 A successful maintenance management system is an efficient method of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the maintenance of roads and streets. While all local highway officials are keenly aware of the importance of maintenance and protecting the taxpayers' investment, few managers in these days of shrinking resources have the time to enjoy another aspect of maintenance, the dynamic efficiency of a well-managed maintenance system. The more efficient the system, the less noticeable it is as it hums quietly along, like a well-oiled machine, with each part doing its share at the right time in the right place. If you are like most maintenance managers, there are hundreds of numbers and names that you need to keep track of. And while there are many ways of doing that, some perhaps more cumbersome than others, they might not be able to give you the facts that you need when you need them. On the other hand, some maintenance management systems may be too complex for your present needs. Fully aware of the unique position of the local highway agencies and of their need to implement a workable system, the Federal Highway Administration contracted experts and requested local input to provide you with a way of managing maintenance that is right for you, the local maintenance manager. Now, the end result of the FHWA's efforts are contained in this easy to use manual. Now, because this book was designed, especially with you in mind, you'll find it helpful and informative and right to the point. And to make sure that it becomes a total reference tool, space has been left for you to write in your own comments and do your own calculations. The manual also includes tips from other maintenance managers to guide you as you develop your own maintenance management system, or MMS for short. This videotape is designed to familiarize you with each of the components of an MMS and to ensure your successful use of the manual. The entire videotape consists of seven five to ten minute segments which closely follow chapters three to nine of the maintenance manual. At the conclusion of each segment, your instructor will provide you with exercises so that you can implement the component shown in that segment. To get the maximum benefit from the videotape, take a few minutes to read the chapter objectives before viewing each segment. Now, in the next segment, we will describe the maintenance management system and we'll talk about setting the objectives for an MMS. For now, stop the tape and review chapters three and four of your MMS manual. Now, before we start talking about the MMS, let's take just a minute to review the purpose of any management system, which is to provide for the orderly conduct of planning and budgeting work, organizing to perform the work, directing it, and controlling the results. As you can see, there is a continuous relationship between these functions with the last one controlling, providing the feedback necessary for improved planning and budgeting. In an MMS, these management functions have been incorporated in a practical way to permit their application to maintenance operations. The MMS consists of six different elements, setting the basic objectives, defining work activities and standards, developing annual work programs, organizing and allocating resources, authorizing and scheduling work, and reporting and evaluating performance. Now, in this segment, we'll start by explaining what we mean by setting objectives. As is true in any activity, the first step in developing an MMS consists of determining our purpose and direction. In other words, we have to define what it is that we want to achieve. In a general way, every public works maintenance organization has the objectives of preserving the public investment, providing adequate levels of service for safe and efficient operation, and making efficient use of available resources. However, in order to accomplish the work required to meet those general goals, we need to set specific work-oriented objectives. To do that, we have to define two things, levels of service and policy statements. Now, in maintenance operations, level of service refers to the amount of work required to achieve a desired condition. For example, deciding that for a particular roadway, four moans per year would be a reasonable compromise between attractiveness and affordability. The initial levels of service are set based on experience, professional judgment, desirability, and the experience of other agencies, such as the FHWA or the Transportation Research Board. Levels of service are expressed as quantity standards, which specify the number of units of work needed annually on a specific feature. For instance, the quantity standard for our roadway would be four. That is, four moans per year. We'll talk about quantity standards in more detail in the next segment, but for now it's important to remember that quantity standards are one way in which general objectives can be converted into specific work-oriented ones. Now, after establishing the general and specific objectives, we need a means of communicating them to people who will do the work, as well as those responsible for oversight and funding. A statement of policy is one way of communicating the agency's general goals. This formal statement will clarify the overall maintenance objective and the general policies and procedures for achieving them. Specific objectives can be publicized in technical memos or manuals. These documents will become both the foundation on which you'll build the MMS and a way of informing everyone involved of the agency's intentions so they can plan their own activities. Your MMS manual contains a sample policy statement, page 6, chapter 4. Take a few minutes to review it before starting the exercises, which will be distributed by your instructor. As you read the sample, think about the changes that you would have to make to adapt this statement to your agency's requirements. This completes our general description of the MMS and the importance of setting objectives. Stop the tape for now. When we return, we'll talk about work activities and standards, which is the subject of chapter 5 of your MMS manual. Well, now that we have formally stated the general and basic maintenance objectives, we now need to develop three key elements for planning the annual maintenance program, budget and resources. The elements are work activities, quantity standards and performance standards. Let's talk about work activities first. Basically, work activities are all the operations which your agency has to perform. While your manual contains some examples of typical activities, there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind. When defining work activities, each significant maintenance job should be given a title and a description which clearly identify that particular job. Then each activity must have a measurement unit of work accomplished. It's a good idea to check with the maintenance supervisors to find out what units can be most easily measured by the foreman in the field. For instance, it's easier to measure tons than cubic yards, since the dump truck usually arrives at the site with a weight ticket. Now, a final factor when you must consider developing your list of work activities is a category. In other words, the kind of groupings that will be most suitable for your agency. For example, work activities can be divided by phase into routine, seasonal or periodic maintenance, or by function, for instance, roadway, drainage or so forth, or by both, of course. These categories can be given a number code, even if you're not going to use an automated system right now. Later on, when you're ready to automate, the codes will be essential for data processing. Let me give you a word of caution here. When developing your list of work activities, don't make it too long and don't spend more than a few days working on it. The best thing to do is to analyze the work that your agency has been doing in the past few months. Which jobs are more important and which jobs are performed more frequently? Which jobs are relatively minor? Take advantage of the maintenance supervisor's experience and enlist their help. Then, when you've compiled your list and reviewed it with the maintenance engineer, you're ready to begin the quantity standards. As you recall in the last segment, we said that quantity standards were the number of work units per year required to maintain the level of service for a particular feature. Now, bear in mind that the quantity standard is a planning value. This means that it is an average value for all the features of a particular class. In order to establish the quantity standards for each activity, you will need the list of work activities and the level of service policies or statements and past performance records if available. With that information in front of you, begin by setting planning values for routine activities which require certain frequency each year. Let me show you a way of visualizing quantity standards. Let's say that the activity is right-of-way mowing and that the local agency has placed a high value on its appearance. To provide an acceptable level of service, the roadway will require four mowings per year. If it's only mowed three times per year, there will be many complaints from the community. However, if it's mowed five times and the level of resident complaints is similar to when it was mowed four times, you are unnecessarily expanding 25% more resources. The right quantity standard for this community is four mowings per growing season. After establishing quantity standards for routine activities which are performed with a certain frequency, you'll be able to estimate routine activities which are less precise. Then you can establish the values for periodic activities. While it's important to make a realistic estimate of the quantity standards, don't spend excessive effort in establishing exact values. The advantage of an MMS is that over the years, the system will provide feedback on the relationship between work effort and the level of service so that the quantity standards can be determined with greater accuracy. Your MMS manual contains a list of sample quantity standards on page 14 of Chapter 5. Use these as a reference to develop your own. Now that we've talked about the procedures for defining work activities and for developing quantity standards, we come to the third key element of the MMS, one that is used in all of the functions of the management cycle, the performance standard. Basically, it's a written description of the most efficient combination of labor, equipment and materials and the proper work methods to follow to perform a work activity. Now, when is a good time to develop performance standards? Actually, they can be developed at the same time as the quantity standards in one task since each activity has to have its own performance standard. As the performance standards are developed, you can also make a list of all the resources needed so that the accounting or bookkeeping section can start to calculate the necessary units cost, which you'll need later to calculate the budget. Let's take a closer look at a sample standard to identify each part and determine the information that has to be included. The name and code are taken from the list of work activities, as is the description. The performance criteria contains information on when the work is to be scheduled and performed and whether it is unlimited or controlled. In other words, whether it can be performed whenever there is a need or only up to certain limits. This part of the standard contains the resource requirements, that is the crew, equipment and material needed to perform the activity. The part where the biggest variations are generally found is the one that details the work methods. Now, we all know that each foreman has his own special way of doing things. Since it's important to develop a standard way of doing the work, some initial diplomacy will probably be required. If you consult now with the supervisors and foreman, it will pay off later. Remember, they're the ones who will put your MMS into practice. The work method should contain all the important steps in an activity, which should never be more than 10 or 12 since the crew has to remember them. Another item which must be reviewed with the supervisors or foreman is the average productivity and work unit. This quantity will be used for planning and evaluation, so it's necessary to set a figure which is accurate and realistic. After developing the quantity and while the performance standards are underway, you are ready to begin the feature inventory and calculate the work program and budget. However, we've covered very important points in this segment. Let's take a break so that you can review this chapter in your manual. If you have any questions about this segment, be sure to clear them up with your instructor before going on to the next segment. Now, in this segment, we'll talk about performing an inventory of the maintenance features. In these days of computers and instant data accessibility, the inventory can be made a lot easier by using a computer to file the information and make the calculations. However, the concepts of the work program and performance budget are the most important elements of the maintenance system. If a manager does not fully understand the relationship of all the elements, the actions of the computer will remain somehow mysterious and no real management will take place. Therefore, it is essential to understand how data is collected for the feature inventory and how it is used to calculate a work program. The MMS inventory consists of counting only those features which affect maintenance, for example, type and width of pavement as opposed to radius of curvature. You start by listing the major features which you need to inventory, together with the measuring unit. Then, you will basically use two approaches to obtain the information for your inventory. One consists of using existing records, and the other is by collecting field data. Good records will be of big help in completing the inventory, but since counted features should be as accurate as possible, you will need to organize one or more two-person crews to conduct the inventory. Your MMS manual describes a method of storing and retrieving this information. Keep in mind that the inventory will produce a lot of paper. To make sure that you will be able to get the data when you need it and need to use it and update it, you need a system for storing the information. Let's suppose that you have all this taken care of. How do you begin to conduct the inventory? Well, first, you need to prepare for taking the inventory. You'll need the quantity standards, which give the features to be inventoried. Then, you should have a road network map, which indicates the origin and end of the road sections, and a worksheet, such as this one, with columns for activities, quantity standards, and inventory data. The worksheet will also help you later in calculating the work program, as well as in recording and summarizing the inventory. In addition, you will need two basic forms, one for the actual collection of data, and the other to summarize it. For gathering the data, you can use the roadway inventory field sheet included at the end of your MMS manual. You may either use it as is or with your own modifications. The summarized data can then be transferred to an inventory summary form, which you will use when calculating the work program. After completing these preparations, you can plan the inventory. That is, you'll have to divide the road network into identifiable sections and determine how many people will be needed to complete the task in a reasonable period of time. Then, you have to develop a way of training the personnel who will be conducting the inventory. A good way of finding out what's required might be to conduct some of the inventory yourself. That way, you'll be able to develop the best ways to instruct the crews on how to perform the inventory and complete the forms. Although it's best to use as few field crews as possible, planning and training will take the inventory process and make it a smooth one. To improve efficiency, it's a good idea to establish a standard routine for receiving, checking and summarizing the data. Then, after completing the inventory, you can proceed to calculate the work program. The annual work program and performance budget is the core of the MMS. To calculate the work program, you will need the list of maintenance activities, the quantity standards, the inventory totals, and the performance standards. The procedure for calculating the work program is a logical one. Let's look at an example. You simply select a maintenance activity, let's say cleaning culverts, and multiply the quantity standard, which for our example is two times per year, by the inventory quantity, which is 500. That will give us 1,000 work units. Then, to find out the number of crew days, we divide the work units by the average crew day production, which is included in the performance standard for that activity. In this case, let's say that the average crew day production is 10. That means that it will take 100 crew days to clean 1,000 culverts. After calculating the crew days for each activity, you'll need the resource costs in order to calculate the performance budget, which ideally should be ready from the accounting to bookkeeping section just about this time. For each activity, you have to multiply the number of crew days by the unit costs for labor, equipment, and materials, and then add the results to get the crew day cost or the total activity budget. Then, to calculate the annual performance budget for that activity, the number of crew days per year is multiplied by the crew day cost. Your work program and performance budget summary might look something like this. As you can see, the completed work program and performance budget is an effective way for the maintenance manager to present the agency's case to higher officials and the public. And your knowledge of how the system works will be instrumental to an objective understanding of how much money is needed and what it will be spent on. As I said, the work program and performance budget is the heart of the maintenance system. We've discussed several very important points in this segment. Please take a few minutes to go over the points that we've discussed. Review chapter six in your MMS manual and clear up any doubts with your instructor. When we return, we'll talk about organizing and allocating the resources. Welcome back. Although the approval of the work program and the performance budget by government officials in effect authorizes the maintenance funds, you still have an important challenge ahead of you. When the work is to be performed, each maintenance crew must have the proper manpower, equipment, and materials. In addition, the work has to be evenly distributed during the year so that there are no shortages of labor during one period and then an excess during the next. Now, it's not going to be possible to organize and allocate the exact mix of resources at the precise moment the work has to be done, no matter how good a manager you are. But you can certainly bring the imbalances into line by adjusting the annual work schedules and determining what resources are needed. And that's what we're going to talk about in this segment. An important aspect of organizing and allocating resources is workload leveling, which means distributing the work throughout the year in order to balance the work with the labor force and taking advantage of activities that are not season dependent to keep the full time staff busy during non-peak months. First, we need to develop a seasonal schedule which shows when the work should be performed. Note that the solid line indicates the period of expected performance and the dotted line indicates times when it's possible to perform the activity. Let's use patching with premix to demonstrate the concept of work leveling. Now, after developing the seasonal work schedule, we need to use a calendar guide to distribute the work according to the seasonal requirements of each activity. The seasonal work schedule indicates that patching with premix is best performed during September, October, March, April, and May. And let's say that the work program for our example indicated that 38 crew days were planned for the year. What we have to do is distribute the crew days evenly in these months. Then we compute the planned man days for each by multiplying the crew days for the month by the standard crew size, which as you recall is given in the performance standard. In our example, the planned man days for patching with premix would be 21 man days per month for September and October and 24 per month for March and April and May. The same procedure is done for each activity in the work program, including planned leave. Then all the man days are added and the man power is computed by dividing the total man days planned for the month by the work days available in the month. If we plot the man power graphically, we can see the imbalance created by the initial work distribution to correct that imbalance, we level the workload. That is, we determine which activities must remain fixed, which can be scheduled with some special arrangements and which can be scheduled at any time. To balance the workload, we shift whole crew days from one month to another and calculate the resulting man days. Essentially, this is a trial and error procedure until the number of workers is approximately level throughout the course of the year. After the workload is balanced, the size of the permanent staff is compared to the man power requirements. Although your MMS manual details the procedure for workload leveling, let me show you what the end result should look like. This is the annual work calendar. This will serve as a guide to the maintenance manager and supervisors in planning and scheduling work orders throughout the year. This calendar, together with the performance standards for each activity, will identify the categories and quantities of manpower, equipment, and materials which must be available each month. And the formula for calculating the resource requirements is crew days times resource quantity per crew day equals resources required. Figure seven dash four of your manual contains a sample format for calculating and summarizing resource requirements. When the different categories of resources are projected, management can decide what actions to take to see the shortages and excesses are adjusted and how best to allocate the resources to each maintenance subunit. The concepts that we've seen in this segment can be calculated easily with a computer, particularly because computers allow you to perform what if calculations. The greater speed and accuracy will be invaluable and the computer can store and produce all the resource requirement summaries. For more information on the types of computers, refer to chapter 10 of your MMS manual. However, we've covered a lot of material in this segment. Let's take a break so you can go over the material that we've discussed. And when we come back, we'll talk about the hardest part of managing, getting the work done. Well, up until now we've concentrated on all of the management functions that are required before getting the job done. That is, we have developed the system, prepared the work programs, level the workload, and organized the resources. Now you'll need to enlist your field supervisors commitment to using the MMS or all your work will be for nothing. And that means that the supervisors or foremen must have a method that enables them to transform the authority to do the work into a daily directive to the crew who will actually execute the work. This form is from one of our local county agencies here. These directives must contain clear information on what work must be done, when that work should be carried out, and where the work is needed. A work order is the most effective way of authorizing and directing work. And in an MMS, the work order is a crew day card. The crew day card helps control authorized work because the number of cards can be printed according to the number of crew days stated in the work plan. That way, a supervisor or foreman can tell at a glance how much authorized work remains by counting the number of unassigned cards. The pre-printed crew day card can contain standardized information for each activity to make it easier for the supervisor or foreman who fills out the specific daily information. However, now that we've seen how supervisors can use the crew day card to understand the work that they're authorized to perform, we still need a management tool for scheduling the work effectively. That tool is short term scheduling while you can select any period that best suits your agency. A bi-weekly schedule is well suited for planning and scheduling work assignments. The purpose of a well planned schedule is to manage the work effectively. This is best achieved by prioritizing actual daily maintenance while trying to follow the annual work calendar. Of course, it's obvious that the conditions of the highway network have to set the priorities for scheduling the work. And one way of doing that is by using a maintenance needed report. Then the supervisor or foreman should follow an orderly scheduling procedure. While there's not one procedure that's right for everybody, the supervisor will need the previous schedule, the work calendar, the maintenance needed reports, the performance standards, and he needs to determine the availability of resources. To make sure that you enlist the supervisor's commitment to the MMS, instruct them on the use of the scheduling and authorizing procedures and initiate the procedures. After the schedule is prepared and approved if necessary, a copy can be given to each of the crew leaders to guide them in planning their assignments during that period. Let me emphasize that it is very important for management and crews to stick to the performance standards, both from the point of view of performing the work and of doing so in a cost-effective manner. Look, we know that it's not easy to adhere to the standards all the time. You have to make sure, though, that the crew and supervisors understand that those standards represent the best judgment of the most effective way of doing the work. After completing the short-term schedule, we're ready to talk about the last component of the maintenance management system, reporting, and evaluating performance, which is the subject of the next segment. But for now, stop the tape and work through the exercises for developing your own short-term schedule. For effective evaluation and control, you need regular reporting of the labor, equipment, and materials used and the work accomplished. Now, in this last segment of the videotape, we'll see how the crew day card, which was used to authorize the work or the bi-weekly schedule, can also be the reporting document, which has to indicate what was done, how much was done, who did it, and what resources were expended. Sometimes it may also be necessary to know where the work was done. Let's say that we use the crew day card to report the day's work. Normally the resources planned for the day's work are indicated on the card. If the actual resources and quantities differ, the amount should be written on the card at the end of the day or of the activity. The amount of work accomplished can be measured and recorded on the card using the measurement units indicated in the performance standard for that activity. Although the crew day card can be an effective method of reporting work, some agencies use a bi-weekly reporting form. The reporting process is basically the same as the crew day cards, with the disadvantage that daily work assignments are not necessarily clear cut. One thing I'd like to mention is that work reporting forms can also be used to provide information for payroll and equipment management reports, which reduces reporting costs and simplifies the reconciling process. Throughout this tape, we've talked a great deal about the various components of a maintenance management system, and we've shown you how to develop each component. To make sure that all your efforts have paid off and the MMS is working, supervisors and managers must regularly review and evaluate work progress and performance in comparison with work program objectives. There are three evaluations that are necessary. An evaluation of work program progress. The purpose of the evaluation process is to determine if the work program is being carried out as planned. If not, the reasons must be quickly identified and corrective action must be taken in time to achieve compliance with the work program. An evaluation of productivity. The most significant factor affecting productivity is the crew size. Frequent use of non-standard crew sizes is cause for concern. And last, an evaluation of work quality and levels of service. This evaluation allows managers and supervisors to determine the overall impact of the maintenance program and to determine if the work methods and quality need improvement or if quantities need to be adjusted. The information for making these three evaluations can be obtained from the crew day cards, the work schedules, monthly activity summaries, and field inspections. Now, the last point I want to mention is work control. While it's impossible to provide rules which allow a manager to control a maintenance operation in every situation, there are some guidelines that might be helpful. Although these are covered in greater detail in chapter nine of your MMS manual, I'll list them for you here. Know the results of the work. Compare results. Evaluate the comparison. Determine the cause of the exception. Take corrective action. Follow up. The corrective actions taken will, in effect, serve to fine tune the MMS. And of course that brings us full circle back to the planning function of management. Those corrective actions will be the means of ensuring not only the success of the maintenance management system, but its continuity. Each local agency is unique in its needs and objectives. What is not unique is their individual commitment to ensuring that their part of the world is running smoothly. In this videotape and in the exercises provided by your instructor, we've demonstrated the basic components of an MMS. It's now up to you to combine those components with your agency's commitment in order to make maintenance management effective for the taxpayers, the crews, the supervisors, the government officials, and for you as the maintenance manager. Who knows? Bringing MMS to bear might even let you get out of the office a little bit earlier.