A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...
Mike Steinwachs, BI & Data Analytics Manager
The most impactful project I’ve worked on so far was/is…
In the simplest terms, my job is to… Work with groups throughout G&W to find what datapoints impact their day-to-day lives, then take a whole bunch of that data and condense it into a format that humans can actually interpret. Nobody enjoys looking at a spreadsheet with a million rows, so we try to boil those spreadsheets down into quick, actionable numbers that can help people make better and faster decisions.
The Tie Data Analysis project currently in progress with the Engineering Department. While there is plenty more we plan to do with this data, we have laid the groundwork for future analysis by taking the tie quality scans that had been collected over the years and plotted them road by road, asset by asset, and mile by mile to identify potential hotspots in need of attention. While I don’t think we’ve quite scratched the surface of the full potential of this data, we can create tools that will help us deploy capital dollars most efficiently and are looking to take a similar approach with geometry, rail profile and other defect data to maintain and further improve the health of our infrastructure.
My favorite G&W location is… I can make a customer’s day by… Although I may not have had the opportunity to personally deliver any cars (yet), through Business Intelligence we try to improve our customer’s experience by providing tools that can directly impact their satisfaction on a day-to-day basis. That can be accomplished by building better reporting with GMs, roadmasters or trainmasters to see where each one of their customers’ cars are on their road and how to move traffic efficiently, working with the Safety team to help find insights in our data to make our employees safer at work, or building dashboards and reports with the Commercial group that can be used to help inform our sales team how G&W can be best positioned to build their individual customers’ businesses. The goal of any BI project ultimately is to enable those most connected with our customers to provide the safest and most reliable service possible.
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My hometown railroad of Rochester & Southern Railroad (RSR), but I will give a nod to Portland & Western Railroad (PNWR) for being in one of my favorite areas of the country. I haven’t been able to visit them yet, but I hope to make my way at some point to see some of that road in person.
Outside of work, my favorite thing to do is… Teach my son to ice skate. Future Wayne Gretzky in the making.
My favorite food is… If coffee could be considered a food, coffee. Otherwise, I’ll go with a well-constructed bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich – with a side of fresh coffee. n
