ERM #4: Maintenance

Maintenance, Asset and Rail Management Plans

Maintenance Plans

Maintenance Plans
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Obtain a copy of the grantee’s current written maintenance program for FTA funded rolling stock and verify the following:

  1. A description of goals and objectives, including the following

(i)Vehicle life
(ii)Reducing the frequency of road calls
(iii)Tracking maintenance costs compared to total operating costs
  1. A description of how goals and objectives are achieved.

  1. The plan is updated with the purchase of new rolling stock to account for new technology and/or new manufacturers recommended maintenance intervals and programs.

  1. That ADA maintenance elements are incorporated into the regular maintenance plan or addressed separately with specific checklists

  1. Consistency in maintenance procedures and checklists with the manufacturers’ recommendations for those vehicles under warranty

  1. Obtain a copy of the grantee’s current written maintenance program for FTA funded facilities and facility-related equipment and verify the following are addressed:

  1. A description of organization and assignment of responsibilities for facility and equipment maintenance

  1. A description of required inspections and routine maintenance actions to ensure proper care and maximize useful service life

  1. A description of a record keeping system that maintains adequate permanent records of maintenance and inspection activity for building and equipment

  1. Critical and safety items, including but not limited to the following:

(i)Buildings
(ii)Elevators
(iii)Escalators
(iv)Passenger Stations/Shelters
(v)Parking Lots
(vi)Right-of-way (guideway, track, ballast, etc.)
(vii)Electric distribution and control equipment
(viii)Plumbing systems
(ix)Overhead doors
(x)Vehicles maintenance lifts
(xi)Vehicles washers and wash water recycling systems
(xii)Heating and/or air conditioning units, and
(xiii)Power substation, etc.
  1. A description of a system of periodic inspections and preventive maintenance to be performed at certain defined intervals (i.e. may be part of a grantee’s maintenance management information system). Review the procedures and verify the following:

(i)Measure of interval times (i.e. daily, monthly, annually)
(ii)Usage (i.e. hours of use)
  1. Review training records to determine if staff received training on the current fleet and equipment

  1. How often are the grantee’s maintenance plans (vehicles, equipment, and facilities) updated?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

When was the last update of the grantee’s maintenance plans [vehicles, equipment, and facilities]?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Is there a different plan/procedure for each vehicle fleet or is a generic plan/procedure used across all fleets? When new vehicles, equipment, or facilities are acquired, how are these plans revised or appended? How does the grantee initiate and benchmark service plans for its mixed fleet of buses?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. At what management level are they developed? Approved?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee communicate its maintenance plans to its governing body?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee communicate its maintenance plans to maintenance staff?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Within the maintenance plans, are the goals and objectives numerical, narrative, or both? How does the grantee communicate its maintenance goals and objectives to maintenance staff?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

How is the grantee’s performance against these goals and objectives measured?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Do the written maintenance plans and manufacturer’s manual contain a section on service timeframes and repair quality expectations?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

DETERMINATION

The grantee is deficient if its program omits some requirements (i.e., goals and objectives) or its plan does not include the latest additions of FTA-funded assets (i.e., vehicles and major equipment), or facilities. The grantee is deficient if preventive maintenance checklists are not consistent with the current FTA-funded operating fleet, equipment, or facilities. (DEFICIENCY CODE 48: Vehicle maintenance program/plan incomplete or out of date) (DEFICIENCY CODE 117: Facility/equipment maintenance program lacking or inadequate)

Deficient Not Deficient

Asset Management Plans

Asset Management Plans
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Obtain the grantee’s asset management plan. Determine that it addresses the following:

  1. Financial resources (operating and capital) associated with the implementation of the plan

  1. Asset replacement plan and schedule

  1. Maintenance Program FTA funded assets

  1. Policy for the percentage of preventive maintenance that is predictive versus planned

  1. Standards for performance indicators

  1. Emergency Management

  1. Disaster Recovery

  1. Measuring the effectiveness of the plan for periodic update

  1. Has the grantee developed an asset management plan in addition to or as part of its maintenance plans?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. If no, why not?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. If yes, please explain the process for developing the plan. Identify the department or staff position that led the effort, and what key staff positions participated in developing the plan.

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Does the plan include an inventory and current condition of each asset?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Has the plan been adopted and implemented?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What other plans (i.e., strategic plan, capital improvement and/or replacement plan, fleet management plans, multi-year financial plans, etc.) does the grantee use in the development of its asset management plan?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How are life cycle maintenance costs considered in the process used to approve funding for the design, construction, acquisition, implementation, and life cycle maintenance of capital assets? Are key maintenance personnel part of the asset planning effort?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Describe the decision-making process used to determine investment prioritization associated with the plan.

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Does the grantee use specialized software for its asset management and inventory?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

DETERMINATION

Input into the overall assessment of the grantees ability to keep federally funded assets in good operating order.

Rail Fleet Management Plans

Rail Fleet Management Plan
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Obtain the grantee’s fleet management plan. Determine that it addresses the following:

  1. Responsibilities of the maintenance staff

  1. Operating policies

  1. Peak requirement and spare ratio justification

  1. System and service expansion

  1. Standards for the average age of each mode in the fleet

  1. Procedures to measure and react to performance indicators

  1. Standards to identify vehicles that exceed their useful life

  1. Standards and procedures for mid-life overhaul

  1. Contingency fleet

  1. Templates (forms and checklists) for documenting procedures implemented

  1. How is the rail fleet management plan developed? By what staff position/department?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How often and by what staff is the plan reviewed and updated so that it remains consistent with manufacturers’ recommendations and regulatory requirements?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Is the average age of rolling stock defined?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How is rolling stock that has met the useful life requirements identified?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Does the plan include a replacement schedule?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

DETERMINATION

The grantee is deficient if it has not prepared a plan, the plan is incomplete or out of date, or the rail sections of the maintenance plans differ from that in the rail fleet management plan. (Deficiency Code 196: Lacking rail fleet management plan/plan out of date)

Deficient Not Deficient

Budgets and Resources

Maintenance Costs
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Utilizing the financial information provided, compare the budget against actual to determine

  1. If the grantee has deferred maintenance cost

  1. If the grantee devotes adequate resources to implement the plan

  1. If maintenance costs exceed the budget due to unscheduled repairs

  1. What is the process for developing the grantee’s maintenance budget? What factors are considered when developing it? Is performance against goals and objectives an established factor?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What percentage of the grantee’s total budget does maintenance represent?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What percentage of the maintenance budget is for scheduled preventive maintenance? For unscheduled maintenance? For repair?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What is the current maintenance budget?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Have there been any budget reductions since the last ComprehensiveReview?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Are there any projected reductions to the maintenance budget for the next two years? Please explain.

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Describe the process used to collect, analyze and prepare documentation showing the actual versus budgeted cost of maintenance.
  1. Which staff gathers the information needed? How and how often?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Which staff reviews this variance analysis and how are these costs considered for future maintenance budgets?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

DETERMINATION

Input into the overall assessment of the grantees ability to keep federally funded assets in good operating order.

Organization and Training

Management
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Record the following characteristics of the grantee to assess its ability to adequately implement the FTA program

  1. Organization and staffing of the maintenance department responsible for administering the FTA program

  1. The level of support provided by the organization’s leadership and/or governing body, and other departments

  1. Technical capacity of the maintenance staff

(i)Transit related experience
(ii)Maintenance experience (for each type of vehicle, equipment and facility)
(iii)Number of years spent in position
(iv)Knowledge of FTA requirements
(v)Level of training available and provided to staff
  1. Operating cost (including source and level) allocated to the department

  1. Level of sophistication of the tools used to assist with the implementation of the maintenance program

  1. How does the grantee structure and manage the maintenance staff resources for FTA funded assets?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What percentage of work hours per week are allocated for scheduled maintenance?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What percentage of work hours per week are used for unscheduled maintenance?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What percentage of work hours per week are used for mini-and/or mid-life overhaul or major component upgrade/replacement?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Describe the grantee’s training program for staff that directly supports maintenance functions(i.e., technicians, mechanics, shop forepersons, shift supervisors, maintenance planners/ schedulers, etc.).

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee ensure competency of staff performing maintenance tasks?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Describe the type of training that maintenance management and front line supervisors receive.

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee address the need for training when changes are made (such as new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) requirements) that impact maintenance procedures, process, parts, and/or techniques?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Have maintenance employees received any training on modern electronic and mechanical bus systems, such as Cummins INSITE, electric engine cooling fan systems, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, etc.?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Describe maintenance staff turnover during the past three years. Other than internal resources, what additional resources (i.e., consultants) and tools (i.e., technology) are utilized in managing grant funded assets?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What diagnostic tools are used to monitor modern bus electronic systems with a newer fleet?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee’s maintenance performance metrics compare to a similar peer agency(ies)?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

DETERMINATION

Input into the overall assessment of the grantees ability to keep federally funded assets in good operating order.

Fleet Maintenance

Performance Indicators
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Review maintenance records to determine if the system provides sufficient data to facilitate trend analysis and performance indicators such as preventive maintenance on schedule, reliability and availability

  1. Review disposition records and overhaul plans to determine if there is evidence of early retirement of assets related to maintenance or indications of early mid-life overhauls related to maintenance

  1. Utilizing the most recently submitted National Transit Database (NTD) report, compute the following maintenance ratios

  1. Mean distance between failure (total revenue vehicle system failures divided by total schedule revenue miles)

  1. Maintenance cost per mile (Total maintenance cost divided by total scheduled revenue miles)

  1. At the site visit, obtain vehicle reports that provide the data necessary to compute the following:

  1. Spare Ratio (Total number of revenue vehicles minus number of vehicles required for maximum service which yield the number of spares; the number of spares is then divided by the number of vehicles required for maximum service)

  1. At the site visit, obtain the number of buses available in the total fleet and compare to the peak requirement

Fleet Maintenance

  1. Provide the following operating informationfor the past three fiscal years:
  2. total current annual operating miles and hours of vehicles funded by FTA
  3. spare bus ratio for fixed route and paratransit vehicles
  4. number of vehicles that have been replaced in the last three years
  5. mean distance between mechanical failures (MDBF)
  6. maintenance cost per vehicle mile
  7. revenue hours and miles lost due to mechanical failures

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee plan and schedule maintenance work?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee use trend analyses such as MDBF to assist in maintenance planning?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What methodology is used to determine how and when each type of preventive maintenance activity will be performed?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Does the agency use predictive maintenance as part of its preventive maintenance plan? What percentage of the preventive maintenance is predictive?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Does the grantee use more than one shift for maintenance work? If yes, describe the type of work accomplished per shift.

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How does the grantee ensure adequate spare parts are available to support scheduled maintenance activities? Has a lack of spare parts negatively impacted the on-time performance for scheduled maintenance or vehicle availability for service? In review of bus maintenance records, can it be found that life cycle parts replacement is occurring on a regular and systematic basis? Are parts ordered from major supply houses or local providers?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Are the same consumables (fluids,oils, coolants) being used across the fleet or are some fleet-specific, when necessary?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What system indicators (i.e., preventive maintenance on schedule, reliability of fleet or equipment, availability of fleet or equipment, etc.) has the grantee developed to measure the effectiveness of the maintenance program? Are these indicators used across all modes?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. What tools does the grantee use to generate performance on these system indicators? Are these tools used for all modes?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How and how often does the agency measure the effectiveness of its preventive maintenance program?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Is management required to submit reports to senior management and the governing body on the status of the FTA program assets? If yes, please describe the type of information conveyed and how often information is provided. What is the outcome of the governing body’s review of these reports?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. How are deferred maintenance and/or maintenance backlogs identified and addressed?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

  1. Have there been early retirements and/or mid-life overhauls to FTA funded assets due to maintenance? What process is used to determine the appropriateness of maintenance related early retirement of assets or early mid-life overhauls?

Grantee Response:

Reviewer Comments:

DETERMINATION

Input into the overall assessment of the grantees ability to keep federally funded assets in good operating order.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance
Procedure / Evaluation/Comments
  1. Review the physical set-up and procedures governing the organization of the maintenance records and observe whether preventive maintenance records, work orders, warranty claims, etc., are kept in an organized, logical and controlled manner that is easily accessible

  1. Select a sample of vehicle maintenance records and perform the following:

  1. Examine the maintenance checklist, ensure it’s the same checklist listed in the plan.

(i)Verify that updates provided by the manufacturers are addressed in the maintenance checklists.
(ii)Verify that the checklist is consistent with the current operating fleet
  1. Compare the interval for the change of engine oil and filters in the grantee’s maintenance plan and checklist with the maximum interval specified in the engine manufacturer’s maintenance manual.

  1. Check vehicle condition reports, compare defects noted during preventive maintenance inspections with work orders to verify that maintenance is not deferred.

  1. Inspect a sample of vehicles returned to service after a preventive maintenance inspection to determine if there is a backlog of repairs from inspections.

  1. Ensure defects are addressed prior to returning vehicles to revenue service.

  1. Review the records and status reports to determine if accessibility features such as lifts, ramps and annunciators are repaired promptly if they are damaged or out of order?

  1. Select a sample of preventive maintenance records for each type of facility and a sample of equipment. Examine the facility/ equipment maintenance history for the review period for the following:

  1. Examine the maintenance checklist to ensure it’s the same checklist listed in the plan.

(i)Verify that updates provided by the manufacturers are addressed in the maintenance checklists.
(ii)Verify that the checklist is consistent with any changes made to the facility or equipment
  1. Note the date when each inspection was accomplished and record the interval from the previous inspection.

  1. Compare the interval with the grantee’s definition of an “on-time” inspection to determine if the inspection was in accordance with the grantee’s facility and equipment maintenance plan.

  1. Review maintenance records and status reports to determine if accessibility features such as elevators, escalator, etc., are repaired promptly if they are damaged or out of order?

  1. Review the list of parts on back order to determine the effect of missing parts on fleet status

  1. Describe the procedures/process to determine how, when and how often preventive maintenance inspections are scheduled for vehicles. Provide evidence of documentation (i.e., screen shots, forms, reports, etc.)

Grantee Response: