F1 inspires KTMB to freight efficiency
As a Formula One (F1) fan, KTM Bhd general manager for freight services, Abdul Radzak Abdul Malek, not only enjoys the thrills and spills of the Grand Prix races, he also draws inspiration from F1 to boost the efficiency and productivity of the railway operator’s freight services.
He understands that a winning team does not merely depend on the driver’s skills, but also on the engine, tyres, equipment, tactics and, most importantly, teamwork.
For years, KTMB’s ability to mount additional passenger or freight services has been limited due to the much delayed double-tracking work between Rawang and Ipoh. The construction work requires the stretch of track to be closed for 10 hours daily.
To cope with the limited operating hours and the speed at which a train can travel on that stretch, Abdul Radzak and his team are working on improving the productivity and efficiency of the freight services.
After months of preparation and studies, KTMB’s freight services launched its own key performance indicator called Pit Stop Operations (PSO) to improve the turnaround of trains plying the various routes.
“We managed to cut down a lot of movements (procedures) to get the trains and wagons ready without compromising on safety,” he tells FinancialDaily.
"We are not talking about seven- or eight-second pit stops like the F1 races but four hours to get our locomotives, wagons and documentation, among others, ready, which is a pretty reasonable time,” he adds. In the past, there was not much effort to monitor the time taken.
He explains that the PSO is about teamwork and keeping track of every stage of the train services.
The PSO was first implemented in the Prai-Padang Besar-Prai run in October and the results have so far been good. At times, even exceeding KTMB’s and its customers’ expectations.
“Prior to October, we used to see three- to five- hour delays or even cancellation of the services. Now our trains are departing on time or before time, often reaching on the dot or even before (the scheduled) time while delays are usually under one hour,” Abdul Radzak says.
“The international benchmark for freight train schedules is that a train is deemed to arrive on time, when the delay is less than an hour,” he says.
“We have managed to cut the turnaround time for the service from 48 hours to 26 hours on average and that allows us to operate 12 train services from 10 services (previously) daily and reduces the number of wagons and locomotives required with the faster turnaround,” he says.
Buoyed by the success of the PSO, Abdul Radzak extended it to KTMB’s operations at the Ipoh Cargo Terminal in November. There was vast improvement after three weeks, with delays or cancellations greatly reduced and trains departing and arriving on or ahead of schedule.
Abdul Radzak says the next target is the cement market. The railway operator currently only has a 5.4% market share of the total 2.56 million tonnes of cement produced in the country annually.
“We carry only 14% of the four big producers’ total production of 1.44 million tonnes (40% of total annual production). There is much scope to improve our market share if we can improve the turnaround,” he says.
Abdul Radzak says the company has projected RM143 million in revenue for 2006 on the back of higher capacity, faster turnaround and improvements in conventional cargo transportation for cement, sugar and petroleum products.
The near-completion of the double-tracking project between Rawang and Ipoh (by 2007) will allow KTMB to operate more services at higher speed.
For 2005, KTMB expects its revenue to remain at last year’s level of RM109 million or see marginal improvement, due to the higher diesel cost and limited operating window.
KTMB also expects that, with greater efficiency now, its container handling would improve to 361,800 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2006 from the projected 312,000 TEUs in 2005 and 303,153 TEUs in 2004.
Abdul Radzak concedes that freight services has yet to tap its full potential as KTMB now handles an estimated 3% of the country total hinterland cargo.
“Imagine what we can achieve with the improved turnaround and when the double-tracking is completed, that allows us to run five times more train services at a higher speed and increased tonnage,” he says.