 They're looking at a modern highway agency in action. It's like most agencies. Its maintenance goals are to preserve and repair a network of roadways and bridges. That means managers and engineers are constantly looking for new ways to ensure adequate levels of safety and convenience for motorists. At the same time, they're trying to use limited resources effectively and economically. Over time, the public has made a huge investment in the road network. A manager's job, in short, is to preserve that investment. But this agency is a little different. Several years ago, management realized maintenance work was changing. New methods and techniques meant maintenance was becoming less labor intensive. It also meant an increasing role for engineers and technicians. More emphasis on maintenance teams. Specialists performing many maintenance functions. And microcomputers making planning, scheduling, and communication easier and faster. That's when managers looked into what's called a maintenance management system, known as MMS. They knew their agency was unique in structure and problems. But they also knew much of their work was repetitive and seasonal. They felt a system approach might improve operations. They found maintenance management systems were originally designed to improve productivity. But they also helped with quality control. They investigated and discovered an MMS could help with planning, organizing, directing, and controlling maintenance work. Now, after two years using an MMS, managers have identified several benefits. They can develop and quantify maintenance requirements. They have standard levels of service. They can apply uniformly. They allocate resources objectively based on need. They schedule and perform work more efficiently and economically. And they evaluate performance by comparing work accomplished with their original goals. All levels of management have embraced the MMS. From foreman, through superintendents, and district engineers, right up to top management. The reason is that it serves each level in different ways. How did all this happen? Let's take a closer look at what makes up a maintenance management system. This agency, and most others with an MMS, use six basic elements in their system. An inventory of all the features of the network. Procedures describing how each work activity should be done. Standards for work that help in measuring how much work is done. A work program and budget. A schedule of work. And a series of periodic reports helping managers monitor work. Let's look at each in detail. The inventory of roadway features must be accurate and up to date. A comprehensive initial inventory will be useful later. By adding information, managers can use the same inventory system for bridge and pavement management systems. The inventory must have a common referencing system. In the past, agencies have used kilometer posts or road sections. Today, with satellite technology, there is a global positioning system, or GPS, using latitude and longitude coordinates. The new method locates roadway features more accurately and allows for graphic presentation of the data. An inventory should also include an inspection procedure. It should identify routine maintenance needed, where it is needed, and estimate the volume of work. For special maintenance, an engineer should inspect the problem and recommend a solution. There should be a clear set of work activities. Work activities are definitions of types of work performed and the type of problem corrected, like pothole patching, mowing grass, cleaning debris from culverts, and repairing bridge decks. All maintenance personnel should have the same understanding of each work activity. The categories should be basic. Similar efforts should be grouped under one activity. And they should not be broken down into micro levels. Managers should categorize the activities. Common categories are major and minor, or special, and periodic or routine. Each activity should have a work measurement unit. Common ones are hectares of grass mode, kilometers of lane or square meters of surface patched, or meters of joints sealed. For activities that cannot be measured by area, man hours are the only units that will work. By identifying specific activities, an agency can plan work effectively and schedule and control operations. Some agencies only have 10 to 15 activities, others as many as 40 to 60. An agency should concentrate on the vital few activities, covering most of their workload. By creating hundreds of activities, an agency falls into the trap of wasteful micromanagement. The actual number of activities will depend on the agency's scope of responsibility. Managers should periodically review and update the activities list. New methods of doing work, more effective materials and equipment, and changes in the type of deficiencies may mean changes are necessary. Using specific agency goals, managers can create specific criteria for developing standards. With standards, the agency has formal criteria for determining the need for maintenance, the required level of performance, and the resources necessary to attain the quality and expected production. There are three types of maintenance standards, quality, quantity, and performance. Quality standards determine how well the facility is to be maintained. These are the most difficult for managers to develop. They must use analysis, past experience, and engineering judgment to come up with effective measures. Quantity standards define the amount of work that must be done. The standards apply to each activity required for a given class of highway to maintain the facility at a determined level. Performance standards describe how to do activities and the rate at which to do them. This performance standard is for pothole patching, as shown in the IRF videotape on pothole patching of asphalt concrete pavement. It specifies proper work methods, crew size, equipment, tools, and types of materials. Some standards may seem overly detailed, but the success of an MMS depends on setting levels of maintenance, then scheduling the work to maintain that level. Computers have made creating a work program and budget much easier. Applications will run on mainframes, minis, or PCs. Computers make revisions or changes to work priorities. Quantity standards or performance standards much easier. A computer can recalculate them and compare the results to the previous plan. Once approved, the work program and budget become the agency's official work plan. It will serve as the basic plan for doing maintenance over a specified period of time. The work program portion of the plan describes the types and periodic amounts of work to be done. It also indicates the required volume of labor, equipment, and materials needed to accomplish the work. The budget sets the unit cost for each kind of resource required. Managers use these unit costs to calculate cost requirements by resource type and total or sub-unit costs. A link with a financial or cost accounting system usually provides a good record of unit cost data. An MMS can help managers and supervisors with scheduling work activities. The assignments will be in accordance with the predetermined plan as dictated by seasonal variation in the weather. Scheduling usually follows the annual work calendar, although other shorter or longer time periods could be used. Of course, managers cannot plan all routine activities on an annual basis for each route. Unforeseen needs arise. Maintenance foremen or supervisors must perform systematic inspections and identify unscheduled work. The MMS can take many factors into consideration, such as travel distance and time from base of operations, traffic conditions at different time periods, and resources available. In designing the scheduling component of the MMS, managers should consider the agency's size, geographic distribution of personnel, and communication procedures and equipment. A final essential element of an MMS is work reporting and monitoring. Reports account for labor spent, use of equipment, and expenditure of materials. These items all cost money. If the MMS is closely integrated with the accounting system, it will track them easily. Actual reporting procedures will depend on the same agency variables as scheduling, items such as size and geographic distribution of personnel. The reports themselves will vary. The end result is reports that indicate work accomplished and inventory conditions. First-line supervisors need detail. Top-level managers need summaries of accomplishments and resource expenditures. Reports should be as simple as possible. Most people don't like paperwork associated with reporting. Most managers don't like to study reports to find answers to problems. So the reports should be designed to be used, and they should be easy to follow. Monitoring consists of periodic review and analysis of work performance and productivity. There are several kinds of monitoring. Exception reporting saves time and is effective in identifying problems. Periodic meetings and discussions with crews help explain these exceptions. Revise operations or otherwise evaluate work control. And periodic review of activities make sure work methods are satisfactory and that standards are realistic. In this program, we have examined a typical maintenance management system. At the agency we have shown and others with an MMS, there are six basic elements to the system. First, an MMS should have an inventory of all the features of the road network. It must be accurate and up-to-date. The inventory must have a common referencing system. An inventory should also include an inspection procedure. An MMS should have procedures describing how each work activity should be done. Work activities are definitions of types of work performed and the type of problem corrected. Like pothole patching, mowing grass, cleaning debris from culverts, and repairing bridge decks. All maintenance personnel should have the same understanding of each work activity. An MMS should have standards. With standards, the agency has formal criteria for determining the need for maintenance, the required level of performance, and the resources necessary to attain the quality and expected production. There are three types of maintenance standards, quality, quantity, and performance. Quality standards determine how well a facility is to be maintained. Quantity standards define the amount of work that must be done. The standards apply to each activity required for a given class of highway to maintain the facility at a determined level. Performance standards describe how to do activities and the rate at which to do them. An MMS should have a work program and budget. Once approved, the work program and budget become the agency's official work plan. It will serve as the basic plan for doing maintenance over a specified period of time. An MMS can help managers and supervisors with scheduling work activities. The assignments will be in accordance with the predetermined plan as dictated by seasonal variation in the weather. Scheduling usually follows the annual work calendar, although other shorter or longer time periods could be used. A final essential element of an MMS is work reporting and monitoring. Reports account for labor spent, use of equipment, and expenditure of materials. These items all cost money. If the MMS is closely integrated with the accounting system, it will track them easily. Actual reporting procedures will depend on the same agency variables as scheduling. Items such as size and geographic distribution of personnel. For more information on this or other IRF videotapes, write to the International Road Federation or call the numbers on your screen.