Preparing for State of Good Repair
Table of Contents About Trapeze Group
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Using EAM to measure and improve asset performance
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By Brett Koenig
4 steps to prepare for the Transit Asset Management (MAP-21) Final Rule
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By Brett Koenig
Data collection and analysis – The journey has just begun
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By Marsha Moore
Bridging the gap – paratransit costs, demand response and transportation network companies
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By Jeff Zarr
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ABOUT TRAPEZE GROUP Our passion is enabling you to meet your goals. We create, deliver and support software solutions and services that make it easier for transportation agencies to manage their complex, day-to-day business operations. We have the unique ability to partner with you for the full 360 degrees of your operations due to our focus on serving the transportation industry with a broad product portfolio. From the bus stop to the finance department, Trapeze technology is the glue that binds a transportation agency together. We are dedicated to helping you streamline and integrate your many day to day functions. Enabling you to focus on your #1 goal, providing amazing customer service! Our team gets what you do. They reason why? Is because they have been in your shoes! Many Trapeze employees have been in the transportation business for decades! They know what your pain points are and are passionate about helping you eliminate them and meet your goals, as well as those of your board members. With our passion and knowledge, we are excited to partner with you to maximize the value of your systems for the long term. TRAPEZE PARTNER PROGRAM Trapeze works with a number of industry vendors in order to help ensure our customers systems work together to deliver scalable, long-term, flexible solutions. These partnerships are designed to enable an agency’s systems to maintain their integrity while providing optimal performance. At Trapeze, we build long-term, trust-based relationships with select companies. This approach provides a greater opportunity for our partners and better serves our customers. For more information on being a partner contact us at info@trapezegroup.com
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Fleet Management SYSTEMS
Using EAM to measure and improve asset performance By Brett Koenig For years, transit asset managers have been tasked with the challenge of maximizing fleet performance and availability while minimizing costs. Recent federal regulations will also soon require transit agencies to begin tracking data on asset condition (“state of good repair”). Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems have emerged as the central tool used by transit authorities to support these asset management efforts. The passage of new national laws (MAP-21) and international standards (ISO-55000) has resulted in a rapid evolution in EAM functionality, expanding them beyond their modest roots as the maintenance department’s work order system to being the go-to solution used by asset managers, planners and analysts for tracking the full lifecycle performance of all physical infrastructure across the enterprise (fleet, facilities, linear). The leading transit-focused EAM solutions also offer native integration with other transit enterprise systems (e.g., ITS and fixed route operations solutions), yielding many
Minimizing revenue vehicle service interruption is a key goal for any transit authority. Equally important is the effective managing of incidents when they do occur. Several key performance metrics (MDBF, MTBF, etc) are calculated from data tracked in an EAM related to failures and incidents. To further explore how an EAM supports the ongoing monitoring of these key metrics, let’s break down a specific example: what happens when a bus experiences a major component failure (e.g. transmission) in service. First, the bus operator will report the problem to dispatch. Dispatch will typically use a CAD-AVL system to view the location of the bus, while working with operations and maintenance staff to assist the situation. Detailed data about the incident is captured in CAD-AVL throughout this process (Vehicle ID, symptom, description, etc.). An interface from CAD-AVL is triggered, transmitting the incident data to the EAM so that maintenance has a record of it. The EAM system alerts the appropriate maintenance staff to help expedite the response (e.g. emails the shop supervisor the Incident ID and details). Depending upon the severity and type of incident, the EAM can either automatically generate the work order or the supervisor can do it, so the two records are linked for later root-cause analysis. Often a maintenance technician is dispatched to the scene of the breakdown and the vehicle is towed into the shop. As the repair is performed, detailed information about the component failure is tracked on the work order, which in this case includes the specific transmission that failed, the diagnosis, and the reason for the failure. In addition, transitfocused EAM solutions offer the following operational benefit: As soon as the work order is created, the EAM updates the service status of the vehicle to “Out of service” and integrates that data back to the fixed-route scheduling solution, helping create alignment between maintenance and operations about which vehicles are available to make pull-out.
“Minimizing revenue vehicle service interruption is a key goal for any transit authority.” additional benefits: Automating the exchange of vital information between the maintenance and operations departments resulting in increased operational efficiencies and improved service. Asset performance can be measured in a number of ways, and will vary by type of equipment (rolling stock performance is measured differently than facilities, for example). As the master repository of your agency’s asset data over their lifecycle, EAM systems are uniquely suited to support transit asset performance analysis. An EAM centralizes all of the vital signs of your infrastructure’s health into a single system. Modern systems quickly amass large volumes of data in support of the daily maintenance and materials management workflows at the agency. As maintenance events are performed by agency staff (e.g., vehicle inspections), those work activities are entered into the system. In parallel, the EAM system is automatically “fed” data from various point technologies via interfaces built among them (e.g., Fueling systems interface fuel quantity and odometer data to EAM). By consolidating information from a variety of sources, the EAM has become the “hub” database that tracks information ranging from the basic attributes (asset ID, age, manufacturer, serial number), to the indicators of daily usage (mileage and fuel/fluid consumption), to the dynamic health monitoring data that measure asset condition (telematic data, such as engine diagnostics). These data are the building blocks of the performance metric calculations used throughout the industry to monitor asset performance including: • Mean distance between failure (MDBF) • Mean time between failure (MTBF) • Incident with Major Service Delays • Fleet availability (Service status) • Preventative maintenance compliance 4
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In sum, EAM systems are a central tool for modern transit asset optimization and performance monitoring. By consolidating incident, failure and usage data throughout the year, EAM systems give managers the ability to track how the agency is trending with regard to key performance metrics. Further, to help reduce the frequency and impact of major disruptive events, leading EAM systems can support failure reporting analysis and corrective action (FRACAS) that is performed by engineering as part of the agency’s Reliability Centered Maintenance program. Brett Koenig is the industry solutions manager for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) at Trapeze Group. Trapeze delivers solutions that consider the full 360 degrees of passenger transport, including integrated solutions spanning EAM, ITS, Operations and Scheduling, Paratransit, Traveler Information and Automated Fare Collection. Brett can be reached at: brett.koenig@trapezegroup.com
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ENTERPRISE ASSET MANAGEMENT
4 steps to prepare for the Transit Asset Management (MAP-21) Final Rule By Brett Koenig In recent years, a new consensus is emerging about the optimal way to manage the full lifecycle of transit infrastructure. In the U.S., Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), which became law in 2012, is pushing these new standards forward. In the aftermath of MAP-21’s passage, much of the transit industry adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Now, after over three years of Federal Transit Administration (FTA) working groups and comment sessions, that is all about to change. Perhaps the biggest transit story of 2016 is that the Transit Asset Management “Final Rule” is expected to be released in the summer. The Final Rule will press the “Start” button on the MAP-21 compliance stopwatch for public transit agencies. There are a number of activities that all agencies should be working on now to prepare for the law’s pending deadlines, along with listing of key resources. While much has been said about the unwelcome burden the new regulations will place on transit agencies, there is a silver lining: embracing this new, whole-life asset management philosophy will strengthen your agency’s approach to asset safety and reliability. Make this one of your agency’s New Year’s resolutions. What does MAP-21 mean to my agency? At the foundation of the new law is a requirement that each recipient of federal funds must create their own Transit Asset Management (TAM) Plan that includes four core elements: 1. Inventory of capital assets 2. Condition assessments 3. Capital project prioritization 4. Decision support tools The goal of the TAM Plan is to move an agency toward being in a “system-wide State of Good Repair.” Step #1: Capital asset inventory Creating a reliable master database of all capital assets is a vital first step, because it defines the breadth and scope of the agency’s asset footprint. The good news is that most agencies already have an inventory of their vehicles. The bad news is that many agencies find there are gaps in their asset inventory and the data is often not of consistently good quality. Regardless of the situation, now is the time to dust the data off and take a good, hard look at it! Start by identifying the various databases that track asset information (maintenance system, fixed asset register, etc.) and determine which has the most comprehensive, and accurate, dataset to use as the start of a new “master” repository. Next, create a small team composed of staff that are experts on the assets. Have the team scrub the data to ensure the agency has a good, clean record for each capital asset.
Step #2: Establish baseline condition ratings FTA defines condition assessments as “a rating of the inventoried assets that should be sufficiently detailed to monitor performance and plan capital investment.” Set a goal to establish a baseline condition rating for the agency’s assets using the FTA’s five-point scale: 5 = excellent; 4 = good; 3 = fair; 2 = marginal; and 1 = poor (with less than 3 being the threshold value that determines whether an asset is beyond its useful life). While this may seem daunting at first, keep several things in mind. First, the experts in the maintenance department are likely already doing something similar to a “condition assessment” as part of the agency’s scheduled inspection program. Secondly, there are tools available that can help with this process. The leading transitfocused enterprise asset management systems (EAM) offer mobile solutions that make it easy for agency inspectors to capture the latest condition assessment data in the field as part of day-to-day inspection workflows. Third, in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), the FTA says that condition assessments may be collected at the individual asset or at the class level. This gives agencies the flexibility to determine which assets are worth capturing individual ratings (such as rolling stock), and which they may want to capture using a random sampling approach (e.g., facilities assets are too numerous to inspect with regularity). Step #3: Investment prioritization The third requirement to be included in a comprehensive TAM Plan is a prioritized list of capital projects, ordered by year of implementation. The goal is for the agency’s asset condition assessments to help managers plan these capital investments. The investment prioritization must also take into consideration any assets that have unacceptable safety risks, and any fiscal constraints (factoring in estimated funding levels). Step #4: Decision support tools The fourth key element of a TAM Plan is to define the analytical processes (what FTA calls “decision support tools”) the agency will use. In the NPRM, the FTA clarified that the tool does not have to be software. Most agencies, however, are finding it necessary to utilize software tools to help track the asset condition assessments as well as the scoping and prioritization of the capital projects being considered by an agency. There are several types of tools available including ones the FTA has released as part of its MAP-21 Technical Assistance program (e.g., TERM-Lite). Private sector firms have been working to provide best-of-breed solutions that streamline the collection of data by, for example, incorporating State of Good Repair and capital project prioritization, which feature directly into the EAM systems that many agency staffs already use every day for maintenance management functions. And lastly, review the documents that FTA has provided through their Technical Assistance program (See: http://www.fta.dot.gov/13248. html). Among them are the NPRM presentation, which clarifies how the requirements differ according to each agency’s size (Tier 1 & Tier 2). While the due date to officially report this data to the FTA is over a year away, spending the coming months to identify the tools, resources and workflows used to comply is the recommended approach that will position agencies well for the Final Rule. Brett Koenig is the industry solutions manager for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) at Trapeze Group. Trapeze delivers solutions that consider the full 360 degrees of passenger transport, including integrated solutions spanning EAM, ITS, Operations and Scheduling, Paratransit, Traveler Information and Automated Fare Collection. Brett can be reached at: brett.koenig@trapezegroup.com.
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Data collection and analysis - The journey has just begun By Marsha Moore To enable this solution, agencies must first identify the most significant historical data points from across the enterprise and study them for their business value (Big Data is the whole mine; Tiny Data is where the gold is). This is very much the realm of descriptive analytics: using data aggregation and mining techniques to answer: What has happened before?
The explosion of data available across all enterprise touchpoints means big things for the future of public transit. It used to be that historical reporting was enough. But as the amount of data being captured grows, so does the desire to improve analysis capabilities to better leverage changes in technology. Advanced solutions that can move the agency from a reliance on purely descriptive analysis, through predictive and eventually prescriptive analysis, mean it’s now possible to use the full wealth of enterprise data to ask and answer forward-looking “what if?” type questions in real-time and, eventually, automate intelligent transit systems to implement solutions before problems exist. Unfortunately, in the bottomless sea of rising data, it can be difficult to know what’s actually valuable, or how to turn it into business intelligence (BI) that supports the agency’s business objectives. These challenges are compounded by the complex interplay of data from different systems, including a growing variety of on-board sensors. Getting to the point where we have metrics that reflect BI’s value to the agency’s strategic goals and demonstrating how such solutions can grow with industry and organizational shifts is an essential first step. But moving from descriptive through predictive and prescriptive analytics is complex. To envision the whole of the journey, let’s start by considering where we began. Leaving the station In the transit world, data analysis is traditionally thought of as something available through a set of reports. While these reports are generally suitable for back office trend analysis, front office users that require real-time data are left with a gap as the data was typically 24 to 48 hours old (i.e. you’re “looking in the rearview mirror”). Front line staff need a pervasive solution to visualize the information needed to support time-critical decisions that must be made throughout the course of each day, many of which impact bottom line costs. 6
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On your way Once descriptive analysis is enabled, agencies can start thinking about asking questions of their historical data to help determine how to optimize business today (a.k.a. predictive analytics, or using statistical models and forecasting techniques to understand the future and answer: What could happen?). But, in order to answer these questions, data must first be migrated from multiple source systems and combined in a central warehouse designed to store the information for 10 or more years and still be flexible and fast enough to provide real-time answers to queries. The first logical step is to use this data to trace where problems exist by analyzing both historical and real-time data across the enterprise, thus enabling the agency to be proactive in identifying and correcting problems in real-time. The journey continues As the ability to leverage real-time and events-driven data (think: alerts) continues to improve, agencies cross into the realm of prescriptive analytics, which use optimization and simulation algorithms to advise on possible outcomes and answer: What should we do? By integrating with statistical modeling platforms such as SAS and R and creating simple tools to access and visualize data, the agency will empower users across the enterprise to become proactive in solving problems and remain continuously focused on finding better ways to operate the business. Moving ahead Soon, connected, integrated data from across the transit enterprise will help solve old challenges, while creating new opportunities to use business intelligence to inform decision-making and measure the impacts of those decisions. That’s where our journey of discovery through descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics will lead the public transit industry. Trapeze Group’s goal in all of this is to deliver the industry’s most advanced and scalable data collection and analysis systems and ensure that we have the right solution for your agency, wherever you are in your journey. Marsha Moore is chief technology officer at Trapeze Group. Moore has more than 30 years of IT experience and has remained a forerunner in software development, specifically in passenger transportation. She has held executive leadership roles where she drove innovation as well as developed and designed tools that increased productivity. Visit www.trapezegroup.com.
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BRIDGING THE GAP – paratransit costs, demand response and transportation network companies By Jeff Zarr Transit agencies are in constant battle with operating costs. Most fixed route operations only lose a few dollars on a single trip. But, paratransit trips potentially cost an agency up to $70. Normally, you wouldn’t keep this service operating if you were losing that much money on a single transaction. So, why do transit agencies? The simple answer is: Because they have to. Agencies that don’t get any subsidies for a service that, if not provided, can result in major fines, are examples of unfunded mandates.
What is the solution? At the time of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) inception, the cost of paratransit trips was approximately $15. The cost of paratransit trips has doubled over the past 20 years – the average trip cost is now $29.30. Couple that with the fact that people aged 65 and older are expected to make up 20 percent of the world’s population by 2030, and agencies are at a loss, quickly. With the increased cost and passenger rates on the rise, transit agencies are still expected to provide the same amount and quality of service, so it’s easy to see why public transit is pushing to circumvent the costs of operating paratransit. Partnering with transportation network companies (TNCs), like Uber or Lyft, seems to be the current solution. Working with TNCs is the 21st century version of the taxicab model – and is 20 percent cheaper than working with taxis providing the same service. This is an attractive benefit. TNCs can reduce the cost of a single paratransit trip to $13-16, which is massive savings compared to a door-to-door service run solely by the transit agency. But is it too good to be true? With everything, there are pros and cons that you need to be aware of. There are some operational considerations when working with
TNCs. TNCs, like taxi cabs, won’t work for everyone – either due to the passenger’s cognitive abilities or having a limited/unknown number of accessible vehicles. Additionally, as with taxi cabs, contractual oversight of non-dedicated drivers and the refusal (by some drivers) to accept service animals are legitimate concerns. Another consideration that needs to be addressed is the refusal or inability for TNCs to accept cash payments. Nevertheless, many transit agencies have overcome the operational challenges and have elected to use non-dedicated providers like taxi cabs and TNCs. However, many TNCs are working extremely hard to close these gaps. Lacking the ability to book paratransit trips in advance was a common issue when dealing with TNCs. This is actively being addressed to make services more accessible. It wouldn’t be surprising to see future changes to address other limitations. But it doesn’t have to be that way TNCs shouldn’t be seen as adversarial. The whole point is to move people and do so in the most economical way possible. Decreasing the cost of operations results in more money to be spent to improve your system. If that means you will have more money to spend on other things, these partnerships seem to be the way to keep passengers happy (and isn’t happier passengers the ultimate end goal?). Whether it’s in the fixed or paratransit side of transit, partnering with TNCs makes the door-to-door service a reality, expanding the definition of demand response. Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is one agency that has seen success with partnering with TNCs. They’re expecting about 20 percent savings on the paratransit side, which accounts for 20 percent of their total operations. Looking to the future Today, it would be hard to find a bus that has actual steps to enter up and down the bus – but that’s what older buses looked like, prior to ADA regulations, making it impossible for anyone with a wheelchair to use a bus. But now, not only are there no longer steps, there are designated spots for wheelchairs on the bus. How things are mandated forces us to adapt. So, while fixed route and paratransit agencies try to catch up to the newest technologies and regulations, TNCs can help reduce operating costs, and be the bridge you need to access the newest features as quickly as they’re able to incorporate them. Both agencies and TNCs will have to adapt as the ADA and industry changes. This is all part of the goal to, as much as possible, move towards one system. While generally seen as being exclusive to paratransit, demand response is becoming the norm in all modes of transit. It’s just a matter of time before a unified system is put in place to become a complete door-to-door transportation service. The next question is: What can we do to bridge the gap? Jeff Zarr has over 30 years of transit experience and 20 years of project management experience in the public transportation industry, as well as providing paratransit consulting services for over 100 paratransit agencies across North America, Europe, and the UK. As the industry solutions manager, demand response, for Trapeze Group, Zarr shares his paratransit expertise and experience throughout the North American Demand Response industry. Visit www.trapezegroup.com for more information.
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