System and a method for selecting shops for the repair of railcars

A method of optimizing a user's selection of a shop to repair a railcar comprising the steps of:

• accepting information input from a user into a user interface program, wherein the information input includes bad order information;
• the user interface program requesting an optimized list of shops and mobile repair units to be provided from 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
• the user interface program providing the user with a list of shops capable of repairing the railcar based on an analysis of the bad order information and the shop information, mobile repair unit information and information relating to the railcar to be repaired, wherein said list of shops is optimized based on the information stored in said database, the information input from the user, and railcar repair shop ranking criteria established by the user interface program, wherein said railcar repair shop ranking criteria includes at least an expected shop turnaround-time performance or a recent shop turnaround-time performance.