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Rail News Home Union Pacific Railroad March 2017 Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad

A major, or Big I-type, innovation UP is pursuing is Machine Vision. Installed across track, a Machine Vision portal includes cameras and sensors (as shown) to inspect a passing train.Photo – Union Pacific Railroad By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorAn idea is a notion of a possible action or a conception of what ought to be. And it’s going to take a lot more ideas for Union Pacific Railroad to continue cultivating a culture that embraces and drives innovation.The railroad is seeking better ways to perform routine tasks or employ recurring processes — efforts that can help boost efficiency, enhance safety, build business and cut costs, UP leaders believe.Innovation is one of the railroad’s six “value tracks” that build on its core vision and mission; the other five are world-class safety, an excellent customer experience, resource productivity, a maximized franchise and an engaged team. When aligned, the tracks help create competitive advantages for customers, foster job stability and satisfaction for workers, and prompt solid returns for shareholders, UP leaders say.Because of what’s become a top-to-bottom push, innovation now is evident throughout the organization, they say. And much of it was derived from workers’ ideas.For example, the Class I in 2012 launched the UP Way, an initiative that encourages employees to conceive new ways to continuously improve safety, service and efficiency, such as by standardizing work processes. The initiative and similar efforts have helped the railroad institute small, incremental improvements (the Little I in furthering innovation). A Little I might be as uncomplicated as installing an air system at a yard to halve dwell time.But the railroad also needs to initiate more large, game-changing improvements (known as the Big I) to register highly impactful results, says UP Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Continuous Improvement Lynn Kelley.“We have had pockets of innovation, like our long-rail initiative,” says Kelley, referring to a strategy implemented several years ago to import 480-foot sections of rail from Japan to form quarter-mile-long welded strings. “But we want systemic innovations. That’s the focus for us now.”Enter Innovation Station, an electronic suggestion box of sorts slated to launch company-wide in May. The software application is designed to provide all employees a platform to share and vet ideas, from big to small and simple to complex.Starting in May, any UP employee will be able to share a big or little idea on Innovation Station. Union Pacific Railroad

For a company with more than 40,000 employees in 23 states, one of the biggest challenges is ensuring an idea is heard. The software will help empower employees to drive innovation and prompt results — the Big I variety included, UP leaders say.

The railroad can gain meaningful operational or organizational impacts from ideas that lead to both smaller and large-scale innovations, said UP Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Lance Fritz in an email. He cites Machine Vision — portals installed across track that can take 50,000 images per second and create 3D models to inspect a passing train — as a prime Big I example.