EDI Helps Major Railroad Corporation speed Locomotive Maintenance

ST. PETERSBURG, FL - February 12, 2009 -- Today EDI announces that a Major Railroad Corporation has gone "Live" with phase one of their Maximo deployment project. EDI is currently working with one of North America's leading rail-based transportation companies to automate the shop operations of their locomotive maintenance division. The benefits of the on-going project include:

• Ensuring FRA, EPA and other regulatory compliance by automatically generating due activities and electronic audit-tracking of execution.
• Reducing planning time by automatically evaluating upcoming routine maintenance, open or deferred corrective maintenance, and open or deferred pre-scribed modifications.
• Increasing labor utilization through ease of work reporting and the ability to request parts from the pit or track.
• Reducing data administration time by leveraging Maximo's ability to update asset information and maintenance programs automatically based on work executed and components installed.
• Increasing visibility to operational effectiveness and locomotive reliability KPI's through the capture of accurate real-time data of shop operations and locomotive histories.

Other Details of the Project

The scope includes the use of Maximo to manage the allowable and as-built locomotive configurations and the handling of the dynamic application of appropriate routine maintenance including FRA-required inspections and maintenance and large-scale modification campaigns. In addition, EDI is creating several applications inside of Maximo to automate shop-level operations. Service Center and Shop Dashboards for Managers will be used to manage the arrival and departure of locomotives to maintenance locations and automate electronic generation of appropriate maintenance work orders. A Mechanic's Clipboard-style application will be deployed on touch-screen kiosks throughout the shop to allow Mechanic's to interact with a locomotive's electronic work package to check-out and check-in tasks, request and issue parts from stores, and install and remove serialized components on locomotives. Finally, FRA-required records like the periodic inspection and repair (FRA F6180-49A) will be maintained in Maximo electronically and generated from Maximo via reports for placement in cabs. The entire system will be 21 CFR Part 11 compliant through the use of secure palm-scan authentication.

EDI Background

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, EDI is a full service consulting firm specializing in maintenance process improvement, Maximo / EAM implementations, quality asset data, training and compliance practices in world-class maintenance programs. Over the past 10 years, EDI has performed assessments, upgrades and implementations at a number of organizations across a variety of industries and has multiple consultants with IBM Maximo certifications. In fact, EDI was the first IBM business partner, world-wide, to gain the Tivoli's "AAA" deployment accreditation in EAM. EDI is also an IBM Premier Business Partner and an IBM Authorized Independent Training Provider.