management and work productivity.