Management by design in a rapidly changing environment
Oliver Wyman’s Surface Transportation Practice is pleased to confirm that we will be hosting our 2010 rail planning workshop and conference on October 6th and 7th at the historic Nassau Inn, situated in the heart of Princeton, New Jersey. The theme for this year’s conference will be “Management by Design in a Rapidly Changing Environment.”
As the global rail freight industry is working its way out of the Great Recession, the results suggested something fundamental had changed in railway management. For the first time in modern times, many of the major freight railways of the world appear to have masterfully controlled their operating costs during the 2008/2009 downturn. It would appear that advanced service design practices, and the rapid implementation of these new designs, navigated the railways through an unprecedented drop in traffic. Further, early 2010 results suggest that the railroads have been well positioned to enjoy a profitable recovery.
But the railroads and their Planners will not be able to rest on their laurels. We are entering an era of unprecedented structural change in the freight rail industry. The new environment is not only being impacted by issues such as positive train control (PTC), emission standards, passenger train access, regulation, access to capital and enhanced competition. Railroads also have to plan for, and manage, business conditions that are directly affected by far-reaching changes in the auto, steel, international container, coal and agricultural markets.
Our conference agenda will focus on best planning practices that served the world’s freight railroads so well during the recent recession. We will investigate and debate, among the global experts, what was different this time. Additionally, we will be discussing the upcoming fundamental changes to the industry and how freight-rail Service Designers will be rising to this challenge. How will the industry plan to operate at optimal efficiency, so as to have sufficient resources to adapt to the changes?
As is our normal practice, we will be inviting the industry’s leading service-design experts to come to Princeton in October. Through presentations, panels and meals, we will jointly examine and explain the methods and philosophies used to pull the freight railroads through the recent recession and also look at the challenges of developing your next operating plan.
We hope that you and your team will be able to continue the success of these conferences and plan to attend and participate in this important discussion. As in the past, we will be inviting railways from every continent and we will share and learn the latest techniques along with your industry colleagues.
Preliminary agenda and registration information is available now, and we would like your feedback now as to what you would like to see in the program.
If you have any suggestions/questions, please contact me at Kevin.foy@oliverwyman.com. We look forward to seeing you in October.
