PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION PROCESS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Requirements engineering and requirements management are essential sub-processes of product development and are an integrated part of virtually all product development models and industrial process descriptions. Proprietary and context specific processes for working with requirements are used in industrial design practice. However, these are not appropriately reflected in existing process models for product development. Existing standards describe the content and generation of requirements documents but not their integration in the product development process.The study is based on a retrospective analysis of a set of representative real-world product development projects from automotive industry and rail industry. Comparing the processes downstream the milestone “release of PRD”, it was found that subsequent processes to manage requirements and specifications do not differ much with regard to industrial context. Based on this, a model for the product requirements specification (PRS) process is proposed which addresses the gap.

Data Stream Harmonization For Heterogeneous Workflows

Transport infrastructure relies heavily on extended multi sensor networks and data streams to support its advanced real time monitoring and decision making. All relevant stakeholders are highly concerned on how travel patterns, infrastructure capacity and other internal / external factors (such as weather) affect, deteriorate or improve performance. Usually new network infrastructure can be remarkably expensive to build thus the focus is constantly in improving existing workflows, reduce overheads and enforce lean processes. We propose suitable graph-based workflow monitoring met­hods for developing efficient performance measures for the rail industry using extensive business process workflow pattern analysis based on Case-based Reasoning (CBR) combined with standard Data Mining methods. The approach focuses on both data preparation, cleaning and workflow integration of real network data. Preliminary results of this work are promising since workflow integration seems efficient against data complexity and domain peculiarities as well as scale on demand whilst demonstrating efficient accuracy. A number of modelling experiments are presented, that show that the approach proposed here can provide a sound basis for the effective and useful analysis of operational sensor data from train Journeys.

Which access to which assets for an effective liberalization of the railway sector?

In the European rail industry, to enable competition in the market, entrants should be granted access to a large set of complementary services, beyond access to the tracks. For an efficient and effective entry, temporary access to quasi-essential complementary assets like rolling stock, mechanical maintenance workshops, data, schedules, etc. is required. In the liberalized rail sector, several observed anticompetitive practices involve distorted access to these quasiessential facilities. Therefore, competition agencies must deal with litigation between the incumbent and new entrants. Most cases have been settled, resulting in commitments from the incumbent. We argue that such transitory and case-by-case remedies fail to produce favorable conditions for a secure and efficient entry. Thus, we propose to systematize such remedies through asymmetric and enduring ex-ante regulation.

Biden backs rail revival with climate change link

Significance The rail industry is also stressing its green credentials as it seeks approval for a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that would create the first company with a pan-North American freight line. Impacts The impact of COVID-19 on demand for long-range travel, especially business travel, remains uncertain. Much of Amtrak's rolling stock is at or near the end of its useful service life, pushing up operating costs. Rail and urban transit modernisation would support Biden's aim of creating more jobs in US manufacturing and infrastructure. Replacing highway-funding petrol taxes with vehicle usage fees would encourage freight to move from road to rail.

The demand impacts of train punctuality in great britain: systematic review, meta-analysis and some new econometric insights

This paper updates and extends the systematic review and meta-analysis of Wardman and Batley (Transportation 41:1041–1069, 2014), which hitherto was the most comprehensive study of the impacts of punctuality on passenger rail demand in the literature. Whereas the 2014 paper covered 51 elasticities from 6 studies in Great Britain published between 2003 and 2011, this updated paper adds 11 subsequent British studies yielding a further 201 observations. The meta-model recovers a range of significant effects, relating to whether the elasticity was short versus long run, flow type and distance, season versus nonseason tickets, the relevant measure of lateness, and whether the purpose of the study was specifically the estimation of late time elasticities. Allowance was also made for study quality-related issues. The data indicated that, despite dynamic models being commonplace, there is some uncertainty as to how long the long run is. Alongside the meta-model, the paper also reports new econometric evidence that addresses some gaps in existing evidence and knowledge, especially in relation to functional form and non-linearity of effects. Findings from both strands of analysis would seem to suggest that rail industry guidance has tended to overstate the demand impacts of punctuality.

Characterization of train brake-blocks composite reinforced with aluminum-dross

Brake blocks are usually made from asbestos, metals and ceramics. It has been realised that asbestos discharges dangerous gases which can be harmful. This problem necessitated the search for human-friendly materials. Therefore, this paper studies the production and characterization of train brake blocks produced from clay reinforced with aluminum dross. This was done by producing samples of composite using clay from a deposit at Osiele and aluminum dross from Tower Rolling Mill Otta, both in Ogun state. The percentage composition of aluminum dross was varied from 0% to 25% to produce brake samples. Their wear rate, tensile strength, compressive strength, hardness, thermal conductivity and microstructure were analysed. The results from this project such as Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 7.4Mpa, Impact energy 6.92J, Hardness 28.8 HV, wear rate 0.0071g/sec and thermal conductivity of 0.01075 indicate that, with 5% aluminium dross it is possible to develop brake block that exhibits property recommended by Rail Industry Safety and Standard Board (RISSB). Keywords: Train, Brake blocks, Clay composite, Aluminum Dross, Mechanical properties.