Data acquisition technologies and telecommunications offer maintenance field managers convenient procedures for entering data into the maintenance management system. Many of these technologies offer the potential for daily if not real-time retrieval of information (emergency work orders, equipment availability, and effectiveness of different maintenance methods) and help improve field operations and inventory management and control. Among the technologies are lap-top and hand-held computers, electronic tablets (clipboards), bar coding, voice recognition, and navigational and locational devices such asdistance-measuring instruments and satellite global positioning system receivers. This equipment, when combined with telecommunicationssuch as cellular and satellite, can be molded into discrete data acquisition systems for (a) daily cost reports (accomplishments, location, labor, equipment, and materials), (b) inventory management and control, (c) roadway feature inventory updating, (d) inputs to short-run scheduling, (e) bridge inspection and maintenance reporting, and (f) monitoring of snow- and ice-control operations in remote locations and heavy snowstorm conditions. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1276, Maintenance management 1990: proceedings of a workshop, jackson, mississippi, july 25-27, 1990.
Abstract