Perspective: Analytics Powered by Rail Data

Earlier this year,Progress Rail Services Corp.— a Caterpillar company — and its subsidiary Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. (EMD), celebrated a new joint venture, Electro-Motive Diesel Arabia LLC, in conjunction with Mohawarean Railway Services Co. (MRS), at the Middle East Rail Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In addition to this step toward increased support for railway customers in the Middle East, Progress Rail and EMD also highlighted their plans regarding intelligent analytics.

Photo: Uptake.com

The companies unveiled a demonstration of their new predictive analytics platform – EMD Uptime – at the Middle East Rail Show. The demo came nearly a year to the day after announcing plans to collaborate with Chicago-based Uptake, a predictive analytics software platform developer.

"We constantly look for ways to help customers save time and money," said Billy Ainsworth, president and CEO of Progress Rail and EMD. "With Uptake's data analytics capabilities and our cutting edge locomotive technologies, we developed a predictive analytics platform that we think will deliver substantial benefits for our customers."

A data science partnership

As a leading provider of rolling stock and infrastructure, Progress Rail and EMD recognized the need to develop the next phase of technology to help customers transform how they manage their assets and fleets. "Applying Uptake's world-class data science, EMD Uptime delivers predictive, actionable insights that identify potential failures before they occur and recommend repairs," Ainsworth said.

The companies have been working together since 2014 in developing an intelligent rail analytics platform that identifies potential failures well before they occur and suggests recommended repairs, resulting in minimized downtime, lower costs and increased operational safety. This shift in maintenance practice — to proactively addressing locomotive performance challenges—has the potential to save customers in the rail industry meaningful expenses.

Reducing maintenance expense

"We believe that by providing technology to improve the reliability and utilization of the assets we produce and help maintain, we can significantly reduce our customers' maintenance expenditures and improve their revenue and service capability to their valued customers," said Ainsworth. "The combination of Progress Rail and EMD, with over 90 years serving the rail industry, coupled with the speed and entrepreneurship of Uptake, provides the perfect relationship to deliver customer value in the mega data space."

Said Brad Keywell, co-founder and CEO of Uptake, "By harnessing the power of data to eliminate unplanned downtime and maximize operational efficiency, our solution unlocks answers that create unprecedented value, and we believe it will transform the rail industry."

EMD Uptime is only the beginning of a suite of applications being created to tackle some of the most challenging problems facing the rail industry. Progress Rail and Uptake are currently working with North American Class I customers to field test the technology, and plan to have the product available for purchase upon completion of those tests.

Uptake is a predictive analytics software platform provider that transforms data into measurable gains in productivity, cost savings and operational safety in the industrial sector. Uptake partners with iconic Fortune 500 companies to develop efficiency-enhancing insights through its software platform that improve enterprise performance using data collected from industrial equipment sensors and other sources. For more information, visit www.uptake.com.

Progress Rail Services Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., a supplier of remanufactured locomotive and railcar products and services, and operator of one of the most extensive rail service and supply networks in North America. Through its acquisition of Electro-Motive Diesel, Progress Rail expanded its network of global locations. EMD also has an extensive aftermarket business offering replacement parts, maintenance solutions and a range of value-added services. For more information, visit www.progressrail.com.