The Indian Railways Stores Service (IRSS)

The Indian Railways Stores Service (IRSS) is a cadre of the Government of India. The officers of this service are the procurement and logistics specialists , contract managers on the IR ,providers of logistics for the transportation of material from and within various railways as well as the planners and maintainers of the intelligent warehousing with automated storage and retrieval systems on the Indian Railways.

Recruitment & Job responsibility of IRSS

The officers of IRSS man the senior posts of stores department. The members of this group A service are recruited through Engineering Services Examination conducted annually by the Union Public Service Commission. The basic qualification for appearing in this examination is a degree in Engineering and all the members belonging to this service are Engineers.

Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS) is one of the nine organized service of Indian Railways. The IRSS cadre is responsible for forecasting, planning, procurement logistic support & management, warehousing of very expensive and sophisticated assets meant for the national lifeline i.e Indian Railways. It is also responsible for giving material support to production of coaches, locomotives and other rolling stock. This service is also responsible for moping up scrap scattered all over Indian Railways, and to sell it through tender/public auction. The important function of vendor approval /development and registration of firms is also one of the main functions of IRSS.

In the changing scenario, when the whole world in all spheres is undergoing major transformation, the need is to reorganize and re-engineer the IRSS to achieve objectives of modern materials management in one of the largest rail transportation systems in the world. It is the IRSS who have to conceive, implement and run the totally new stores management order.

Role and Function of Stores Department In Indian Railways

The Stores discipline performs a significant and major role in all the activities of Indian Railways : These activities are directly connected with train operations and thus contribute for productivity and earnings. These activities also have interface with customers which reflect the image of Indian railways. The major functions of stores department are-

Procurement: 1. Procurement & distribution of Spare parts, Oil, Greases and Lubricants & other related general items to consignees spread over 7300 stations over all Indian Railways for day to day operation, maintenance of trains, rolling stock, etc. 2.Procurement & Supply of Components to major Mechanical, Electrical & Signaling Workshops for maintenance of Coaches, Wagons and for in-house manufacture of items. 3.Procurement and supply of sub assemblies and components to the production units for manufacture of new Diesel Locomotives, Electric Locomotives, Coaches and Wagons. 4.Supply of spare parts to major Diesel & Electric Sheds for maintenance of Diesel & Electrical Locomotive & EMU (Electrical Multiple Units). 5.Procurement and supply of Fittings and components for maintenance of AC coaches, General Coaches and Wagons over Indian Railways. 6.Procurement of Modern Machines for upgrading the old workshops of Indian Railway 7.

Procurement of complete units of rolling stocks Stocking & warehousing: 1.Stocking approximately one lakh different type of item in approximately 200 stores depots spread throughout the country. 2.Arranging inspection of these stocked items. 3.Distribution of these stocked items by multi-modal logistics to various consumption centers. 4.Inventory control of the stocked items 5.Scientific recoupment of the stocked items Planning: 1.Procurement planning of spares and sub assemblies 2.Inventory planning and budgetary forecasts 3.Planning and Formulation of Logistics for supply for items to users over all the Stations 4.Development of vendors 5.Market survey & source selection for introducing latest available items. Disposal: 1.Identification and inspection of scrap lying at various points of Indian Railway system 2.Collection Scrap wherever feasible, segregation and making of lots from the point of view of selling. 3.Arranging public auctions and selling. 4.Selling through tenders for certain items 5.E-auctioning 6.Delivery of scrap including specialized weighments.

Supply of uniforms: 1.Procurement of cloth 2.Cloth cutting in Railways own cloth cutting factories 3.Stitching of uniforms by different means, which includes handicraft, centers. Others: 1.Manufacture of Printed Card tickets & their distribution at various stations all over the Indian Railways. Purchase of computer Pre-printed tickets for all the Computer Reservation centers of Indian Railways. 2.Printing and supply of Time Tables & money valued books & other stationery items.