C4 Overhaul Wrapped in a Day!

We put our ‘Matrix and Morph’ technique to the test last week to demonstrate just how quickly wraps can be implemented in any business. Wraps collect the necessary serial numbers and engineering data so that railway jobs can be signed off with a digital signature. Just one day was required to make wraps to cover all 60 jobs comprising the C4 overhaul of a railway vehicle, which makes ExcelWraps the most rapid application development tool in the industry.

We constructed a matrix in Excel listing all jobs in the overhaul specification down the page. Across the matrix we add columns to define what is required for sign off. This included:

• SYSTEM - The system that the job belonged to was defined in one column (Air, Brakes, Carbody, Battery, Collect, Machine, Power, Underframe, Vehicle and Scheduled Work).
• PROGRAMME - The day the job starts in the 4 day overhaul program for each of 4 car types in the unit filled another 4 columns.
• CARTYPE - some jobs may only be relevant on certain car types.
• COMPETENCE - Adhering to the ExcelWraps user competence model we placed the competence required to sign each job in the next column.
• JOBSPEC - One column held the name of a pdf document of the detailed work instruction. The pdfs were placed in a specific folder on the server.
• RISKASSESSMENT - One column held the name of a pdf document of the job risk assessment report. The pdfs were placed in a specific folder on the server.
• SERIAL - The next column stated “Y” or “N” depending upon whether a serial number was required to be recorded.
• CALIBRATION – Another Y/N column stated if calibrated equipment is required to complete the job (torque wrench, air pressure gauge…etc).
• PPE - A series of Y/N columns specified if personal protective equipment was required for the job (HiViz, Boots, Cap, Ear, Glasses, Gloves, Chemical, Mask and FaceShield).
• WORKFLOW – Sometimes a specialist work flow form is required (brake force checks, ultrasonic inspection, height checks… etc.) this is also identified on the matrix.

Once the matrix is complete the bulk of the work is done. Clicking through the matrix takes us to our sign off wrap which morphs into the appropriate form so that any job can be completed and signed off. All morphing sign off wraps show the relevant information (e.g. JobID, System, etc.). It creates a button to open the job spec. in a new browser page for ease of reference. If the matrix says a serial number is required a serial number entry box is shown (or hidden). If calibrated equipment is required an entry box for the calibrated equipment serial number is shown (or hidden). A digital signature box appears at the bottom of the morphing sign off wrap so that when the information has been correctly completed anyone with the correct competence can sign the job off.

The matrix was constructed through the day in the workshop and the ExcelWraps leader worked that night constructing and testing the wraps. The following morning the Workshop was shown the full system in action. Once Wraps are loading the cloud database with information the workshop attendees were shown how our MyWraps reporting system produces any detailed report including activity Gantt charts and even an individual’s time sheet.

Here is a very simple example featuring just 9 jobs and 9 columns which tell the 'morphing' sign off wrap how it needs to respond for each job.

Wraplinks on the morphing sign off wrap pull through the relevant information from the job matrix wrap. The morphing sign off wrap uses row hide widgets to decide which parts of it need to be hidden and what needs to be completed to allow the job to be signed off. 

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