Railway Enterprises Research Articles

УПРАВЛІННЯ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЄЮ СПІЛЬНИХ ІНВЕСТИЦІЙНИХ ПРОЕКТІВ ЗА УЧАСТЮ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ЗАЛІЗНИЧНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ В УМОВАХ ЦИФРОВІЗАЦІЇ

The article proves the need to revise the current system of managing the investment project implementation by railway companies in the conditions of digital economy formation inUkraineand in the world. The economic and strategic feasibility of joint investment projects and the involvement of railway enterprises are substantiated. It is proved that a joint investment project that brings together several railway undertakings during its implementation is the main condition for ensuring their competitiveness in the domestic and international market of transport and logistics services. It has been found that the number of studies concerning problems of information asymmetry in the sphere of investment activity has increased significantly in the world economic literature. The necessity of using the concept of proactive management as a key element of reducing the problems of information asymmetry and overcoming other risks in managing the implementation of joint investment projects of railway undertakings in the context of digitalization has been proved. The study of fundamental scientific achievements in the field of information asymmetry, risk management, as well as investment management in the management of railway transport enterprises confirms the need for the introduction and further improvement of modern digital technologies to reduce information asymmetry between the entities of investment activities during the implementation of joint venture rail transport. In addition, one can conclude that state regulatory measures can improve the situation in the market of transport and logistics services in the conditions of digital economy in the world. In general, the importance of this scientific research lies in the development of a model for managing the implementation of joint investment projects by railway undertakings through the lens of proactive management, which underlies digitalization technology. This generally provides a new understanding of the problems of ensuring the effectiveness of joint investment projects through the formation and implementation of preventative management actions that take into account the possibility of negative results from the implementation of joint investment projects.

An Adjustment Method for the Customized Trains of the Railway

The “customized train” is a train operated by the customized service of the passengers. The departure time, total travel time, and the travel classes are decided by passengers’ wishes. Successful operation of customized trains (CT) has a great significance to the future development in the relationship between the railway enterprise and the passenger service. In order to establish a comprehensive method for the CT operation plan, the paper proposes an intention survey method to obtain the passenger travel wishes data. Then, according to the existing timetable, the alternative set of CTs is built. The CT should satisfy the constraints of the passenger demand, the stop, and the train travel time. Based on the alternative set, a bilevel programming model for the maximum operation revenue of the CTs and minimum adjustment cost of existing timetable is established according to the passengers’ travel demands. The model also considers the constraints of actual travel time, arrival headway, departure headway, maximal adjustment time and capacity, and so on. The adjustment strategies for the train operation confliction are established. Finally, the method is proven through the analysis of actual cases, which can provide decision-making basis for future railway enterprises when operating the customized trains.

КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНЫЙ ПОДХОД К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ОБОСНОВАНИЯ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ ТРЕХФАЗНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ ЭЛЕКТРИЧЕСКОЙ ТЯГИ ПЕРЕМЕННОГО ТОКА

The paper proposes a conceptual approach to economic efficiency substantiation of three-phase alternating current system of electric traction in comparison with one-phase alternating current system of electric traction. It is based on quasi-optimal values of indicators of electric traction system that are necessary for feasibility study and assessment of integral criterion of efficiency, for which, in turn, it is necessary to compare systems by reduced expenditures. Saving of reduced expenditures should also consider out-of-transport effect that is very important for system effect of interaction between railway transport and other enterprises.

Самообучение ранжированию предприятия железнодорожного транспорта по энергоэффективности

Adaptive methods of energy efficiency control are looked upon under ambiguity conditions, based on self-instruction and human factor. The objective of dichotomous ranking of energy efficiency stochastic potential was set and solved in case when its probabilistic characteristics are known. In a reverse situation, it is suggested to use self-instruction for determination of the most suitable parameter of ranking procedure. A case of asymmetrical awareness of a decision-making person about ranking and a personnel responsible for energy efficiency was studied. Herewith, the forward-looking personnel chooses its indicators in such a way that the individual objective function which depends on ranking results , can be maximized. Such activity of the personnel may bring to under-estimation of the energy efficiency indicator as compared to the potential. As a consequence, application of self-instruction may pervert ranking parameter assessment. In order to solve this problem there were suggested self-instruction mechanisms in ranking which simulate personnel management under conditions of ambiguity. The results of these mechanisms functioning are estimates of ranking parameters, norms and ranks, determining personnel stimuli. There were found out appropriate conditions of mechanism synthesis of self-instruction in ranking, when a decision-making person identifies the most suitable parameter of the ranking procedure. These conditions are illustrated with the example of energy efficiency ranking self-instruction of the railway enterprise in the process of realization of «RZD» holding energy efficiency improvement program.

ПЛАНИРОВАНИЕ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ЖЕЛЕЗНОДОРОЖНОГО ТРАНСПОРТА И ОЦЕНКА ВЫПОЛНЕНИЯ ПЛАНОВЫХ ПОКАЗАТЕЛЕЙ

The most important task of modern economic infrastructure is to ensure the smooth functioning of all spheres of society's life, creating conditions for the development of production and the economy as a whole. In this transport, especially rail, acting as a basic component of the industrial and social infrastructure of Russia. Railway transport organizations carry out the transportation of goods and passengers, their maintenance on the way, loading and unloading of various goods, providing the necessary wagons, cleaning them and including them in the train, ensuring the transport process as a whole. The general management and operational management of this process is currently carried out by JSC «Russian Railways». Activities related to transportation by rail, in order to ensure safety and quality service, are strictly regulated and require a clear organization and constant improvement, therefore, its competent systematic planning is of particular importance. The article discusses certain aspects of the organization of transport planning, the structure of the transport plan and the procedure for its development. The qualitative indicators are presented, which are calculated when developing a plan for the current activities of a railway enterprise. At the same time, the features of planning the transportation of goods include multivariance, continuity and an indicative approach. Also, the authors conducted a study of the planned indicators of the activities of the organization of railway transport on the example of the operational locomotive depot Ruzayevka, an assessment of their implementation was given. The studied enterprise is a subdivision of the Kuibyshev Traction Directorate of the Russian Railways branch. Lacking legal independence, the company, on behalf of Russian Railways, carries out its activities in the field of transport services, providing freight and passenger traffic, and shunting operations. Based on the results of the analysis, it was concluded that there is a positive trend in the activities of the studied organization of railway transport - the Ruzayevka locomotive depot, as evidenced by the stable growth of traffic volumes and labor productivity, overfulfillment of the plan for these indicators, therefore, the enterprise has sufficiently stable prospects for further development.

МЕТОДИКА ОЦІНКИ РІВНЯ РОЗВИТКУ РЕСУРСНОГО ПОТЕНЦІАЛУ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ЗАЛІЗНИЧНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ

This article develops a methodological approach to assess the level of resource potential of railway enterprises, which is based on the use of hierarchy analysis to determine the share of each component of resource potential and verbal-Harrington scale to unambiguously interpret the valuesof the integrated indicator. The technique consists of seven stages, the sequence of which is presented in the diagram. One of the key stages is the development of a system of partial indicators to assess the level of development of the resource potential of the enterprise. The scientific work uses such mathematical methods as: rationing of indicators, determining the share of partial indicators to assess the level of development of resource potential by the method of T. Saati, calculating the level of agreement of experts and others. The calculation of the integrated indicator is based on the calculation of four main components of resource potential: material, labor, financial and information. The three-level hierarchical scheme of the problem of the method of analysis of hierarchies is presented, which includes the general goal – development of the railway transport enterprise, criteria – the purposes of development of resource potential of the railway transport enterprise (safety, quality of service, environmental friendliness, cost reduction and infrastructure development) and alternatives – types of enterprise resources (material, labor, financial, information). The presented methodological approach is a sensitive mathematical apparatus for assessing the level of resource potential development, with which the management of railway transport enterprises can obtain more objective information about the state of resource potential development and make effective management decisions, primarily on enterprise resource planning. The article presents the results of calculations of the level of development of resource potential (including individual components) for real operating enterprises of the railway industry according to the proposed author's method for three years and their interpretation on a verbal-numerical scale of Harrington.

Концептуальні аспекти інтенсифікації управління економічною поведінкою промислових підприємств залізничного транспорту в умовах неоіндустріальної модернізації

Концептуальні аспекти інтенсифікації управління економічною поведінкою промислових підприємств залізничного транспорту в умовах неоіндустріальної модернізації

Reliability as an Element of Process in Managing a Fleet of Railway Vehicles

Abstract Safe and economical devices, which are constantly growing in demand, lead to improvement of operational strategies applied in railway enterprises. Economic analysis and safety, and hence reliability and readiness, are the most important parameters in the operation of railway vehicles. The article presents a strategy for maintaining railway vehicles based on reliability indicators. The strategy was verified based on empirical research in a transport company.

Ensuring self-organization of socio-economic activity of railway transport with the staff: organizational culture

The problems of professional-technological decline are described in the management of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC. There is a lack of a strategic and systematic approach to the formation senior management employees of railway enterprises. A technique is proposed for determining the labor potential of an organization over time. Universal criteria for the growth of labor potential are developed.

Formation of strategic guidelines for activity of railway transport enterprises

Purpose. The aim of the article is defining the principles of strategic management of the development of railway enterprises in the context of future changes in the railway industry. Methodology of research. The theoretical and methodological basis for the study of strategic management in the railway industry is considered on the basis of the experience of domestic scientists. A comparative analysis of the dynamics of a number of indicators was carried out during the study, such as: the number of carried passengers, volumes of freight transported by rail, etc. The following methods are used: analytical – when considering scientific papers and strategies used in railway transport; graphical method – to reflect the developed generalized model of strategic management of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsya” activity; abstract and logical – in summarizing and formulating conclusions. Findings. The current state of the railway transport enterprise – JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” is analysed, which allowed to evaluate the results of its activity and to identify a number of problems of strategic nature: long-term negative dynamics of cargo transportation; depreciation of fixed assets, especially rolling stock and infrastructure; low competitiveness in the European market; imperfect information support; poor adaptability to dynamic environmental conditions and the like. A generalized model of strategic management of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsya” activity was developed based on systematization of data presented in the Strategy of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” for 2019-2023. Originality. Problems and key factors that will influence the effective implementation of the JSC Strategy “Ukrzaliznytsia” for 2019-2023 are identified. Practical value. The conducted analysis of the results of the activity of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” in 2017–2018 allowed us to highlight the significant achievements and problems of the enterprise in need of solution. It is determined that the strategic guidelines for the activity of the railway transport company should be formed in the context of achieving its mission, taking into account the interests of the stakeholders and respecting corporate values. Key words: strategic development landmarks; rail transport; Ukrzaliznytsia; limited development strategy.

ФОРМУВАННЯ ТА ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ СИСТЕМИ УПРАВЛІННЯ ОПЕРАЦІЙНОЮ ДІЯЛЬНІСТЮ ПІДПРИЄМСТВА ЗАЛІЗНИЧНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ В АСПЕКТІ АДАПТИВНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ

The article proved the necessity of applying an adaptive approach in the management of domestic railway enterprises, which allowed to substantiate the purpose of the article, which is to form and outline the peculiarities of the functioning of the management system of operational activity of the railway transport enterprise in the aspect of adaptive management. In order to achieve this goal, methods of modeling, abstraction and logical analysis were mainly used to clarify the key conceptual aspects of the formation and functioning of the railway transport enterprise operational management system in the aspect of adaptive management. The basic provisions of the concept of adaptive control are investigated. The peculiarities of formation and functioning of the system of management of the operational activity of the railway transport enterprise in the aspect of adaptive management are outlined. The goals, objectives and tools of adaptive management of railway enterprises are defined. The implementation of the basic principles and provisions of the adaptive approach to the management of the operational activity of the railway enterprise should be carried out with the help of the developed system of models and methods of decision-making, which have a single information base and interconnected certain information links. The structure and composition of the model system must vary depending on the input, so management information systems must be used to make management decisions. The system of methods and models should include factor analysis of the results of production and economic activity of the enterprise; forecasting demand for goods and services provided by the enterprise; formation and optimization of production capacities; reliability assessment; logistics. An important aspect of adaptive management is to make management decisions based on successive balanced steps. The decision-making algorithm should include the following steps: detecting changes, external perturbations; analysis of information collection and change;development of a criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the solution; creating a list of potential impacts on the industry's adaptation to environmental change; predicting the effects of these impacts and adapting to emerging situations; review and evaluation of decision options; making, registration, bringing to executors, execution, control over execution of decisions.

ДЕТЕРМІНАНТИ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ КОНКУРЕНТОСПРОМОЖНОСТІ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ЗАЛІЗНИЧНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ

At present, most business entities are forced to actively fight in the market to ensure effective functioning. In order to survive in the market, companies have to maintain their own competitiveness and maintain it at a high level with respect to other market participants. At present, most business entities are forced to actively fight in the market to ensure effective functioning. In order to survive in the market, companies have to maintain their own competitiveness and maintain it at a high level with respect to other market participants. The basis of effective competitive development of railway enterprises is financial and economic stability, for which it is necessary to change the development benchmarks of the industry. In particular, to introduce a new management decision-making system, which will be based on a change in decision-making in the implementation of major financial transactions at the level of JSC "Ukrzaliznytsya", namely in procurement, capital investments, repairs and other types of work. It is clear that such an approach at the country level will allow to select and implement those directions of effective development of railway transport that will contribute to ensuring the competitiveness of the enterprises of the branch. However, at the regional level, railway undertakings may lose their capacity if they are unable to communicate in a timely manner to their chief executive office their problems and needs. Rail is the cornerstone of the country's transport system. Its main advantage is the versatility, regularity of transportation throughout the year, considerable capacity and other factors. However, the construction and maintenance of the railway network requires considerable financial, labor and material resources. And the decrease in the level of social production, the change of economic orientations of the national economy, together with the inflationary processes have led to a significant decrease in the indicators of the effective functioning of the industry. Therefore, railway undertakings are forced to find solutions to their economic problems on their own. Thus, an important condition for securing the competitive position of railway undertakings is the formation of new and maintaining existing competitive positions in the market of transport services, which depends on many components of the competitive forces, the main of which is the formation of an effective and efficient domestic production, transport and logistics system. This will help to identify the areas of competitive development of railway transport enterprises, increase their competitiveness in the internal and external market of transport services, consolidate their competitive position, etc.

Marketing strategy at transport enterprises in the context of crisis management.

The article is devoted to the research of issues, analysis and improvement of marketing activities at the railway enterprises of Ukraine. As a result of the research, it was established that in difficult and unstable financial business conditions, and under competition, there is a need to adopt marketing management methods at railway enterprises. The article discusses scientific approaches to the problems of marketing development in the service sector. Also It is revealed the essence of the concept of transport services as an object of marketing activities. The methodological foundations of the marketing assurance of the quality of transport services and the applying of logistic methods in the implementation of the marketing management concept in anti-crisis situations in the field of transport services are defined. The analysis of freight traffic by various types of transport, as well as specifically considered the transport by rail. The main problems of railways and the quality of services, lack of customer service flexibility, weak interaction with other transport processes are identified. Considered and improved the scheme of the exit of the enterprise from the crisis state, and also considered the factors of risk development of the enterprise in the anti-crisis period. Recommendations are given to improve marketing activities in the structure of enterprise management, which allow planning and coordination of marketing activities in rail transport, and you can calculate the optimal distribution of goods using formula and calculations, you can determine the delivery and processing for unplanned goods, and the proposed approach will allow go from planning, receiving applications for shippers in the optimum time.

Evaluation of Identity of Employees of Railway Enterprises

Evaluation of Identity of Employees of Railway Enterprises

Implementation of Six Sigma methodology using DMAIC to achieve processes improvement in railway transport

Abstract The provision of quality transport services is a prerequisite for the creation of an efficient organization that can meet the expectations and requirements of both the enterprise itself and its customers. From the railway enterprise's point of view, it is necessary to pay attention to the increasingly demanding requirements of its customers in railway passenger transport. This article focuses on identifying defects in rail transport processes that negatively affect ordinary operations. One of the most serious bottlenecks affecting railway transport reliability is the train delay, which fundamentally affects the perception of railway transport. At the same time, it emphasizes the need to apply individual tools according to the DMAIC cycle in order to achieve continuous improvement. The aim of the implemented Six Sigma methodology in railway enterprise is disciplined application of statistical problem-solving tools to recognize the gaps in the transport process and set out individual steps for their gradual removal.

Collaborative optimisation of resource capacity allocation and fare rate for high-speed railway passenger transport

The reasonable pricing of high-speed railway tickets and the optimal allocation of transport resource capacity can not only enhance competitiveness in the transport market, but also reasonably coordinate the revenue of the enterprise and utilities to passengers. This study uses price signals to adjust resource capacity allocation; and develops a co-optimisation model of resource capacity allocation and fare rates of high-speed trains in different train operation routes. The developed model aims at the comprehensive optimisation of railway enterprise's revenue and passengers' travel benefits, with the ratio of supply-demand and the floating rate of the fare as the main constraints. The Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) algorithm is applied to obtain the seat resource allocation scheme and the optimal fare rate for each train operation route. Finally, the case analysis is carried out to test the model and the algorithm. Based on a statistical analysis of actual ticket sale data of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway for a certain month, the optimal unit fare and optimal seat resource allocation scheme are obtained to meet the corresponding passenger demand. The case analysis shows that after optimisation by the proposed method, the total value of the objective function is 2.04% higher than that before optimisation.

An Optimization Method for Operation Adjustment of High-Speed Delayed Trains

Train delays have a great impact on the schedule of high-speed railways including overall efficiency and the quality of the travel service of the passengers. Therefore, the development of an approach to recover a schedule via timely and rapid operation adjustments must be investigated. In this paper, a complete final real-time adjustment scheme is proposed for the train dispatcher of a railway enterprise for delayed trains. A train operation process model based on the Max-Plus algebra method is proposed. Six operation adjustment strategies are analyzed including section acceleration, operation based on the original timetable, dwell time reduction, increase in overtaking, reduction in overtaking, and train postponement. An approximate model is then built based on the minimum number of delayed trains considering the constraints of the adjustment strategies and the feasible adjusted schemes can be quickly obtained without any record specific time data and constraints. The set of feasible solutions of the approximate model is then regarded as the importation of the second model. In addition, the second model is an optimization model for operation adjustment with the least average delay time of each train at each station by updating the state matrixes of the train operation process model. The algorithms are designed for these models, and this approach can reduce the computation time. Finally, the timetable of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is considered as the actual case for analysis. Thus, the method was proven feasible for operation adjustment of delayed trains.

Research and Development of Accounting Management Information System for Railway Enterprise’s Fixed Assets

In order to deepen the whole-course management of fixed assets accounting of railway enterprises and promote the optimal allocation of enterprise resources, it is particularly necessary to establish a whole-course management system of fixed assets accounting for railway enterprises. Aiming at the problems exposed in the application of fixed assets accounting and management in railway enterprises, this paper investigates and summarizes the needs of enterprises, and puts forward the design scheme of railway enterprises fixed assets accounting and management information system. In this paper, based on the concept of the whole process of fixed assets management accounting of railway enterprise, promote the optimized allocation of enterprise resources, the use of computer network and information technology, through the optimization of business processes control mechanism, establish a data set, design a whole process of fixed assets of the enterprise railway management information system, solve the problem of application in the accounting of fixed assets management in railway enterprises. The multilevel network of railway enterprise management department is realized to meet the fine management requirements of different management levels.

Collaborative Optimization of Dynamic Pricing and Seat Allocation for High-Speed Railways: An Empirical Study From China

In order to improve the high-speed trains’ service levels and increase their market shares, the Chinese high-speed railway (HSR) enterprise is reforming its ticket pricing strategy. A collaborative model that incorporates seat allocation decision into HSR dynamic pricing problem based on the revenue management theory is proposed, in which the objective is to maximize the total ticket revenue of enterprise under the constrains of price ceilings. A two-stage algorithm is developed to solve practical problems. The first stage solves the optimal price problem, and the second is to obtain the optimal seat allocation decisions. Finally, a case study based on the actual ticket data of Beijing-Shanghai HSR in China is implemented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, for which the results show that compared with the fixed price case, the revenue improvement ranges from 4.47% to 4.95% by using dynamic pricing strategy. Also, the case analysis shows that dynamic pricing strategy will lead to an increase in short-haul demands whereas a decrease in long-haul demands.

An Improved Multi-Objective Quantum-Behaved Particle Swarm Optimization for Railway Freight Transportation Routing Design

With the development of railway transportation, the railway transportation enterprises expand their freight transportation from station-to-station transportation to door-to-door transportation, which makes the routing design more complicated. The existing classical optimization algorithms are difficult to meet the needs of practical applications. Therefore, the paper introduces an Improved Multi-objective Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (IMOQPSO). Then based on the continuous coding for the Railway Freight Transportation Routing Design, the proposed improved algorithm was applied to solve the problem to verify the performance of algorithm. Finally, the paper compared the performance of Improved Multi-objective Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm with other four continuous multi-objective swarm intelligence algorithms. The results shown that the proposed algorithm obtained the best Pareto front which is closer to the real Pareto front of Railway Freight Transportation Routing Design. Hence, the proposed Improved Multi-objective Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm can provide support for the railway transport enterprises routing design decisions to some extent.