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WE'RE not concerned with the esoteric, we look to how we can apply technology to practical business problems, says Mike Sims, vice president for information systems at Conrail.
Thus the job of Conrail's management is to use its computer system -- the largest unified system of its kind on any railroad -- to improve efficiency and profitability, he adds.
Conrail is now riding a solid earnings track and is getting a hefty assist from its computer operation, centered in the Philadelphia area.
And the giant railroad now has in the final testing phase an arrangement for a computer-based through-rate and local rate system for deregulated traffic, which according to Conrail chairman and CEO L. Stanley Crane, is seen enabling Conrail and other lines "to manage the explosion of new prices and options for shippers much more efficiently."
Conrail has a centralized computer operation, physically based in two places, Philadelphia and King of Prussia, but run as one center, notes the information systems vice president, Mike Sims. "We're centralized because, unlike most businesses, we have a moving inventory problem."
Thus what happens in one yard affects what's going on at another location, he adds. "So now when anything happens out there, we have a centralized view of the entire operation."
Conrail invests some $50 million each year in both computers and communications. Its computer operation entails almost 180,000 miles of telephone circuits and some 3,500 terminals, primarily in the 16 states where the railroad runs, but also some in off-line offices.
Sims notes that Conrail's computer operation is "basically an IBM shop. We have one IBM 3084, two IBM 3081s, four IBM 3033s -- all very large scale computers."
Software is a key factor in the use of computer technology. Here, Conrail's Mike Sims says, "In terms of software, we do our own application development but we buy certain software packages such as Data Base Manager or Telecommunications Manager which deals with a computer program."
No cost figures are available on the road's software investment, Sims says, but on the use of software he notes:
"We have some 3,500 terminals on the railroad and the software which we It secures and delivers messages from terminals, such as terminals in trouble. on a peer level with...