Freight moves

Obviously not by itself. There are tools and systems in place.

Interestingly, there's an app to help it, and even more interestingly, I got to work on it.

Here's some quick context on this case study.

Locomotive feature

Here's some quick context on this case study.

01

Objective:

As mentioned from the discovery process, I worked alongside a team of designers, SAP specialists, developers, and others to create and enhance applications to simplify locomotive maintenance operations.
The client was a major North American railroad operator.

02

User Segments:

Shop supervisor: The shop supervisor receives an overview of all the work completed by the craft persons, reviews it, signs off on it, and then has the locomotive towed.

03

Challenges Addressed:

Signing off on completed work
Inputting the correct reason code
Inputting the exception work orders, i.e. the reason for the specific work not being completed
Finally, towing the locomtive from the shop

04

Process

Understanding the process end-to-end and utilizing the insights from the research and the discovery process

05

Design Considerations:

This process was accomplished by working closely with the lead UI and backend developers to ensure that the created solution was feasible within an SAP-backed environment.
Also utilized the SAP Fiori design system and the relevant components to build out the interface.

06

Outcome & Impact:

A simplified towing process
Quicker turnaround times in shops are significantly improving efficiency.
A simplified and streamlined method to track work orders and relevant tasks
A key towing feature also enabled us to gain buy-in for the overall product build and generated more interest in other railyards across the United States.

Project Dynamics

Team

Four/4 designers- I worked on several features but am showcasing this particular feature.

Client

A major freight and locomotive company with operations across North America-United States, Canada and Mexico.

Timeline

Built over a period of 2 months as part of an application build spanning more than a year.

Towing a locomotive

This feature showcases the process of towing a locomotive from the shop and ensuring all the relevant work orders are completed.

Unlike a car, you don't drive the locomotive out of the shop once the work is completed.

1. Overview

The page provides an overview of the application, acting as the home screen.
The top blue box provides a high-level view of the locomotive, such as its current location, locomotive codes, etc
WO status = work order status, which must be completed for the work/ task to be closed.
Complete means the task is complete, which disables the reason code on its right.
Exception means the task isn’t complete, but needs to be closed for the locomotive to be towed
An exception requires a reason which is why the reason code is attached to the section..more on this below.

2. Reason codes

As mentioned above, reason codes are needed for exception work orders.
There’s a scroll with the entire list of reason codes
A reason code must be selected to complete the work order, which must all be completed for towing the locomotive..

3. Initiate

For towing to be initiated, each work order must be closed or exceptioned.
Once the appropriate selections are made, the towing will be initiated.

4. Complete work orders

Once the towing is initiated, the screen is disabled, and a modal pops up in the front for verification.
The modal confirms if the relevant work orders with their numbers are completed. To proceed, the user clicks Yes.

5. Override

Once the towing is initiated, the screen is disabled, and a modal pops up in the front for verification.
It also disables the other work order menu as the options are completed.

6. In-transit

With the work orders completed, the user must set the locomotive status to in transit.
He will need to update the reason code and the status date and time updates.

7. Reason codes

Similar to work orders, reason codes are needed to change the servicing of the state.
In this case, the reason code is set to Bad Order

8. Update

In-transit prompts an additional section for the destination shop with a section for comments
Here the user can add the destination and his relevant comments for the towing process

9. Complete

Updating the locomotive details now reflects the locomotive being towed.
The green modal signifies that the locomotive details are successfully updated.

Parting thoughts

01

The towing feature is one of the many features incorporated into this application to create a user-friendly interface.

02

It provides provisions to verify the work orders and provides a way to improve application efficiency.

03

The modals at various stages of the process verify that work orders are completed.

04

The buttons get enabled when relevant work order functions are complete, which emphasises consistent feedback to the user, making the interface more intuitive.

05

Additionally entire sections are blocked out after the relevant tasks within are completed.

A reasonable conclusion of why this interface makes sense.