LEVEL 1
RAILCAR MANAGEMENT
KATOEN NATIE · INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION · CLEVERTECH
MISSION BRIEFING
| ROLE | LEAD UX / UI |
|---|---|
| PARTY | PM + 5 ENG + 2 ML + OPS |
| TIME | 24 MONTHS |
| TOOLS | FIGMA / STORYBOOK |
| STUDIO | CLEVERTECH 2018-19 |
Katoen Natie runs petrochemical logistics across 36 countries. Their railcar operation ran on clipboards, radios, and paper. I designed a dual-platform system: a field app for the yard and a desktop console for managers, coordinating railcars, machinery, silos, and crews across 24/7 shifts.
STAGE 1
THE CHALLENGE
Every railcar movement, machine status, and silo level lived on paper. Information died between shifts. Equipment status went stale. With hazardous materials in play, no real-time view meant real safety risk, and audit trails were near impossible to reconstruct.
Coordinating many railcars, varied machinery, different silo capacities, and crews across round-the-clock operations needed a system that could survive a harsh industrial floor without ever dropping the reliability safety-critical work demands.
STAGE 2
RESEARCH
We went to the yard. Shadowed operators and managers across shifts, mapped the flow from railcar arrival to processing, and studied the safety protocols the system would have to respect, not fight.
- Field personnel need hands-free, weather-proof screens for outdoor work.
- Managers need facility-wide oversight for scheduling and allocation.
- Real-time status is what prevents bottlenecks and incidents.
- It has to keep working where connectivity does not.
- It has to talk to existing industrial equipment and sensors.
STAGE 3
DESIGN
Two platforms, one live picture. A mobile app built for gloved hands and outdoor glare, and a desktop console built for scheduling and oversight. Industrial-first, safety-centric, offline-resilient, role-based.
MOBILE · THE FIELD
DESKTOP · THE CONSOLE
STAGE 4
TESTING
No usability lab could fake a petrochemical yard, so we tested on the floor. Pilot with a few operators, then a gradual rollout across shifts and peak loads, validated against real emergency scenarios. Industrial work wanted its own interaction patterns, and the field crew's feedback shaped every one.
BOSS DEFEATED
IMPACT
- Paper tracking gone, and with it the errors it carried.
- Faster railcar turnaround through automated scheduling.
- Safety compliance built into the flow, checklists and hazard state live.
- Predictive maintenance off continuous equipment monitoring.
- Audit trails and compliance docs, generated, not chased.
STAGE CLEAR
Industrial software rewards time on the floor. Safety, reliability, and the environment drive the design, not the other way around. The architecture is modular, ready for more facilities, more sensors, and AI-driven scheduling next.