How GE Railcar Tripled On-Time Shipping from 30% to 90%

When your on-time shipping rate sits at 30%, every customer interaction becomes an apology. Seven out of ten deliveries arrive late. Expediting costs spiral. Customer relationships erode. And the operations team spends more time firefighting than actually managing production.

That was the reality at GE Railcar Services Corporation, a unit of General Electric that manages a fleet of over 180,000 railcars throughout North America. Their repair shops across the United States and Canada were chronically missing delivery commitments, and no amount of overtime or manual intervention could fix the systemic scheduling problem.

Then they implemented production scheduling software — and tripled their on-time shipping to over 90%.

Read the full GE Railcar success story for the complete details.

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The Challenge: 180,000 Railcars, Dozens of Shops, 30% On-Time

GE Railcar Services operates major repair shops across the United States and Canada. Each shop handles complex railcar maintenance and repair work that involves multiple workcenters, varying skill requirements, and unpredictable repair scopes. The scale is massive — with a fleet of over 180,000 railcars, the repair demand is constant and the scheduling complexity is significant.

Before implementing scheduling software, GE Railcar's repair network suffered from several interconnected problems.

Overbooking Resources

Without visibility into true workcenter capacity, shops routinely accepted more work than they could complete on time. This overbooking created cascading delays where one late repair pushed every subsequent job further behind schedule. The problem compounded across the network because each shop operated independently without a unified scheduling view.

No Master Repair Schedule

Each shop managed its own scheduling process using whatever methods worked locally. There was no standardized master repair schedule that could provide network-wide visibility into capacity, workload distribution, or expected completion dates. This made it impossible to optimize work allocation across the repair network.

Lack of Workcenter Tracking

Without systematic tracking of railcars through the repair process, production control managers had limited visibility into where each railcar was in the repair workflow. Identifying bottlenecks, predicting completion dates, and managing customer expectations all depended on manual tracking that was inherently inaccurate.

The 30% Problem

The cumulative result was stark: only 30% of repairs shipped on time. For a division of General Electric serving major industrial customers, this level of performance was unsustainable. Customer satisfaction was suffering, and the competitive implications were serious.

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The Solution: Workcenter SchedulerXL Across All Major Shops

GE Railcar Services chose Workcenter SchedulerXL from User Solutions as their scheduling solution. The decision to deploy it across all major repair shops — not just a single pilot location — reflected the urgency of the problem and the confidence the team had in the solution.

According to Dan Barich, Manager of Process Engineering at GE Railcar Services: "In an effort to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers, we have purchased and installed the Workcenter SchedulerXL computer software system for all of our major repair shops located throughout U.S. and Canada."

The implementation addressed each of the core scheduling problems directly.

Preventing Overbooking with Finite Capacity

Finite capacity scheduling ensures that the system never schedules more work than a workcenter can handle. Unlike infinite capacity planning — which assumes unlimited resources and then asks humans to figure out the conflicts — finite capacity scheduling automatically respects the real constraints of each shop, each workcenter, and each shift.

For GE Railcar, this meant every repair job was scheduled against actual available capacity. When a shop was fully loaded, the system showed it. When a customer needed a rush repair, the scheduler could see exactly what would need to move to accommodate it.

Creating a Master Repair Schedule

Workcenter SchedulerXL provided the standardized master repair schedule that the network lacked. Each shop operated within the same scheduling framework, making it possible to view workload across the entire repair network and make informed decisions about where to route repair work.

Establishing Workcenter Tracking

The software established systematic tracking of railcars through each workcenter in the repair process. Production Control Managers could see exactly where each railcar was, what work remained, and when it would be ready for shipping. This visibility transformed the daily management of repair operations from reactive guesswork to proactive control.

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The Results: From 30% to 90% On-Time Shipping

The results speak for themselves. Dan Barich reported: "Over the past several years, Workcenter SchedulerXL has successfully helped our repair network to improve the Shipping On-Time accuracy from 30% to over 90%. Additionally, since installing Workcenter SchedulerXL, we have improved our overall shop cycle time by several days."

Let's break down the significance of each result.

60-Percentage-Point On-Time Shipping Improvement

Going from 30% to over 90% is not an incremental improvement — it is a fundamental transformation. At 30%, late delivery was the norm. At 90%, on-time delivery is the expectation and late shipments are the exception. This single metric shift transforms every customer relationship and every operational conversation.

Reduced Shop Cycle Time

Improving cycle time by "several days" across a network of repair shops processing thousands of railcars annually translates directly to increased throughput capacity. Shorter cycle times mean more railcars can be processed through the same facilities without adding space or equipment. It also means faster revenue recognition and improved cash flow.

Better Resource Management

Barich also highlighted how the software helps production control managers "better manage the railcar repair process by preventing over booking of workcenter resources, establishing workcenter tracking for railcars, and creating a master repair schedule." These operational improvements are the mechanism that produced the on-time shipping results.

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Why This Case Study Matters for Manufacturers

The GE Railcar story is significant for several reasons that extend beyond the specific numbers.

Scale Proves the Concept

With 180,000 railcars and multiple shops across two countries, this is not a small pilot project. The scheduling software proved itself at enterprise scale in a demanding operational environment. If it works for GE Railcar, it can work for your job shop or manufacturing operation.

Repair and Overhaul Is the Hardest Scheduling Problem

Repair operations face scheduling challenges that are even more complex than new product manufacturing. Repair scopes are unpredictable — you don't know exactly what's wrong until you open it up. Parts availability is uncertain. Customer expectations are urgent. If production scheduling software can deliver a 60-percentage-point improvement in this environment, the potential for more predictable manufacturing environments is even greater.

The Cost of Inaction Is Quantifiable

At 30% on-time shipping, GE Railcar was losing money on every late delivery through expediting costs, customer penalties, and relationship damage. The ROI of moving to 90% on-time is not theoretical — it shows up directly in reduced expediting, improved customer retention, and the ability to win new business based on delivery reliability.

Multi-Site Deployment Works

Rolling out scheduling software across all major shops simultaneously — rather than a cautious single-site pilot — demonstrated that the system is robust enough for multi-site deployment. This is particularly relevant for manufacturers with multiple locations who need consistent scheduling across their network.

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Lessons for Your Manufacturing Operation

Based on the GE Railcar experience, here are the practical takeaways for any manufacturer considering scheduling software.

Start with your biggest pain point. For GE Railcar, it was on-time shipping. Identify the metric that is costing you the most money or the most customer relationships, and focus the scheduling implementation on improving that metric first.

Deploy broadly, not just as a pilot. GE Railcar deployed across all major shops, not just one test location. While a pilot makes sense for validation, delaying full deployment after a successful pilot just extends the period where you're leaving money on the table.

Use finite capacity scheduling, not infinite. The core of GE Railcar's improvement was the shift from infinite capacity assumptions to finite capacity scheduling. Most ERP systems use infinite capacity planning, which is why their scheduling results are unreliable.

Track workcenters systematically. The visibility that workcenter tracking provides is what makes proactive management possible. Without it, you're always reacting. With it, you can anticipate problems and resolve them before they affect delivery dates.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How did GE Railcar improve on-time shipping from 30% to 90%?

GE Railcar Services implemented Workcenter SchedulerXL from User Solutions across all major repair shops in the US and Canada. The software provided finite capacity scheduling, prevented overbooking of workcenter resources, established workcenter tracking for railcars, and created a master repair schedule that transformed operations.

What scheduling software did GE Railcar Services use?

GE Railcar Services used Workcenter SchedulerXL from User Solutions Inc. The software was deployed across their entire network of major repair shops throughout the United States and Canada to manage scheduling for a fleet of over 180,000 railcars.

How long did it take GE Railcar to see results from scheduling software?

GE Railcar Services began seeing measurable improvements in on-time shipping shortly after deploying Workcenter SchedulerXL. Over several years of use, the software helped their repair network improve shipping on-time accuracy from 30% to over 90%, a 60-percentage-point improvement.

Can scheduling software work for repair and overhaul operations?

Yes. GE Railcar Services proved that production scheduling software works exceptionally well for repair and maintenance operations. The key is finite capacity scheduling that prevents overbooking resources and provides visibility into shop capacity across multiple locations.

What is the ROI of improving on-time shipping from 30% to 90%?

The ROI is substantial. Late deliveries in repair operations lead to customer penalties, lost contracts, and expediting costs. A 60-percentage-point improvement in on-time shipping eliminates most of these costs while improving customer retention and enabling growth.

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See These Results in Your Operation

GE Railcar Services went from 30% on-time shipping to over 90% — and you can achieve similar results. The first step is understanding your current scheduling constraints and seeing how finite capacity scheduling would work with your specific operation.

User Solutions has been delivering these results for manufacturers since 1991. Whether you run a single shop or a multi-site network, Resource Manager DB and our suite of scheduling tools can transform your on-time delivery performance.

Ready to triple your on-time shipping? Request a free demo and we will schedule your real production data — so you can see the improvement potential before you invest.

Read the full GE Railcar success story and explore more scheduling success stories.