Advisory · Consulting · Optimisation · Platform
Margin in logistics and supply chain,
proven in numbers.
From an independent reading of the asset to the software that runs the decision every day. Four fronts, one engine — across rail, ports, terminals and the chain that depends on them. The gain is measured against a written baseline, not an estimate.
- Diagnostic and measured baseline
- Operations engineering consulting
- Network, fleet and terminal optimisation
- Multi-year capex and inventory
- ERP/EAM and inspection integration
- Auditable proof of gain
Approximate extent of the Brazilian railway network in operation
Public sector data (ANTT and Ministry of Transport), compiled Aug 2026
Potential investment mapped from railway authorisation requests
ANTT, 2022 — 79 authorisation requests filed
Port facilities operating in Brazil, between private terminals and leased concessions
ANTAQ, public data compiled Aug 2026
Rail share of the freight matrix: current base and official long-term target
Ministry of Transport — National Logistics Plan
Figures on this site come from public sources, with year and assumption stated. Headway does not publish client gain ranges without a measured, written baseline, and does not name clients, corridors or results without authorisation.
The thesis
Maintenance decisions do not fail for lack of prediction. They fail from an excess of candidates.
On any network there are more segments asking for intervention than there is budget, crew and window to serve them. The queue is ordered by apparent urgency, history and internal negotiation — and the cost of that is never calculated.
Predicting failure helps, but does not settle it: a predictive system returns the same list of risks when the budget changes. What changes the decision is the next layer — the one that ranks interventions under real constraints of budget, window and criticality, proposes where to start and explains why.
That layer is what Headway builds, together with two things it presupposes and that almost never exist ready-made: maintenance data reconciled into a single asset model, and the measurement methodology that turns a result into a number both parties accept.
AboutThe platform
Three modules on the same decision architecture.
Headway Track
Ranks the track intervention queue by risk and by effect on circulation, within the budget and the windows the operation actually has.
See service FleetHeadway Fleet
Plans the fleet as a system: critical component, workshop sequence and spare parts policy decided in the same model.
See service TerminalHeadway Terminal
Carries the same decision through to the ship’s hold: bulk handling equipment ranked by throughput impact, with the window read against the vessel line-up.
See serviceWho we work for
Four profiles, one method
Freight concessionaires
Mature networks and greenfield alike: material maintenance budgets and simultaneous pressure on availability and cost. The problem is rarely a lack of prediction — it is an excess of candidates for the same window.
Track · Fleet · windows and capacity
Bulk terminals and ports
A series loading line, where one link stopping stops the whole chain — and the cost is not the repair: it is the vessel waiting and the train held at the gate.
Terminal · rail–terminal interface · proof of gain
Operators with their own assets
Mining and industry with dedicated track, fleet and terminal, where logistics is a means rather than an end — and the maintenance budget competes with productive investment.
Track · Terminal · fleet cycle
Investors and boards
Those who need an independent reading of a railway asset and of what its maintenance plan actually sustains in capacity over the coming years.
Diagnostic · capacity reading · proof of gain
What we do
Eight lines of work
Headway Diagnóstico
Measures the baseline on data the client already has, sizes the opportunity with explicit assumptions, and delivers the business case that supports — or kills — the pilot.
02Track maintenance optimisation
Ranks inspection, tamping, grinding and component renewal by risk and operational criticality, within the budget and the windows the operation actually has.
03Rolling stock optimisation
Treats the fleet as a system: prioritises critical components, sequences the workshop by effect on availability and sizes the spare parts stock that sustains the plan.
04Bulk terminal optimisation
Treats the terminal as the series line it is: critical equipment ranked by throughput impact, with the intervention window matched to the vessel line-up and train arrivals.
05Maintenance windows and capacity
The window is the scarce resource. Allocates interventions against the real circulation grid and translates maintenance into capacity: headway, transit time and volume.
06Maintenance data integration
Brings ERP/EAM, inspection cars, testing, telemetry and field records into a single asset model — with the history reconciled, not merely transported.
07Rail–terminal interface
The wagon cycle does not end at the destination yard. Measures arrival, shunting, positioning, loading and release with the same ruler used for track time.
08Proof of value
The methodology that fixes baseline, source, exclusions, window and committee before any measurement. Without it, a variable fee becomes a dispute instead of trust.
How we deliver
From diagnostic to proven gain
A paid diagnostic, a controlled pilot with a written baseline, proof in a joint committee, and only then implementation and annual licence. No free pilots.
Baseline before any projection
The baseline is measured on the client’s own data and agreed in writing before work starts. Without it there is no number — only an estimate with decimal places.
Explainability and abstention
Every recommendation carries a rationale and a confidence level. Below the threshold, the system states that it does not recommend, rather than issuing a weak output that looks strong.
Joint validation committee
The measured gain is approved by a committee formed by client and Headway, with audit rights on both sides over methodology and data.
Insights
Insights
Why imported degradation models transfer badly to Brazil
Metre gauge, mixed traffic and a tropical climate produce a degradation regime that models calibrated on North American or European heavy haul do not reproduce.
Read · 7 min read CapacityWhat a rail maintenance budget actually buys
For investors and boards assessing a railway asset, the maintenance line is usually read as cost. Read as capacity, it answers a different and more useful question.
Read · 7 min read ContractsProving a maintenance gain: the baseline protocol
With a variable fee, you do not lose by failing to produce a result. You lose by failing to prove it. The items a baseline protocol must fix before any measurement.
Read · 8 min readNext step
How much of your maintenance budget is well allocated?
The conversation starts with the problem, not the platform: which decision is made today without enough data, and what the order of magnitude would be if it improved. Thirty minutes, no corporate deck.