Stakeholders Transforming North America's Industrial Systems

Collaborative planning and investment to optimize capital, natural resources, land, and shared prosperity.

Collaboration Makes Progress Possible

Current Thinking

Supply
Chain
Optimization

Single-Company
Single Project/Issue
Short-Term Plan
Competition-Driven

New Thinking

Collaborative
Industrial
Optimization

Multi-Company
Whole System
Long-Term Plan
Collaboration-Driven

We bring together government, industry, investors, and communities to plan and invest in entire industrial systems through Collaborative Industrial Optimization. OTNA mobilizes stakeholders in critical industries—including railroads, trucking, forestry, essential minerals, agriculture, manufacturing, and recycling—to replace fragmented competition with integrated supply chains.

The challenge is not a lack of intelligence—there are so many smart, committed people in industry, government, and the community. What we have been lacking are the effective methods for gathering that intelligence into smart policy, programs, and marketplace improvements.

OnTrackNorthAmerica operates the OTNA WorkSpace, an online collaborative platform where stakeholders identify opportunities, share intelligence, and develop integrated plans.

Check out the OTNA WorkSpace Here

Our foundational initiative catalyzes freight rail expansion to drive industrial productivity.

VitalRail

VitalRail convenes stakeholders and private capital to grow freight rail service and strengthen critical industries. While North America’s rail network has shrunk by nearly half since 1920, the need for sustainable, efficient freight transportation is as vital as ever.

Beyond Traditional Conferences

We have all attended conferences where knowledgeable speakers address rooms of professionals who listen passively, while the meaningful conversations occur in hallways and receptions. IntelliConferences® flip this dynamic—they’re large-scale, multi-stakeholder dialogues designed for action, not just talking.

This is how we facilitate human intelligence when progress can’t wait. Through structured rounds of questions, responses, and synthesis, stakeholders transform problems into actionable solutions. IntelliConferences run on the OTNA Workspace, where we capture and process the wealth of experience and insights our stakeholders bring.

Explore our fundamental methodologies in the Curriculum section, or visit the OTNA WorkSpace.

OTNA Curriculum OTNA WorkSpace

“We can think systemically about where we site new facilities and how we transport goods. Placing all industrial components in logical end-to-end supply chains and moving as much freight by rail as makes sense, in better coordination with trucks, will deliver cascading benefits to the broader economy and the environment.”

--Michael Sussman, CEO & President of OTNA

The Case for VitalRail by Michael Sussman