By David BenDavid, CEO, Rail Vision.
In railroading, we talk a lot about excellence. We want spotless safety records, zero dwell, perfect on-time performance, flawless customer service. These are worthy goals. But there is a hidden danger in chasing perfection without balance. Perfection can slow us down. It can drain resources. And in some cases, it can threaten the very continuity we are trying to protect.
Perfectionism in operations often starts with good intentions. A mechanical team wants every locomotive to leave the shop in ideal condition, even if that means extra time on an already healthy unit. A yardmaster wants every cut perfectly blocked before departure, even if a minor reshuffle could be done en route. A dispatcher wants every slot change modelled to the last decimal, even if a quick decision would keep the network moving. None of these decisions seem harmful in isolation, but taken together, they can freeze momentum.
The Operational Cost of Perfection
Perfection is not free. It carries costs in labour hours, overtime, missed slots and lost customer confidence. Every minute a train sits waiting for the last 2 percent of ‘optimal’ readiness, it ties up tracks, crews and locomotives. That delay might cause a domino effect on other trains, leading to missed connections or network congestion.
Consider a switching yard during peak season. The team is staging an outbound manifest. Everything is ready except for one car that is slightly out of sequence. The ‘perfect’ plan calls for an extra set of moves to place that car exactly where it should be. The cost is an additional 40 minutes of switching, burning fuel, consuming crew time and potentially missing the departure slot. The alternative is to depart with that car slightly out of place and reblock it later at an intermediate point. The reblocking may add 10 minutes at that point, but it preserves the departure time and keeps the train in its network slot.
Perfectionism in this case costs 30 extra minutes and risks late delivery. The pursuit of flawless staging looks good on paper, but the operational reality says it was too expensive.
Good Enough Can Be Better Than Perfect
There is a concept in aviation and emergency medicine called ‘good enough to go’. It means reaching a threshold where the situation is safe, stable and meets essential requirements, then moving forward. In rail operations, adopting a similar mindset can protect continuity.
Good enough does not mean sloppy. It means recognising the point where additional refinement delivers diminishing returns. For example, if a train passes mechanical inspection, meets regulatory requirements and is fully crewed, then chasing small cosmetic issues or optional upgrades before departure may not improve safety or performance enough to justify the delay.
Why Perfectionism Creeps In
Perfectionism in rail operations often grows from three roots:
- Pride of craft. Railroading is a profession with high standards. Many employees take personal pride in producing immaculate work. This is an asset to the industry, but it needs guardrails
- Fear of blame. If something goes wrong, no one wants to be the person who ‘let it slide’. Overcompensation leads to over-inspection or over-handling
- Misaligned metrics. If teams are rewarded for meeting internal perfection standards rather than system-level continuity goals, they will optimise for the wrong thing
Building a Culture of Balanced Readiness
Reducing the drag of perfectionism starts with culture. Leaders must define what ‘ready’ means for each type of operation and stick to it. Here are some practical approaches:
- Establish readiness thresholds. Define the non-negotiables for safety, compliance and service. Once those are met, the train moves. Make the checklist simple and transparent.
- Empower crews to make the call. Give yardmasters, conductors and dispatchers authority to depart once readiness thresholds are met, without fear of criticism for skipping unnecessary refinements.
- Reward continuity outcomes. Measure teams on departure fidelity, on-time arrival and recovery speed after disruptions. Celebrate these metrics as much as safety and quality.
- Audit for exceptions, not perfection. Instead of reviewing every departure in detail, focus audits on outliers that failed the readiness checklist or caused continuity failures.
The Role of Technology in Balancing Speed and Quality
Technology can help identify the point where perfection becomes waste. Data analytics can show how long trains typically spend between mechanical complete and departure, and how that time correlates to actual performance outcomes. If added preparation time does not result in fewer failures or faster arrivals, it may be unnecessary.
Automation can also reduce the need for perfectionist double-checks. Sensors, cameras and automated diagnostics can verify readiness quickly and consistently, freeing human teams to focus on exceptions rather than re-verifying what is already confirmed. While I lead a company that develops some of these tools, the lesson applies industry-wide: the right technology can enforce readiness standards without slowing departures.
Lessons from Freight and Passenger Sectors
Both freight and passenger rail have seen the cost of chasing perfection. In freight, overhandling in yards leads to excessive dwell, missed interchange windows and customer frustration. In passenger operations, over-inspection of equipment or overly conservative slot management can cause cascading delays that affect hundreds of riders.
Some of the most reliable railroads have mastered the art of knowing when to stop adjusting. They meet their safety and service standards, then move the train. This keeps the network fluid and allows recovery options later, rather than trying to solve every possible imperfection before departure.
A 70-20-10 Approach
A useful framework for rail readiness is 70-20-10:
- 70 percent of the effort goes into meeting the core readiness threshold
- 20 percent of the effort goes into optimising for efficiency and service beyond that threshold
- 10 percent of the effort goes into fine-tuning or cosmetic adjustments, and only if there is time to spare without impacting continuity
This approach ensures that the bulk of the work is focused on what matters most, while still allowing for improvements when resources and time permit.
The Bottom Line
In railroading, the perfect train that never leaves on time is worth less than the good-enough train that delivers on schedule. The industry’s responsibility is to balance pride in workmanship with the realities of network performance and customer expectations.
Business continuity is built on movement. Trains must keep flowing, yards must keep turning and crews must keep working within realistic limits. Perfection has its place in safety-critical tasks and in long-term asset care, but in daily operations, balance wins over flawless.
The next time a departure decision hangs in the air, ask one question: “Is this ready enough to go without risking safety or compliance?” If the answer is yes, then the best decision for business continuity is to move.
