 In the programs on maintenance management systems and developing maintenance standards, we learned how various parts of a maintenance management system fit together. Some items must be developed in specific order. Identifying maintenance activities, for instance, comes before taking a feature's inventory. And the inventory must precede developing standards. The specific order is necessary because managers need information about which activities to perform and where and how often to perform them. With this information, they can create a work program, a performance budget, and a work schedule, essential parts of the work planning process. In this program, we will cover the development of each of these documents and show how they interrelate. A work program is most helpful to area maintenance engineers and field supervisors. It tells them the kinds and amounts of maintenance to be done in a specific time period, usually a year, and authorizes them to do it. It provides uniformity of effort and quality. Without a work program, work would be based on each foreman's personal opinion. Field supervisors are the basic organizers of a work plan. When their effort is complete, middle and top management review the scope and volume of the program. They set quality standards, set resource levels, and approve the work program itself. There are two ways to create a work program. The first method involves using average values to calculate work quantities. Here's how it's done. Field supervisors either take an original inventory of highway facilities or update an existing one. At the same time, they identify special maintenance needs or preservation projects. Preservation projects usually involve major work, such as overlays or bridge deck replacement. Next, they separate maintenance activities into three categories. A category for activities like crack filling with quantity standards based on estimates, such as 20 liters of liquid asphalt per kilometer of road. Another category for activities with quantity standards based on frequencies, such as bridge cleaning, where there may be a need for two cleanings per year, and miscellaneous or non-standardized activities like sprucing up roadside parks. Now, managers can figure quantities for each activity. For activities with quantity standards based on estimates, they multiply the quantity standard times the inventory amount. For instance, 20 liters of liquid asphalt per kilometer times 216 kilometers per year means 4,320 liters applied per year. For activities with quantity standards, they multiply the quantity standard times the inventory. For instance, two bridge cleanings per year times 381 bridge installations means 762 cleanings per year. For non-standardized activities, managers have to use whatever evidence is available. For instance, 16 man-hours to repair and clean a park times 20 roadside parks means 320 man-hours of work on parks per year. Combining all activities and quantities produces the annual work program. The other method of creating a work program is based on individual estimates. This method relies heavily on quality standards and foreman input. The first steps are similar to the method already described. There is an inventory, field supervisors identify maintenance and betterment projects. Then there are meetings with all levels of field management to create the work program. Discussions in these meetings cover inventory, quality standards, work frequency, and special projects. Next, foreman systematically inspect roadways. This step is the major difference from the first method. Its purpose is to identify and estimate the total quantities of non-frequent and special project activities. Now each area supervisor collects the inspection data and calculates his own work program. When that is done, upper management collects all the individual work programs, combines, reviews, and approves them as one work program. The result of each method is the same. A work program showing estimates of the kinds and amounts of work to be done. Let's look at this typical work program. It identifies the organization unit, the time period for the work program, activities and their reference numbers, a work unit for each activity, and the planned quantity for each activity. There is still one final step. Managers must check to be sure the work program can be accomplished with the agency's available resources. That means comparing the manpower and equipment requirements with what is available. Here's how that is done. Let's suppose pothole patching requires a two-person crew. Its average daily production is three tons, and its average productivity is five man hours per ton. According to our work program, the roads in the area will require an estimated 150 tons for the year. Therefore, the manpower estimate is 150 times five man hours per ton, equaling 750 man hours. The 750 man hours divided by product of two people times six hours per day equals 62.5 crew days. This sort of calculation needs to be performed for every activity on the work program to obtain the total number of man hours required for all activities. This is when a computer is helpful. Then, to determine how many people the entire program needs, managers must divide the total man hours by the official number of work hours per year for the agency. This calculation of manpower requirements is very important. It would be foolish to try to accomplish an impossible program. For example, if 14 people were needed, but the organization only had 10, the work program would have unrealistic goals. It would need further revision. Either of these two methods of creating a work program will work in most organizations. The main objective is to have a uniform level of maintenance. A work program is essential to meeting this objective. A few final points about the work program. Management should avoid being too rigid about it. It is primarily a planning document. Emergency work should be done regardless of the program. For non-emergency work, managers should try not to exceed the original estimates unless they find other work will require less than originally estimated. A program can help managers focus on where money is being spent. To do this, group activities by category or by overall percent of budget. A program can also help with budget trimming. Managers can trim by relaxing the quality standards across the board or in specific areas. Or they can reduce activities heavy on use of expensive material. A work program is useful only if people know about it and are familiar with it. Management should distribute it widely in a form that has meaning to everyone. Using terms like crew days instead of volume estimate. With a work program in place, the next step is to prepare the performance budget. A budget is an estimate of the amount of money required to operate an organization for a period of time, usually one year. A performance budget is one based primarily on the cost of work to be done as defined by quality standards. Cost estimates are broken down by the object of expenditure, meaning labor, equipment, and material. Or by activity. To create a performance budget, managers must know approximately how much of each activity should be done. How much resources are required. And how much resources will cost per unit of work. To create a performance budget, managers must estimate the cost of maintenance work. And they must indicate the amount of approved funds available to do maintenance work in a particular geographic region. To keep track of the budget, the organization's accounting and reporting systems must track information at the right level. The managers who calculate the performance budget base their work on the work program, performance standards, and unit costs for manpower and equipment. Let's see how it works. Suppose for pothole patching, the work program shows 3,000 tons of pre-mix required. The performance standard sets the daily production at 3 tons. The activity requires one dump truck, plus hand tools, and a two-person crew. To calculate crew days, the manager must divide 3,000 tons by 3 tons per day. The activity calls for 1,000 crew days. On a yearly basis, that means two men times 8 hours a day times 1,000 crew days or 16,000 man hours a year. The activity also calls for 1 dump truck times 8 hours a day times 1,000 crew days or 8,000 truck hours per year. Next, to calculate costs, managers must know unit costs for resources. In this case, they are labor $8.20 per hour, dump truck $1 per hour, small tools $0.50 per day, and pre-mix $15 per ton. To figure the costs, multiply the $8.20 per hour labor cost times 16,000 man hours. That's $131,200. Equipment at $15 per hour times 8,000 hours equals $120,000. Small tools at $0.50 a day times 1,000 days is $500. And material at $15 a ton times 3,000 tons is $45,000. The total of all these costs, $296,700, is the total amount of money needed to do the expected amount of pothole patching for the year. Managers should remember to include costs of any contractual services in the budget. When this calculation is done for each activity, the manager has a completed performance budget. Unit costs for each activity are useful pieces of information. The unit cost for pothole patching is the price of one ton of pre-mix patching material plus labor and equipment needed to place that one ton. In other words, the total cost of $296,700 divided by 3,000 tons, or $98.90 per ton. Knowing unit costs makes budget calculations easier the next time. It also makes adjustments to the work program and budget easier. It's clear the work program and budget go hand in hand. An action affecting one will affect the other. If the budget is reduced, the work program must also be reduced. If work program activities change, it affects the budget. There are several ways to calculate a budget. All of them should yield the same results. The last part of the work planning process is the creation of a work schedule. There are basically two kinds of work. Periodic work, like mowing and litter pickup, scheduled over the entire year, and work done when it is needed, like pothole patching and guardrail repair. When creating the schedule, managers must avoid straining the organization's manpower. Typical manpower requirements might run low in one season and higher in another. The goal is to level the workload as much as possible. That might mean hiring part-time help or putting people on overtime. A work schedule calendar is seasonal. The calendar timeframe is usually a month. Activities are grouped. Then a bar identifies which month or months to do each. There are main periods of performance and possible periods of performance. Once again, the work schedule is of most use when it is carefully controlled and communicated. The maintenance engineer or field supervisor usually controls it. Often, quarterly planning summaries contain only the planned work for that quarter. Then field supervisors concentrate only on that portion of the program instead of looking at the entire year. In this program, we covered how to create a work program, a performance budget, and a work schedule. And we've seen how they relate to one another. Field supervisors are the basic organizers of a work plan. When their effort is complete, middle and top management review the scope and volume of the program. They set quality standards, set resource levels, and approve the work program itself. There are two ways to create a work program. The first method involves using average values to calculate work quantities. Combining all activities and quantities produces the annual work program. The other method of creating a work program is based on individual estimates. This method relies heavily on quality standards and form and input. Either of these two methods of creating a work program will work in most organizations. The main objective is to have a uniform level of maintenance. A budget is an estimate of the amount of money required to operate an organization for a period of time. Usually one year. A performance budget is one based primarily on the cost of work to be done as defined by quality standards. The managers who calculate the performance budget base their work on the work program, performance standards, and unit costs for manpower and equipment. Knowing unit costs makes budget calculations easier the next time. It also makes adjustments to the work program and budget easier. It's clear the work program and budget go hand in hand. An action affecting one will affect the other. If the budget is reduced, the work program must also be reduced. If work program activities change, it affects the budget. The last part of the work planning process is the creation of a work schedule. Typical manpower requirements might run low in one season and higher in another. The goal is to level the workload as much as possible. That might mean hiring part-time help or putting people on overtime. A work schedule calendar is seasonal. The calendar timeframe is usually a month. Activities are grouped. Then a bar identifies which month or months to do each. For more information on this or other IRF videotapes, write to the International Road Federation or call the numbers on your screen.