Saskatchewan highways and transportation operates a maintenance management information system that provides up-to-date resource usage, accomplishments, and expenditures at any organizational level. The system captures data for the department's equipment management information, expenditure distribution, and pavement management information systems. Currently, the system operates on a mainframe computer located in the provincial capital. Data are entered daily at each area office on a microcomputer and communicated in batch mode to the mainframe. After the data pass certain validation tests, the system'syear-to-date file is updated and a report is immediately returned to the area office. The system contains some unique features, including holding accounts that provide up-to-date expenditures even thoughpayroll is processed biweekly and equipment nightly. Saskatchewan'sapproach to data entry and the philosophy used in designing the system are described. The type of data captured, the level at which thedata are captured, hardware and software used, interfaces with other systems, and how the system itself is managed are reviewed. It is concluded that the system's success is due to its design philosophy of meeting the needs of the frontline maintenance manager. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1276, Maintenance management 1990: proceedings of a workshop, jackson, mississippi, july25-27, 1990.
Abstract