Patent ID: 7254572
Filing Date: 2007-08-07
Classification: G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A system for optimizing a user's selection of a shop to repair a railcar comprising: a database for storing shop information, mobile repair unit information and information relating to the railcar to be repaired, wherein said shop information includes at least the location of the shop and at least an expected shop turnaround-time performance or a recent shop turnaround-time performance, further wherein said mobile repair unit information includes at least the location of the mobile repair unit; and a user interface program for accepting information input from a user wherein the information input from the user includes at least information identifying the railcar, the location of the railcar and bad order information for the railcar, wherein said user interface program provides the user with an optimized list of shops and mobile repair units for repairing the railcar based on an analysis of at least the shop information, mobile repair unit information and information relating to the railcar to be repaired stored in the database and at least the information identifying the railcar and the bad order information input from the user, wherein said optimization is based on railcar repair shop ranking criteria established by the user interface program.