Lviv Locomotive Repair Plant doubled throughput and achieved 15-20% faster repair cycle

Project objectives

Like many heavy engineering and rail maintenance enterprises, the Lviv Locomotive Repair Plant faced the challenge of increasing throughput while maintaining predictable repair costs and profitability.
An additional objective was to improve operational manageability across divisions, which required an integrated system covering production, planning, inventory, and accounting.

Management aimed to move away from after-the-fact bookkeeping toward real-time production and operations control, enabling informed decisions before delays or cost overruns occurred.

The project set two measurable targets: to double plant throughput and to reduce the average repair cycle from 45 to 25 days.

Project description

To remain competitive among transport engineering and rail maintenance enterprises, the plant required better visibility into production resources and repair progress, ensuring that repair orders could be completed fully and on schedule.

As part of its modernization strategy, the plant refocused its technological cooperation on global engineering companies, aligning its repair and manufacturing standards with international requirements. Its services are used by large industrial and transport operators in Ukraine and beyond.

A key element of the modernization program was the implementation of an integrated ERP system by IT-Enterprise, with a strong focus on shop-floor production planning, repair accounting, and cross-department coordination.
The solution was designed to improve decision-making quality and provide management with a transparent view of operations.

Repair planning and forecasting challenges

The plant performs locomotive repairs under conditions where repair workloads must be forecast before detailed technical inspections are completed.
If the actual condition of a locomotive differs significantly from the forecast, additional contractual and operational adjustments are required.

As a result, forecast accuracy plays a critical role in cost control, scheduling stability, and contract execution.

Repairing complex rail equipment requires processing large volumes of technical and operational data. Before automation, preparing repair documentation and calculations often took nearly as long as the repair work itself.
The project objective was therefore to automate information processing and significantly reduce preparation timewithout compromising repair quality.

Key operational improvements

Implementation of the IT-Enterprise ERP platform delivered tangible operational improvements.
The critical repair cycle was accelerated by 15–20%, while leftover inventory was reduced by 30% due to more accurate planning and material control.
Inspection-related claims decreased by 50%, and overall production capacity doubled without purchasing additional equipment.

The integrated system also generated significant economic impact by reducing operational inefficiencies and improving cost transparency.

Results

The ERP implementation became a catalyst for a broader transformation of business processes and interdepartmental collaboration.
The plant transitioned from fragmented, manual control to formalized, data-driven scheduling and execution, creating the foundation for real-time operational management.

As a result, the enterprise doubled production capacity without increasing headcount or equipment investments. The repair cycle became 15–20% faster, releasing more than 11 million UAH in working capital.

Automation ensured full transparency of material and labor flows across workshops. Online control of inventory and electronic document management eliminated losses related to manual handling and significantly reduced leftover inventory, delivering additional cost savings.

Forecasting accuracy improved substantially, replacing high-variance annual estimates with object-level planning based on actual repair data.
The plant also transitioned from emergency, reactive repairs to planned maintenance based on statistical analysis of component wear and repair history.

Overall, the solution enabled precise cost accounting for each repair object, standardized procurement and material issuance processes, and created a predictable, scalable operating model aligned with European rail maintenance and engineering practices.