Notch 8 To The Golden Run, Part 1: From Sensors to the Boardroom

Rail Group On Air

This is Part 1, “From Sensors to the Boardroom,” of a three-part series based upon the new book, Dynamic Multi-Level Decisioning Architecture: Making the Right Decisions at the Right Time, With the Right Authority for Sustained Competitiveness and Relevance, by Sonia Bot, Sheppard Narkier and David Sherr. “It’s about how all industries, including the rail industry, its partners and adjacent competitors, are evolving in the throes of digital disruption and other external forces, and the role people play in decision-making at all levels of an organization,” say the authors. “Decision-making needs to flow better upwards and downwards, tying the boardroom to the railroad yards, transloading facilities, tracks—the whole rail network and transportation ecosystem. “The bigger story is about each stakeholder needing a better understanding of how to make the right decision at the right time with better, more-focused knowledge, applying hard-earned wisdom to make better decisions with better and traceable outcomes. It’s about the convergence of two long-standing silos, OT (operational technology) and IT (information technology), becoming the cornerstone of effective innovation in large, complex firms like railroads, which need to meet the increasing impact of disruptive forces. The need to address this convergence affects a wide range of disciplines to unveil a much broader scale of end-to-end systems—from the sensors in the field to the boardroom. Out-of-date, isolated data that lacks context causes major paralysis.” Bot, Narkier and Sherr discuss these concepts with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono