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Cost Effective Asset Maintenance Requires GIS & Work Management System Integration

Greg Ramon
City of Phoenix Water Services Dept.
6202 North 24th Street,
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Alicia D. Crumpton
EMA, Inc.,
1501 West Fountainhead Parkway, Suite 480,
Phoenix, AZ 85285
Jon B. Crumpton EMA, Inc.,
1501 West Fountainhead Parkway, Suite 480,
Phoenix, AZ 85285


Abstract

GASB Statement 34 is a fundamental business driver for local governments and municipalities to inventory and value of their assets, and includes provisions for factoring annual maintenance costs into their asset valuations. Additionally, EPA regulations for CMOM compound the significance of asset inventory and maintenance, because they require that maintenance for all parts of municipal sanitary sewer systems is formally managed. Asset identification and maintenance management is difficult for assets in a localized environment, and becomes increasingly difficult for assets that are geographically distributed. However, success in managing the maintenance for these assets can be enhanced by leveraging data contained in typical GIS and work management systems. This paper will examine various ways that GIS data can be used to enhance multiple aspects of maintenance management and interfacing processes. Furthermore, it will demonstrate how data contained in a typical GIS is crucial to supporting effective work management, and that integration of the GIS and work management systems is essential.

Introduction

Asset identification and maintenance management is difficult for assets in a physically localized environment, and becomes increasingly difficult for assets that are geographically distributed. Examples of distributed assets include infrastructures such as water and gas distribution, electric distribution and transmission, and wastewater collection. However, leveraging an integrated GIS and Work Management System (WMS) will enhance success in managing maintenance of distributed assets.

Many organizations with distributed assets have a vision to be best-of-class in their work practices and use of technology. To support this, industry best practice requires an integrated GIS/WMS to effectively manage all work on these distributed assets. Goals of an integrated system include:
  1. All work activities are documented
  2. To perform historical analysis
  3. To perform operational analysis
  4. To meet regulatory challenges
Goal 1: All Work Activities Are Documented

The first order of business here is to establish a business rule that all work activities are documented. Processes should be automated where appropriate. Automation reduces reliance on hardcopy tracking logs and forms. This goal directly supports achieving the other goals, particularly meeting the regulatory challenges.

Goal 2: To Perform Historical Analysis

Fully documented work activities provide the basis to perform trending and analysis of:
  • Performance of a specific asset, geographic area or system over time including failure history
  • Frequently Visited Areas? - e.g., high number of inspection, maintenance or repair activities per asset, geographic area or system
  • Cost (Labor, materials, equipment) of work per asset, geographic area, or system
  • Any other criteria you can think of
Goal 3: To Perform Operational Analysis

Although not the specific topic of this paper, integration of WMS with SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) provides ability to:
  • Download SCADA runtimes, cycle counts, and meter reads for specific assets to trigger work activities based on a pre-defined parameters
  • Perform modeling of geographic areas or system performance to see what is going on (flows, flow rates, pressures, etc.)
  • Provide visual status of geographic areas or systems
Goal 4: To Meet Regulatory Challenges

Two regulatory drivers, GASB 34 and CMOM, reinforce the need for an integrated GIS/WMS. In summary, these regulations require identification and tracking of all assets, and documentation of all work performed Each is described in further detail below.

GASB Statement No. 34

Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement Number 34 (GASB-34) requires local governments and municipalities to know how much they spend on infrastructure construction, borrow to finance it and how the infrastructure is maintained. Compliance with GASB-34 requires the ability to identify assets and report on their value.

This requires practices and enabling technology to systematically identify, track, and manage assets. All asset related work (maintenance, repair or inspections) must be documented. The design implication is that asset inventories must be integrated with work management.

CMOM

Capacity, Management, Operation, and Maintenance (CMOM) is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed regulation on sewer collection systems. Documentation is a critical element of CMOM compliance. Basic tenets of this proposed regulation include:
  • Sewer System Documentation - Measure activities for capacity management, mapping and map maintenance, facilities and equipment, trending and analysis of flow volumes and spill histories, routine operations and maintenance (O&M) activities, short- and long-term rehabilitation and replacement plans, training, and maintenance parts inventories.
  • Asset Management-Includes a complete inventory of assets and procedures for documenting and determining their condition over time. Procedures for identifying near- and long-term repair and upgrades including documentation of work. Ability to perform historical analysis and trending of sanitary sewer overflows. Identify hydraulic (capacity) and physical deficiencies and prioritize responses. Ability to identify preventive and predictive maintenance requirements and to manage the areas or systems based on historical performance data.
  • Work Management- Includes development of preventive maintenance program. Identifying routine preventive maintenance activities and inspection schedules and documentation of maintenance/inspections performed.
  • Materials Management - Includes managing maintenance supporting parts and tools inventories plus keeping equipment in working order.
A WMS integrated with GIS positions organizations with distributed assets to compile asset inventory and work related data for the infrastructure in support of GASB-34 and CMOM requirements.

Work Manaement System Structure

A WMS (also known as CMMS, computerized maintenance management system) is a computer software application designed to assist in more effectively planning, managing, and administering processes for performing maintenance operations. Many routine functions such as tracking, logging, and documenting work that were previously done by hand can be

automated. A WMS typically consists of a series of modules, each having a primary function performed in support of managing maintenance. Examples of typical modules are:
  • Work Management - This module is used for managing the life cycle of work activities. The Work Management Life Cycle consists of eight steps: work request, work order, planning, scheduling, performing work, recording data, work closeout, historical analysis and reporting.
  • Asset Management - Assets are those entities that work is physically performed on. This module is used to capture data about the assets themselves (e.g. asset number, description, manufacturer, model number, asset nameplate data). Typically, the module will allow for setting up asset hierarchies to show parent-child relationships between assets.
  • Materials Management - This module manages purchasing activities and is used to identify and manage spare parts inventory stored in the warehouse. It will typically include such information as: part numbers, descriptions, supplier, stock code or inventory code, transaction history, etc.
  • People Management - Labor tracking and reporting are possible by managing job classifications, training, certifications and qualifications and labor rates in this module.




GIS/WMS Integration Enhannces Work Management

The challenge of maintenance managers is to effectively manage the Work Management Lifecycle. Each step of the Lifecycle is described below with an explanation of how an integrated GIS/WMS can support managing work activities and meet the four goals previously stated.

Work Request

A WMS allows any authorized user to communicate a need for work (i.e. Work Request) electronically. A Work Request communicates:
  • Who is requesting the work
  • What geographical location or asset requires work
  • Initial priority of the work
  • Description of a problem
Customer Service or Dispatch groups initiate many Work Requests based on customer call- in. With an integrated GIS/WMS, the applicable GIS map is identified automatically based on asset identifier or street address and is attached to the Work Request. A customer?s location can be quickly correlated to a geographical area or system and high priority customers (e.g., hospital, dialysis patients, etc.) can be flagged to assist with prioritization. This integration also supports the ability to identify and view graphically other customers that may be affected by an outage.

The WMS can send an electronic notification to a foreman or a crew that they have a new Work Request. Through the use of wireless technologies, the foreman or crew can receive these notifications in the field.

Work Order

In many organizations, the Work Request problem statement is subject to validation as 1) a true problem and 2) within the jurisdiction of the organization. Once validated, a Work Request becomes a Work Order.

A Work Order captures all the critical information required to track priority, criticality, materials, labor, work instructions, safety requirements, and costs. Additionally, a WMS can automatically generate GIS horizontal and vertical coordinates based on the associated asset or physical address.

Plan/Schedule

Planners/Schedulers determine resources needed to perform work such as instructions or permits, materials, tools, equipment, and labor. They have the flexibility to prepare standard job plans for routine inspection, preventive maintenance, or repair activities. The benefit of this is that for "routine" activities work elements are pre-defined such as:
  • Work order content
  • Sequencing of events
  • Correlation of materials, tools, and/or equipment needed to perform work
  • Identification of crew size per activity including job classification, qualifications, and certifications.
Although many inspection, maintenance, and repair activities are routine, a new work order is created for each work instance. Job plan standards eliminate having to re-create work order content repeatedly for routine activities.

Once the Work Order plan is approved, it is ready for scheduling. Scheduling considers as a minimum an asset?s criticality, priority, and resource availability. Work Orders are backlogged accordingly.

Although many inspection, maintenance, and repair activities are routine, a new work order is created for each work instance. Job plan standards eliminate having to re-create work order content repeatedly for routine activities.

Once the Work Order plan is approved, it is ready for scheduling. Scheduling considers as a minimum an asset?s criticality, priority, and resource availability. Work Orders are backlogged accordingly.

In many organizations, work is manually organized by geographical location. An integrated GIS/WMS can plot Work Orders by geographical location to support work planning.

A WMS further supports the standard work orders by defining how often a routine inspection or preventive activity is performed. A trigger is set in the WMS to create a Work Order when the activity is to be performed.

Perform Work

WMS Work Orders are queued electronically by individual or crew assignment. Each user views Work Orders in their queue to determine daily assignments. The Work Order contains all information necessary to perform the job. The applicable GIS map is attached to the Work Order.

In the absence of electronic access to GIS maps, field crews carry hardcopy map books or aperture cards that they view with hand-held viewers. Problems with this can vary including out-of-date maps, legibility of aperture cards, etc. When data is not readily availability, the crews have to call in to get the information they need to perform a job causing work delays. An integrated GIS/WMS available in the field provides users more immediate access to information needed to perform work.

Record Data

As work progresses, users record data electronically including the following:
  • Actual work performed
  • Change in asset information - e.g., manufacturer, model, material
  • Updates to GIS data including red-line of maps
  • Actual labor hours
  • Actual materials, tools, or equipment used
  • Asset physical condition observations
To ensure data standardization and support searching and retrieval, business rules can be established for WMS data entry. For example, if work type = flushing, enter the estimated amount of water used. Drop down lists of information can be provided so that users can point and click on the appropriate data; this promotes standardization and eliminates a users need to type.

In a manual system, workers maintain their own hardcopy logs of performed activities. However, if this information is stored electronically and is easily searchable in a WMS, it eliminates the need to maintain hardcopy logs. Additionally, hardcopy forms can be automated; thereby, eliminating many of the hardcopy forms that workers initiate.

Work Closeout

Work Closeout consists of finalizing and entering data into the WMS and changing Work Order status to closed.

Enhanced communication results because users can be notified electronically that the Work Order associated with their Work Request has been closed.

Historical Analysis & Reporting

Without an integrated GIS/WMS, historical analysis is performed by manually researching hardcopy files or by relying on the crews? memory. Hardcopy logs are maintained to assist with ?jogging the memory?.

An integrated GIS/WMS facilitates performing analysis on just about any topic you can think of. Work history can be plotted on a GIS map graphically by user specified queries (e.g., frequently visited areas, odor complaints, size of line, etc.).

All work is categorized appropriately (e.g., type of work, failure codes, etc.) and tied to an asset to support analysis. Area and system analysis is facilitated because queries can be performed by type of work or failure code by area or system and plotted geographically on the GIS map.

Further integration of GIS/WMS to SCADA facilitates real time analysis of areas or systems. Operational staff can view work scheduled or in progress to coordinate system operations and outages.

Asset Management

An asset is anything that requires inspection, maintenance, or repair. Assets are inventoried and catalogued in a hierarchical structure based on organization and physical entities.

Organizational entities are business structures that need to track maintenance activities (e.g., department, division, cost center, yard, plant, etc.).

Physical entities are assets that need to be physically worked on (e.g., Area, Address, Valve, Hydrant, Main, Manhole, etc.).



Example


Asset attributes may be defined and captured for any asset. For example, a fire hydrant may have the following attributes:
  • Asset criticality rating
  • Fire hydrant identifier
  • GIS Latitude/Longitude coordinates
  • Reference to Quarter Section map or drawing
  • Measure to/ Location of
  • Independent valve identification
  • Manufacturer
  • Model
  • PSI, Etc.
      • An integrated GIS/WMS provides electronic access from WMS asset identification to associated GIS data. Ideally, field crews have remote access to GIS/WMS information. Integration allows crews to redline GIS data to identify changes and/or discrepancies between actual field conditions and information depicted on drawings or maps.

      Materials/People Management

      The ability to track materials and expended labor is an important component of work management and meeting the regulatory drivers. The cost of materials and people is an input into knowing the total cost of ownership and maintenance. Additionally, by tracking material usage and labor expenditure over time, better forecasting methods can be employed to ensure availability of resources when needed.

      Both materials and people may be tracked in the WMS. Alternatively, the WMS may be integrated to an existing financial/accounting or timekeeping software package such as SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, etc.)

      Cnoclution

      Industry best practice requires an integrated GIS/WMS to effectively manage the Work Management Lifecycle and meet the goals of an integrated system including:
      1. All Work activities are documented
      2. To perform historical analysis
      3. To perform operational analysis
      4. To meet regulatory challenges
      GASB-34 and CMOM regulations establish the need to inventory and valuate your assets. These regulations also establish the need to monitor and maintain records regarding the condition and cost of ownership of these assets.

      One tool that can be used to meet these needs is a WMS. A WMS alone can be an effective tool when your assets are situated in a physically localized environment. However, as assets become more geographically distributed, the effectiveness of a WMS alone quickly becomes more challenged.

      An integrated GIS/WMS overcomes the challenges associated with managing work on geographically distributed assets and meeting regulatory requirements proposed by GASB-34 and CMOM. Success in work management can be enhanced by leveraging data contained in a typical GIS and WMS.

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