Need of FOIS

Indian Railways (IR) carries nearly 980 Million Tonnes of Freight in a year (as of 2011-12). Freight trains bring two thirds of the Indian Railway revenues and are referred to as the bread earners for the Railways. The major commodities carried by Indian Railways are Coal, Iron Ore, Foodgrains, Iron & Steel, Cement, Petroleum products, Fertilizer and Containerized Traffic. There are specialized wagons to handle the Transportation Needs of the different types of commodities. Unlike passenger carrying trains, Freight trains do not run to a fixed schedule thus making Freight Operations a highly Information Intensive activity. Based on this information managers make Allocation Decisions continually to dynamically Optimize Utilization of resources like wagons, locomotives, crew and paths on the network. Real time information allows good decision making and thus ensures high levels of mobility within the system. This realisation has led to the development of Freight Operations Information System (FOIS).

FOIS - A Strategic Advantage to both IR and its customers. The implementation of the system is envisaged to eventually achieve the following:- 

-Extension of the current business practice of bulk movement in train load formation to  piecemeal traffic to increase the market share by clubbing and moving together similar  type of stock of "Hub & Spoke" arrangement. 

-Global tracking of consignments in real time whether in rakes or in individual wagons. The insight and pipeline of consignments would be seamlessly available for timely planning and just in time inventory management. 

-Facilitate acceptance of customer's orders, billing and cash accountal from identified  nodal customer centres which, may not necessarily be the handling terminals. These  facilities could even get extended to customer's premises and alongwith introduction of    e- commerce benefit both by reducing the burden of logistics management. 

FOIS comprises two major subsystems :

-Rake Management System (RMS) for handling the operational aspects of IR.-Terminal Management System (TMS) for handling the commercial aspects of IR.

The other important subsystems for better Decision Making:MIS Reporting, Rake Allotment/Allocation System (RAS), Terminal Pipeline Management System (TPMS)

FOIS provides improvement in existing business practices and consequently reduction in the operating costs while enhancing the quality of service. A full fledged Domestic Terminal Management System (DTMS) for CONCOR is already in place.

Thus FOIS provides:

-Convenience and Transparency to Customers-Optimum Utilization of Resources-Handling of Commercial and Operational aspects of Rail and Freight Movement-Better Decision making tools-Help for better logistics management.

Reporting/Monitoring enabled for: -Position of Freight Trains in Computerized Territory, ETA/ETD at a station,  Commodity wise flow  for customers like Power Houses, Refineries, Fertilizers,  Cement Plants, Steel Depots and public freight terminals -Attachment/Detachment of Rolling Stock -Wagons in yard, Locos in Shed, Detention -Loading/Unloading from different regions/locations. -Freight Earnings, RRs, Invoices, Demurrage charges, Wharfage charges and other  Local Charges. -Balance Sheet, Apportionment, E-payments, Empty Haulage etc.

Managerial Reports generated on:

-Periodic Loading/Unloading, Detentions, Rolling Stock Availability, NTKM/GTKM,  WTR, Outage etc. -Comparative/Trend analysis on different parameters. -Interchanges, Forecasting -Holding, EKM, HOR, Insight etc.

Decision Making tools:

-Rake Allocation/Allotment -Terminal Congestion Determination etc. 

Integration with other systems

FOIS has been implemented with state-of-the-art technologies, be it Software Technologies, Hardware Technologies, Communication Networks or Management of the entire System.

FOIS is integrated with other operations modules of CRIS using an Enterprise Application Integration software and with banks and customer legacy system through SOA using web services. Oracle grid including Oracle Weblogic, Oracle Tuxedo and Oracle DB are used for the same.FOIS system has evolved from a traditional Client/Server (Two tier architecture) to three tier architecture. 

-High Availability HP Itanium Servers with Oracle 10g Database-Oracle Tuxedo (Earlier BEA Tuxedo) System and Weblogic Server-J2EE platform for implementation of reporting, integrations, SOA etc.-Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (EE), Pro *C-Dedicated OFC cable networks integrated with VSAT to cover-up the widespread connectivity across the nation. 

The group is working under the leadership of General Manager, an IRTS Officer with over 20 years of Railway Experience, who guides the team on all application related issues and new developmental work. The technical team consists of Chief ProjectEngineer, Principal Project Engineer, Senior Software Engineers and Junior Engineers in addition to Field Implementors.

MIS reports

1. RAS (Rake Allotment System)An initiative taken by IR for computerization of the process to program the traffic and leverage it to obtain an Optimal Allotment of Rakes among different Categories of Customers with different types of Priorities.

Reports

1. Yesterday’s InterchangeYesterday Interchange: This query displays the information of the trains actually interchanged in terms of the Loads and Light Engines at the divisional interchange point., The shortfall and excess columns display direction wise summary of loads that were short or excess vis a vis the forecast for the previous day. Receipts and dispatches are shown separately for each of the I/C point. It is updated by the Interchange forecast and Arrival/Departure Reporting tasks.Interchange monitoring this query gives view of current I/C, giving the Status of forecasted trains and also the trains, which are not forecasted, but are likely to go in the I/C. It is updated by train forecast, arrival/dep tasks.

YesterdayTrain wise interchange This query displays I/C load wise of a divisionI/C point wise for specified date. View is available for specified I/C point and direction. The details ofloads, like load name, L/E, type, loco, unit, I/C date/time for handed over and taken over is listedseparately. This information is updated by load planning, arrival/ departure tasks.Load interchange analysis This query displays I/C load wise of a division I/C point wise forspecified period. View is available for specified I/C point and direction. The details of loads, like loadname, L/E, type, loco, unit, I/C date/time for handed over and taken over is listed separately . Thereare filters provided for originating zone/div/station and terminating zone/div/ station so thatvarious analysis can be done on I./C data. This information is updated by the arrival/departure and I/Creporting tasks.Stock interchange load wise This query displays summarized information of receipts anddispatches of stock at divisional level for a specific type of stock. Loaded stock classified in terms ofthrough and terminating. Empty stock is shown separately. This query displays and distribute outputfields like No./units for each classification with total(No./Unit), for both receipts and for every I/C point.This information is updated by the arrival/departure and I/C reporting tasks.

2. CC Rakes DSS Report

this query gives running details of close circuit rakes which are running in thesystem on the logged in date for the logged in Zone/div.or selected BPC station of that zone. Option isavailable for selecting a rake type also if the rakes of a specific rake type are to be seenIt is updated by BPC details, train arr/drake formation/dissipation tasks.

3. Load and Pipeline

YesterdayChange in load destination The query gives information on the loads for loaded/empty/mixed/Allwithin Zone/Division with revised change of destination and the station where the change waseffected with the message No. and the functionary who authorized the change of destination. Thereports can be obtained selectively for a specific commodity, for consignee or for a specificdestination. This information is updated by the change in Load destination tasks.Stabled loads at 24.00 hrs. This query gives information on the loads forboth loaded/empty stabled with date and time, reason as at odd hrs. This information is updated byload planning arr/dep and train stabling tasks.CurrentType wise Terminating load in sight The query gives information of terminating loads for astation/division. The loads details along with the current location and status with the expected arr/deptime and date at the I/C station and destination. Are displayed. This query is updated from LoadPlanning, train ordering, Train Arrival/Departure tasks.Outgoing loads gives details of loads which have originated from the logged zone/div /station. It alsogives the I/C time of that load and also its expected

time at its destination. Load planning, placement /release, arrival /dep, tasks update this query.Running position optimized destination wise This query displays rakesloaded from a zone and are running on that date. It gives loading details and I/C date and time, itscurrent status. filters are provided for stock type commodity and unloading zone. Load planning,

placement /release, arrival /dep, tasks update this query.