Features of the System

Trams 21 (Track Maintenance System 21) stores the information necessary for track maintenance work in the form of facility ledgers listing track materials and various track data, results of track inspections, maintenance construction plans and results, and so on and provides support for maintenance work.
A major feature of the system is its ability to perform general facility management functions and to be expanded to cover contractors that perform construction work.
This makes it possible to share information among all parties. Authority according to organization and rank, as well as workflows are reflected in the system, and work performed can be confirmed electronically.


Summary of Main Functions

The system comprises five subsystems: facility ledger management, inspection data management, work results management, track construction calculation, and planning support.

1. Facility Ledger Management Subsystem
   This subsystem stores and manages information concerning materials such as rails, turnouts, and crossties, structures such as crossings, bridges, and tunnels, and track environments such as curves and grades in the form of facility ledgers.
   In addition, the system includes easy-to-use mapping functions that can display and print various diagrams, such as track plans and structural diagrams, linked with facility ledger data. Since track plans can be displayed as continuous diagrams for each section, it is possible to visually examine the status of track facilities.
   Facility ledger data can be defined as the master data for each function and can be used for preparing documents for materials replacement planning such as statistical documentation and determining areas suitable for long rail installation.
   
   
2. Inspection Data Management Subsystem
   This subsystem collects and analyzes various types of inspection data necessary for maintaining track facilities and managing the status of tracks.
   The status of tracks is directly linked to the comfort of a train's ride as well as safe operation, so when an abnormal situation arises where the results of an inspection exceed the management thresholds, this result is displayed with high priority so that the appropriate workers will be sure to notice.
   In addition, by linking with planning support functions, Work Orders that instruct subcontractors about the improvement work to be performed can be issued immediately.
   Data from inspection devices including train vibration inspection devices, track measurement vehicles, and track damage inspection vehicles can be input to the system while portable terminals are used to input data directly from work sites.
   
   
3. Work Result Management Subsystem
   This subsystem inputs, collects, and manages data concerning the performance of maintenance work by contractors for each type of work and location and concerning the status of materials replacement.
   Work result data includes construction completion management data and basic materials replacement performance status data.
   Also, when replacement data concerning facilities such as rails, crossties, and ballast is input to the work result management functions, facility ledger data that requires updating is flagged in diagram displays and ledgers to prevent outdated data resulting from oversights.
   
   
4. Track Construction Calculation Subsystem
   This subsystem calculates unit prices for work necessary for construction orders and standard prices for individual work sites and track sections. By using standard prices, the costs of construction work can be determined and construction documentation from construction orders and contracts to design modifications to completion of construction can be prepared.
   Also, linking with work result data allows this information to be used as basic data with a budget analysis system (construction contract budget system) for each track section.
   
   
5. Planning Support Subsystem
   This is a function that prepares annual and monthly maintenance plans by determining where, when, and to what extent materials need to be replaced and maintenance needs to be performed. These plans are based on analysis of inspection data, and they take into account the status of facility installations and the allocation of materials and personnel.
   The resulting maintenance plans indicate both the timing and scale of maintenance work and can make adjustments in areas such as personnel allocations by contractors actually performing the work.
   Based on these maintenance construction plans, the appropriate types of construction, the materials to be used, estimated costs, and construction unit costs can be indicated so budget requests and materials requests can be prepared.
   In addition, when calculating total cumulative tonnage, a standard for determining when rails should be replaced, schedule information and rolling stock information from the Transportation Plan System is used.
   
   
6. Central Subsystem
   In order to make track position data measured by East-i easier to process at technical centers, the data is processed in 1-meter units. The processed 1-meter data is transmitted to technical centers via a network.
   Also, transport performance data from the COSMOS New Comprehensive Shinkansen System is used to calculate total tonnages, and this data is also sent to technical centers.
   
   
7. Operations Notice and Inspection Subsystem
   With Trams 21, functions have been distributed to allow operations notice processing and acceptance processing that was previously performed by a central host computer to be performed by a technical center server and for data to be handled according to the workflow of users.
   This subsystem creates lists of track sections where the vertical or horizontal vibration exceeds thresholds in relation to train vibration and track position information based on the 1-meter data received from the central server. This allows track sections that require maintenance to be confirmed and coordination such as setting priorities and postponing maintenance to be conducted.
   In order to confirm the status of track maintenance work performed by contractors, dynamic inspections are performed based on post-work data obtained from East-i (1-meter data) that is used as data at the time of completion of the work.
   
   
8. Track Status Management Subsystem
   Office automation charts that allow the status of tracks to be confirmed in the form of waveforms strengthen operations volume calculation functions (functions that determine the location and volume of track maintenance work to be performed) and display the change in the initial baseline waveform to allow a restoration of the original status.
   In addition, functions that perform simulations based on the calculated work volume have been incorporated so the final status after the completion of work can be determined in advance. As a result, it is possible to determine accurately the location and volume of track maintenance work to be performed, thereby raising work efficiency.
   In terms of statistical data, in addition to the P values (the percentage of locations per lot that exceed threshold values) previously used, σ values (the variation in track position per lot) have been introduced as an index for determining within technical centers the location of weak spots.
   

New Functions

The twenty-first century concept of track maintenance is based on a reorganization of groups involved with track maintenance, outsourcing of the bulk of track maintenance work perfomed using inspection machinery and Multiple Tie Tamper tasks previously performed by JR East head office personnel. This concept seeks to establish a unified and efficient organization within group companies that perform track maintenance.
In order to implement this concept, it will be necessary to share information such as facility data from contractors, inspection results, and construction results, in order to create an environment that will facilitate the proper and rapid performance of construction planning and inspection work.
To this end, electronic approval functions in the form of workflow functions for performing system approvals (settlement) based on organization and rank authorities were adopted.
As a result, facility data is kept up-to-date, inspection and work results are easier to manage as they are received by the system, and data storage and work are optimized.