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Transportation and Transit
By Jim Charboneau, PopWare Inc.
Introduction
Everyone in
transportation and transit organizations knows that their assets are
critical to the overall success of the business. Asset availability
and reliability is key to minimizing interruptions of the revenue
stream. As a result, many transportation and transit organizations
are looking at asset management as a strategic component in their
quest for operational excellence.
The Strategic
Asset Management Wheel
Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), once considered
merely a tactical work order tool, are now being positioned as the
Hub around which transportation and transit organizations can begin
to implement initiatives to support a new Strategic Asset Management
(SAM) wheel.
Unfortunately, workforce automation in the transportation world has
resulted in the implementation of many siloed applications designed
to address specific business issues. These disparate applications
offer little cross-functional collaboration and ability to share
information. As the main repository of asset information, CMMS
applications provide organizations with the enabling platform to
aggregate and disseminate this critical business information.
Today
multi-tier technology platforms and open architecture software
processes have made bolting the spokes (business specific
applications and tools) to the CMMS Hub viable and easier. On
the outer part of this assembly, the Rim, common business
logic and data is shared and exchanged amongst the Spoke
applications enabling the SAM wheel to turn true and efficiently.
Strategic Asset Management Wheel
By enabling
the integration of transportation and transit applications, the CMMS
helps streamline maintenance business processes and improves the
overall effectiveness of personnel. Integrating transportation and
transit specific applications doesn’t necessarily involve
re-inventing the wheel. Let’s review the enabling technologies and
components required to support the SAM wheel.
Enabling
Technology Platform
Truck
/trailer fleet, public transit, commuter rail, paratransit operators
and multi-modal organizations are all looking for a CMMS solution
that ‘plugs and plays’ with their mosaic of operational
applications. Given that most of large organizations will have
disparate business applications that are developed in different
computer languages operating on different platforms the task of
integration and communication between the systems made it difficult
to achieve the SAM dream. Some organizations are often many years
and versions into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and
have left their maintenance groups with legacy, client server
systems or may be considering the dreaded option of migrating to the
functionally weaker CMMS system which is part of the larger ERP
solution.
CMMS’s in
transportation or public transit sectors require interfaces to many
other enterprise systems and applications to make it a true
strategic asset management system. Traditional commercial and
public-sector transportation systems include work management, human
resource, finance, purchasing, materials management, customer
service, route/service planning, accident/incident reporting,
operator dispatch, and fleet/yard management applications. Federal
agencies have established logical and physical architecture
blueprints for public transportation that will drive the evolution
and maturity of the CMMS. This vision is reflected in the Canadian
and U.S. National ITS Architecture strategies. (Links to these
documents are available in the Download area at:
http://www.pop-ware.com/company/media_center.php)
Integration
means more than data sharing between systems but also the sharing of
business logic that is native and proprietary to different systems.
An example of true integration is the need for the CMMS system to
interact with the Transit Planning system - route numbers, planned
mileage, historic operational data - buses runs, incident locations
and conditions that add value to the identification of failures and
repetitive conditions. The Transit Planning systems would extract
from the CMMS attributes of the equipment – capacity, configuration,
operating limits (speed, turning radius) and equipment numbers
needed to assign bus, trains or consists to specific operating lines
or routes. Both systems share the need for global positioning
systems (GPS) and automatic vehicle locations (AVL) systems to track
and locate equipment within the yard and in revenue or non-revenue
operations. Computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems need vehicle
availability and status information to support service delivery.
Interfacing the CMMS with customer service and accident / incident
reporting adds value to the histories and configuration of equipment
involved in operation exceptions. The Rail (AAR) and Trucking (ATA)
industries have standardized coding systems to identify location,
component, failure, cause and remedy types that can be configured in
the CMMS database and user-interface screens.
Advancements in geographic positioning systems (GPS), wireless
networks, radio frequency identification (RFID), automatic vehicle
location (AVL) and onboard vehicle systems provide great
opportunities for advanced CMMS solutions. Government and industry
organizations are supportive of transportation organizations and
vendors to create and implement Intelligent Transit Systems (ITS).
These current and future technology advancements will put more
pressure on fleet and maintenance managers to record component
repairs, warranty tracking, failure reporting and service contract
management – better, faster and more effectively.
Functional
Fit
All too
often, transportation and transit organizations try to implement
generic CMMS applications whose functionality may not address all
their specific functional requirements. There are literally
hundreds of CMMS packages in the marketplace, a few of which are
focused on specific vertical markets such as transportation. Using
a CMMS that is focused on the transportation industry will help
avoid costly workarounds and customizations that hinder the
likelihood of a successful implementation.
Some of the
key functional areas in transportation that the CMMS must address
include:
Equipment and Location -
In a larger transit organization, equipment nomenclature will
require the development of logical naming conventions of equipment
and part locations specific to the vehicle type- all which have
wheels that go round and round. The wheel on the bus is a tire
having a cap or carcass, a thread, a rim and hub as sub-components
with specific measurement and serial number needs. Light rail and
subway car wheels set assemblies have axles, wheel tread, flange,
hub, brake discs that have very different measurement, failure
classes and location conventions. The ideal CMMS system would have a
relational database that supports the configuration of data elements
that map to the specificity of the variety of equipment classes.
These data elements can then be embedded into graphic user
interfaces that enable planners, supervisors and crafts to
configure, delegate and report corrective actions against the
correct location and part or assembly. Some CMMS have add-on tools
that can import/export equipment location hierarchies to/from
computer aided drawing (CAD) programs – a great way to standardize
your equipment/location naming conventions.
Equipment Work and Safety Plans
- Work plans and safety plans are the assembly of logical and
sequential tasks and descriptions that define the activity of
maintenance work and support of the maintenance worker. Preventive
maintenance tasks, component change-out, corrective action and
program work can be developed using work plans that identify the
labor effort, material consumption, quality measures, tools required
and task durations that govern the maintenance work. Safety plans
supplement work plans to identify hazards, precautions and lock/tag
outs that are required to alert and support the work in the
performance of the task. Material Safety Data Sheets, (MSDS) safety
equipment, special instructions, diagrams, pictorials or electronic
images can be attached to work orders. Planners and safety engineers
can manage these plans within the CMMS in support of the maintenance
programs. Supervisors can print work orders with appropriate
documents and be able to delegate and instruct worker with clear,
concise and accurate instructions.
Work
Management and Third Party Billing
- The work order is a vital spoke in
the wheel for Maintenance Service Providers. Maintenance crews can
access and respond to work orders electronically logging labor,
material and parts information into the CMMS. Work management
applications have added functionality to capture work planned,
identify work completed and timely calculation of labor, material
and time actuals. The growing trend of outsourcing maintenance to
third party service providers has put the focus on maintenance
scheduling, work order management, warranty and quality compliance.
For maintenance service providers these work orders must be rolled
up into service invoices and work programs in support of Service
Level Agreements (SLA) and fixed price contracts. The CMMS must have
the capability to map to and configure ‘charts of accounts’ that
manage set-up and maintenance of GL accounts. This is key to getting
work-order based actuals to be converted to invoice lines.
Planning
and Scheduling - The
planning of maintenance activities is a fine balance between
planning and operational requirements. Planning functions with the
CMMS have matured enabling date and measurement based maintenance
programs to be developed. Balancing schedules is important to meet
the service requirements. Planning features include the ability to
display and analysis of schedules and plans against operating
calendars and schedules – effectively optimizing both equipment
available to the transit operations and maintenance crews.
Business
Intelligence -
Transportation organizations, constantly under customer pressure and
public scrutiny to improve services while reducing fares, are
seeking ways to reduce operation costs. Operational productivity,
equipment availability, reliability, service contract compliance and
safety have made a simple shop floor work order a central focus of
excellence. Integrated data from multiple applications within the
CMMS and across the enterprise creates the opportunity to generate
queries and reports with timely meaningful business intelligence as
Key Performance Indicators (KPI). These KPIs can be accessed and
displayed in real-time enabling maintenance managers to respond
proactively and decisively. An example of this is data from one
spoke (Automated Vehicle Location - AVL) which will provide the CMMS
hub with data regarding vehicle failure information such as: run,
mileage, GPS location etc. The CMMS will create a work order based
on measurements or data so that upon arrival the shops would be
prepared to address the failure or complaint against that vehicle.
This would reduce out of service time, increase fleet availability
and improve shop productivity.
Resource
Management- CMMS systems
were once merely paper work order printing platforms. Today these
are integrated systems complete with Inventory, Purchasing,
Resources and Asset management functions. While these ‘best
practice’ systems have all aspects of maintenance and asset
management functional requirements, most organizations struggle with
the decision to use applications with the CMMS or build complex and
costly application interfaces to legacy or ERP systems. Work
assignment modules traditionally identify available crafts/crews and
enable planners and supervisors to assign these to specific work
orders or programs. Interfacing to Human Resource Management Systems
(HRMS) is key to sharing the attributes of the worker in terms of
availability, scheduling, collective bargaining specifics like
rates, levels and vacations and employee numbers.
Materials and Purchasing
- The assignment, procurement and reservation of materials in
support of work requires robust applications built around material
management best practices. Stores, inventory and procurement
management modules will work with demands of the workforce as
identified and tied to work orders or planned program work. Stock
issues and material transfers can be requested by workers by
specific work orders and when these work orders are closed material
costs will be captured and rolled-up to the cost of the repairs.
Purchasing of materials and management of service contracts an also
be tied to work orders, equipment or GL accounts. CMMS
configurations have the capability and requirement to establish
relationships between work activity and appropriate accounting
requirements of the organization. This will require an interface to
ERP or Accounting systems and standardization of accounts between
them.
Summary
In summary,
CMMS packages have evolved into complex and robust business
applications. Computer technologies have matured and standardized to
the point where integration of business logic and information
sharing between systems is achievable and supportable. Sharing
information between the CMMS and other systems enables maintenance
and operations management to make informed decisions and control
operational costs. Service and contract compliance can be easily
monitored and measured with real-time interfaces. Transportation,
transit and maintenance service providers are looking for integrated
solutions that are robust, efficient and easy to use. When
productivity, availability, safety and accountability are your key
success factors be sure to build your strategic asset management
initiative with a strong hub - start with your CMMS.
About the author:
Jim Charboneau is a respected and accomplished IT project manager
and business transformation consultant. He has 25 years of
experience within transportation, fleet and public transit
maintenance operations and CMMS deployment success with
organizations like CN Rail, VIA Rail Canada, GO Transit, Toronto
Transit Commission, NavCanada and McKee Foods USA. He is a member of
the American Association of Railway Superintendents,
Ontario/Canadian Urban Planning Association and certified in ITIL
Service Management and Maximo5 Asset Management solution. He is a
Sr. Implementation Consultant and Project Manager at PopWare Inc.,
specialists in CMMS solutions. For more information please visit
http://www.pop-ware.com. |
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