Data Mining and Asset Condition Management My Story - Part I

My First Day at My New Job

Some years ago I was overwhelmed with my new job! I had more than 600 buses on

hand that needed to provide service to 700,000 commuters in the city my family and I used to live. I was working in the department of public urban transport in the municipality in one on the biggest and most congested cities in the

world.

“We need our buses to run as much as possible and be as healthy as possible!” said my new manager clearly not caring about the technical efforts required to accomplish this. “Furthermore,” he added, “I think we are spending more than necessary on the technical issues. Last week I was told that the cost engine spare parts was more than the twice of what we had last year!”

He then put his hand on my shoulder and trying to change the seriousness in his tone, put on a smile, and said, “I expect this to change with you coming. I have gone through a lot of trouble of transferring you here”. While I was listening to him and trying to keep cool, I could see the seriousness in his eyes.

The Challenge

Following my meeting with my direct manager new boss, I arranged for all of my new technical assistance to sit with me. I specifically asked about the condition of our maintenance HR, condition of our assets (the buses) and the operators (the bus driver).

I was expecting to see the some technical and financial KPIs which showed the present condition of our fleet. I did not! Instead, in the 2 and half hour of my first meeting in the job, I heard an unimaginable moaning and crying of how terrible the conditions are and how we do not have the necessary financial means to buy the spares on time and how the system emphasises the availability of the buses etc.

The Real Challenge!

In two months, we had managed to put things in order and set the correct KPIs in place and start to track what we were doing. We were almost happy and thought that the we are almost done with our fleet maintenance management and just needed to focus our efforts on increasing the efficiency of the everyday maintenance tasks. Little did I know that the impact of the first meeting with my boss is yet to come.

I was sitting at my desk sipping on my morning cup of coffee when I was told that my direct manager has asked for a meeting so that I could update him on what had happen during the first two months.

I took my reports and charts and went to the meeting. After a while, he suggested that we took a walk in the bus depot so that we could take a closer look. I called one of my assistants to join us in case there were any questions that I did not know the answer to. I was in the position for only two months!

As he was strolling between the buses and asking different questions and I was trying to explain what changes we had made, he asked, “So Davood, what is the condition of the buses in the fleet now?” At that time, I had hardly thought about this question. It is a very obvious question that anyone might ask. Yet, the answer is not that obvious. How do we determine the condition of the buses in our fleet? What should we look for? Should we develop new KPIs?

In the next part I will tell you how I found a solution to this problem.

#MaintenanceManagement #DataMining #AssetConditionManagement