ARA and GS1 Australia release new asset management standards
A new implementation guideline to help the rail industry better manage its assets, improve efficiency and lower costs has been unveiled by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) at the ongoing AusRAIL 2016 conference and exhibition in Adelaide today.
The new Implementation Guideline for the Effective Management of Inventory in the Australian Rail Industry has been designed by international supply chain standards provider GS1 Australia in collaboration with ARA’s Inventory Management Improvement initiative over a period of 18 months.
The guideline was launched by ARA COO Phil Allan, GS1 Australia CEO Maria Palazzolo, and GS1 Australia senior manager – trade, transport & heavy industry Bonnie Ryan.
The guideline aims to set an industry standard for how to implement unique identification and automatic data capture using barcoding and/or RFID tagging in organisations and value chains across the rail industry.
Allan says Australia’s rail industry is “significantly challenged” when it comes to managing ‘maintenance, repair and overhaul’ (MRO) processes to maintain the quality of assets.
“To address this industry challenge, the ARA and its members from the working group including rail operators, suppliers, manufacturers and contractors worked in partnership with GS1 Australia and developed the guideline that underpins best practice for inventory management and stock control using GS1 standards,” he says.
Palazzolo says the new guideline will help members to implement the agreed standards by “marking MRO materials and components in a consistent way to improve inventory and supply chain processes that will significantly reduce costs and lead to more effective management of assets.
“The industry is still hamstrung by manual and paper-based practices that are costly and inefficient.
“Using a common, standards based approach for the identification and marking of materials, components, logistics units, locations and assets will simplify some fundamental processes in the Australian Rail Industry that will result in improved inventory management and more effective asset management overall.”
To download the new guidelines, click here.