The Australian rail industry generates almost $30 billion in economic activity every year, supporting 165,000 direct and indirect jobs.
But while rising investment in recent years has supported the industry’s growth, changes are needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the rail supply chain.
The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) last year released the Australian Rail Supply Chain Report, which provides several recommendations across key focus areas to address the challenges and maximise the opportunities for the Australian rail industry.
In response, the ARA, in consultation with industry has developed a rail supply chain blueprint to progress areas of action from the report. The blueprint outlines practical steps and activities that ARA will lead over a three-year period, working in collaboration with industry, government and stakeholders to support a more productive and sustainable Australian rail industry.
The blueprint lists a total of 50 actions grouped under the following themes: procurement; standards; local content policy; innovation and technology; type approval; sustainability; skills; and export promotion.
One of the many agencies involved with the supply chain is GS1, a private, not-for-profit, international organisation developing and maintaining its own standards for barcodes and corresponding issue company prefixes.
GS1 Australia account director for freight, logistics, and industrial sectors, Tony Repaci, speaks to Rail Express about the organisation’s role in the blueprint recommendations.
He noted that Project iTRACE was specifically mentioned in the procurement section.
ITRACE is an industry-wide, transformative initiative, providing critical building blocks upon which digital capabilities and automation of operational processes can be built.
It uses a common framework – GS1 Global Standards – to enhance the industry’s digital footprint across the use of parts, components and assets, providing
- Standardised identification
- Standardised data capture (barcodes, RFID)
- Standardised, agreed material master data
“Indeed, while Project iTRACE, and more widely GS1 standards, was specifically mentioned in the procurement pillar, the adoption of iTRACE standards have a significant opportunity to support the other steps, specifically standards, local content policy, innovation and technology, sustainability and export,” Repaci said.
“As stated in Procurement Section 1.d. of the blueprint, continued support and the expansion of Project i-TRACE will ensure a standardised approach for data capture, labelling, and electronic exchange to improve traceability of procured components to reduce costs and improve safety and reliability for asset management.”
THE ROLE OF GS1
GS1 enables end-to-end traceability and visibility of events that occur in the physical world.
The organisation aims to:
- develop global, open, multi-sector standards
• provide training, education and support services on supply chain management
• promote and help implement the GS1 framework to facilitate best business solutions
In turn, the objectives of Project iTRACE include:
- providing the foundation to enable lifecycle tracking of an asset or component through (including maintenance) from procurement to disposal
• agreement on a standard to adopt for component identification and marking
• deciding on key data elements
• capturing information automatically
• ability to electronically exchange information with relevant parties
“With a strong rail investment pipeline, it is critical to ensure that procurement processes are as efficient as possible, facilitate maximum participation of local industry, support the development of jobs, drive innovation and produce productive outcomes for rail users and the broader community,” Repaci said.
“With a focus on industry-wide efficiency opportunities to improve supply chain processes, the Australian rail industry is working together to improve procurement by initiatives such as:
- Streamlining product/material identification and ordering process
• Reducing inventory write-offs and waste
• Improving maintenance and repair operations
• Reducing cost through less manual entries
• Improving traceability and warranty management
• Providing more accurate, real time information
• Setting the foundation for best practice procurement to payment processes
“When everyone uses the same standards, it’s easier to get things done. Just imagine if we didn’t have a standard way to measure time or distance,” Repaci said.
“It’s the same with our supply chain standards. They define ways to store and transfer data so organisations can exchange information smoothly.
“Supply chain standards save time and money by reducing administration and slashing paperwork. Largely unseen, yet tremendously important, GS1 standards ensure key processes run smoothly in some of the world’s biggest industries.
“Identifying, capturing and sharing information about the movement of products—and the digitalisation of everyday business processes—not only enhances interoperability between stakeholders but creates a highly efficient, sustainable and collaborative logistics environment.
“GS1 is working to achieve fully accurate, real-time visibility throughout the supply chain, from source to consumer, no matter what the mode of transport.”
THE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
GS1 uses the Global Product Classification (GPC) standard, which classifies products by grouping them into categories based on their essential properties as well as their relationships to other products.
“Classification allows the grouping and organising of things, people or places based on their characteristics. Classification systems can be global, country-specific, industry-specific or often proprietary,” Repaci said.
“Classification enables the grouping of similar products and services across documents, systems and processes, the exchange of data (digitalisation) and analytics, as well as insights from synchronised and harmonised data in multiple locations.
“It also enables cost-effective procurement optimisation and category management, and eTendering activities, where suppliers subscribed to classification codes can receive email notifications when tenders are published or updated.”
Classification also provides accurate spend analysis, savings opportunities for inventory management, and supply source visibility.
Repaci said the Australian rail sector had not yet established nor adopted standard classification as part of the material master data and as a result there is a high degree of fragmentation or non-use.
“This is where we can improve. Component identification and classification can complement each other in the rail sector, to allow varying degrees of data detail,” he said.
“As the Australian rail industry builds its master material data attributes in a digital format, the opportunity to report and make data-driven decisions can only benefit both the operators and suppliers, by allowing more timely and informed decisions and allow our rail sector to be more competitive on a global basis.”
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