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Root Cause of Passenger Side Door Problems Revealed
Virginia Beach, VA – April 25, 2008
– The GBS Group’s Wade Clark, Senior
Reliability Engineer for Rail Transportation led a team of presenters
at the 2008 IEEE/ASME/ASCE Joint Rail Conference held last week in Wilmington,
Delaware. Wade was lead author of the technical publication “Root Cause
Analysis Method Applied to Passenger Train Side Doors,” with co-authors,
Chris Madden of Amtrak and Jeff Cook of Alstom. This unique partnering of
consultant, rail operator, and OEM to address an ongoing problem, conduct
in-depth analysis, develop solutions, and collaborate on writing the paper
documenting the issue and process is a testament to the cross-functional
nature of successful Root Cause Analysis.
The passenger railroad industry continues to have problems with unexpected
side door openings and closings. These kinds of failures not only have the
potential to cause serious injury to passengers, but also cost rail operators
precious time in train delays, which translates into lost revenue dollars. A
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methodology was utilized to identify the physical,
human, and latent roots of side door failures for Amtrak’s Acela train sets.
As a result of the GBS-led RCA, the team identified and eliminated the top
failure mode using a combination of precision operator training revisions and
a complex modification to door control software. As a result, 20% fewer minutes
of door-related delay are occurring. More importantly, a potential safety
hazard has been removed.
Papers for the IEEE/ASME/ASCE Joint Rail Conference were solicited from
members of the railway supply industry, rail transportation companies and
transit agencies, governmental agencies, consulting/engineering firms,
academia, technical organizations, and others. More than 50 presentations
and technical publications were presented over the two and a half days of
the conference. The GBS Group hosted a reception for all attendees during
the conference and has presented technical papers previously at the
IEEE/ASME/ASCE Joint Rail Conference.
The GBS Group provides business consulting and engineering services,
with expertise in reliability and maintenance engineering, serving government
and commercial clients in the transportation and defense industries.
GBS engineers and software developers deliver expert services tailored to
specific client needs and challenges. The company is headquartered in
Virginia Beach, Virginia and has presences in the Washington, D.C./Northern
Virginia area, Maryland, New Jersey, Indiana, South Carolina, Alabama, and
California.
Wade Clark, Senior Reliability Engineer for The GBS Group presents at the
2008 IEEE/ASME/ASCE Joint Rail Conference in Wilmington, DE, April 24, 2008.
George Binns, Amtrak Office of Inspector General, chaired the session on
Developments in Passenger Cars at the Joint Rail Conference.
Jeff Cook, Senior Engineer/Technical Advisor with Alstom Train Life
Services discusses the logic tree process in the RCA investigation.
Wade Clark, Sr. Reliability Engineer for The GBS Group presents "Root Cause
Analysis on Passenger Side Doors".
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