Asset management is an integral part of maintaining and preserving the transportation infrastructure. In order to better manage the roadway assets, a value based on their economic contribution should be assigned. The actual monetary contribution a roadway makes to the overall economy can be difficult to quantify. Because of this difficulty, most agencies use asset valuation techniques that are based on construction and material costs, rather than utilization. This proposed study aims to establish a framework to quantify the economic value of existing roadways. Traditionally in transportation asset management, economic evaluation research has been mostly qualitative in nature and insufficient in generating a numerical value. Although there are many techniques to project the economic impact of a future roadway, there has not been much work done on evaluating the economic value of existing roadway infrastructure. In this thesis, some of the tools used in economic impact studies are adopted as a means to evaluate the value of existing roadways, leading to the development of comprehensive methodological framework as a guide to perform economic evaluation on existing roadways. / text

The objective of this thesis was to better understand the patterns of IV-pump use throughout the hospital in order to provide guidance to the hospital on alternative pump management methods. In the current system, when the number of available pumps in a department was fewer than the number of pumps required for patient care, the department encountered shortage. In most cases, the personnel were not clear on where available pumps might be stored and had to search for free pumps throughout the hospital. <br /><br /> The system was thoroughly studied and the necessary data were collected. A model reflecting the current flow of patients and pumps was developed. This model was operationalized by constructing a simulation model. The model presented the flow through the hospital on a daily basis. <br /><br /> The output of the simulation model provided the daily number of pumps in use in each of the departments and the distribution of pump use for each department, separately, and overall. Using these distributions, the number of pumps required in each department if maintaining a supply of pumps was quantified to meet certain service levels. In addition, the number of pumps required in the system if the pumps were all shared, was also obtained. It was concluded that the actual number of pumps required in the system is fewer than the number of pumps existing in the hospital. This conclusion confirmed that long searches for free pumps were not due to insufficient quantity of pumps, but were solely due to the behaviour of hoarding extra pumps when available. The simulation also provided the number of pumps short per day and the number of pumps in excess per day, by department. <br /><br /> Two pump management alternatives were suggested to the hospital. The first alternative was to utilize a centralized pool to keep all shared pumps when not in use. The second alternative was to install RFID technology throughout the hospital and equip all pumps with RFID tags so that they could be easily located. The three pump management systems (current, central pooling, and RFID) were compared, and the advantages and disadvantages of each of the alternative techniques were discussed.

The objective of this thesis was to better understand the patterns of IV-pump use throughout the hospital in order to provide guidance to the hospital on alternative pump management methods. In the current system, when the number of available pumps in a department was fewer than the number of pumps required for patient care, the department encountered shortage. In most cases, the personnel were not clear on where available pumps might be stored and had to search for free pumps throughout the hospital. <br /><br /> The system was thoroughly studied and the necessary data were collected. A model reflecting the current flow of patients and pumps was developed. This model was operationalized by constructing a simulation model. The model presented the flow through the hospital on a daily basis. <br /><br /> The output of the simulation model provided the daily number of pumps in use in each of the departments and the distribution of pump use for each department, separately, and overall. Using these distributions, the number of pumps required in each department if maintaining a supply of pumps was quantified to meet certain service levels. In addition, the number of pumps required in the system if the pumps were all shared, was also obtained. It was concluded that the actual number of pumps required in the system is fewer than the number of pumps existing in the hospital. This conclusion confirmed that long searches for free pumps were not due to insufficient quantity of pumps, but were solely due to the behaviour of hoarding extra pumps when available. The simulation also provided the number of pumps short per day and the number of pumps in excess per day, by department. <br /><br /> Two pump management alternatives were suggested to the hospital. The first alternative was to utilize a centralized pool to keep all shared pumps when not in use. The second alternative was to install RFID technology throughout the hospital and equip all pumps with RFID tags so that they could be easily located. The three pump management systems (current, central pooling, and RFID) were compared, and the advantages and disadvantages of each of the alternative techniques were discussed.

This Record of Study presents the development of infrastructure asset management software solutions for municipalities in South Africa. The study was performed within a multidisciplinary engineering consulting company in South Africa with an interest in expanding its infrastructure asset management consultancy services in the local government market. South Africa faces a large backlog in the delivery of basic services to communities; existing infrastructure is showing signs of advanced aging; and municipalities are inadequately staffed to effectively provide services with limited funding. The company identified the opportunity to support South African municipalities with the delivery of sustainable infrastructure services through the implementation of infrastructure asset management best practice. The provision of these services required the development of infrastructure asset management software that satisfies the needs of municipalities. Infrastructure asset management practice around the world and in the context of municipalities in South Africa was reviewed to gain an understanding of the specific requirements of the asset management software solution. The software functionality was conceptualized and the technical requirements were identified to aid development. Finally, a business plan was prepared to assess the commercial viability of the software and to guide its introduction into the market.

No description available.

Indexation serves as a cornerstone of the asset management field. As such, asset managers across the globe are constantly testing different methodologies to find one which provides consistent superior performance against the rest. While previously, market capitalization weighted indexes have been the popular and simpler method to implement, the search of outperformance has evolved from only focusing on picking securities from larger institutions and has expanded to trying out various weighting methods so as to maximize on the best performing instruments. As yet, there is no definite winner, with the success of most methods being largely influenced by the type of market for which the index is intended as well as the macro-economic environment prevailing during the period. However, the fundamental indexation method has recently gained popularity, particularly in the global equity markets. This research paper explores the method of fundamental indexation and applies it to the corporate fixed income section of the South African market. The main aim is to determine whether the significant outperformance, which has been found in global fixed income markets as well as global and domestic equity markets, will hold true when the method is implemented on domestic bonds. This investigation uses the current domestic market corporate bond index, the OTHI, as a benchmark against two alternative bond indexes created using the fundamental indexing methodology. The first alternative index is a direct replication of the OTHI and has identical constituents to those of the original. This is called the OTHI_ALT. However, finding that the OTHI is heavily influenced by the debt issues of the government and other parastatal companies, a second more diverse index is created. This is named the SAFI_ALT, which maintains the same number of constituents in each period as the OTHI, but uses different universe selection methods and thus has different constituents. The study creates four sub-indexes for both the OTHI_ALT and the SAFI_ALT, using the fundamental metrics of the companies whose securities are included in the index. The fundamentals used are Sales, Cash Flow and Book Value, and in addition a Composite of all three fundamentals.

This thesis proposes a novel working paradigm for transportation infrastructure asset management by viewing the transportation networks as key components (or nodes) of a broader network of resources, which includes infrastructure linked with society's ecological, social, and economic systems. An extensive review of network science literature suggested that to understand the behavior of a complex network is imperative to characterize its topology. Consequently, this thesis focused on developing a framework to characterize the topology of the transportation infrastructure systems, and understanding how the unveiling topology can be used for supporting transportation asset management decisions. The proposed methodology determines whether the transportation infrastructure networks can be modeled as scale-free or exponential networks, using a framework for characterizing the agents of the network, their direct and indirect interactions among each other, and their importance as elements of a complex network, and utilizes these data to support transportation asset management. The methodology consist of seven steps: (1) define the networks of interest; (2) identify their intrinsic components; (3) visualize the identified networks using GIS maps; (4) identify direct and indirect interactions through superposition of the networks; (5) represent the relationship between the nodes and their linkages by frequency diagrams in order to determine the intrinsic topology of the network; (6) illustrate (graphically) the overall transportation infrastructure with the help of GIS; and (7) analyze the TINs from the decision-maker point of view, identifying the elements that are more relevant or need more attention on the network. The procedure is then implemented in a small network in a localized area (Town of Blacksburg, Virginia) to show its practicality, and recommendations for further development and mathematical modeling in order to allow its implementation in larger networks are provided. Based on frequency analysis of the nodes and their connectivity, it was concluded that the transportation infrastructure networks in the case study behave as exponential networks. The study showed that the links determine how the infrastructure network grows and that problems like congestion can be addressed by analyzing other factors related with topology, such as speed, unit size, and lane width. The proposed methodology was found to be useful as an asset management tool. Finally, a list of findings and recommendations for further research are presented as opportunities to enhance the management of transportation infrastructure networks. / Master of Science

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The research answered the primary research question by defining what business intelligence (BI) platform must be included in Pragma’s asset care centre (ACC) model. Pragma delivers physical asset management services and products with the aim of improving performance of physical assets. These services and products are contained in the ACC model, which is based on Pragma’s AMIP asset management maturity assessment methodology. The current BI platform in the ACC Pack cannot deliver information management to a mature asset management organisation as set out in the AMIP methodology. The research used a questionnaire, based on an extensive literature review, to determine the need for BI within the current user base, and to determine the ideal BI functionality profile delivered inside the ACC model. This proved to be valuable input in defining the BI platform by evaluating the features and capabilities of BI vendors. The quality of information findings highlighted the inadequacy of the current BI platform. The current platform consists of SSRS reports executing directly on the database of the business application, On Key. The concern is that the reports do not conform to the specification. This highlights a misalignment between what the SSRS reports deliver, and what the user expects. The platform is not sufficiently dynamic to allow tailored reports or data analysis to overcome this. Another key finding was that the platform is not delivering the service that the consumer expects. The current platform favours operational users over managerial users. Most of the information quality weaknesses are due to the current platform’s functionality that is stretched beyond its intended purpose. The research found that the current platform is delivering the two main capabilities required from the BI platform, i.e. reporting and MS Office integration. However, this is insufficient because SSRS is unable to deliver on any of the other capabilities present in the BI model. Capabilities like dashboards, collaboration and ad hoc query are key capabilities required by Pragma’s user base. Users require an online platform where they can perform analysis originating from multiple sources. The users responsible for implementing and maintaining the platform must have the functionality to make minor adjustments to the standard reports and the ability to add objects unique to the business environment. The research recommends a hybrid BI platform consisting of SSRS for activity reports, and QlikView for analysis models and adding the complete set of BI capabilities not present in the current platform. QlikTech’s QlikView, one of the leading data discovery tools in the industry, is the BI tool best suited to Pragma’s needs due to its user-friendliness and self-service BI capabilities. This will require an original equipment manufacturers (OEM) partnership between Pragma and QlikTech, with QlikView embedded into On Key as its BI capability. Another recommendation is that Pragma include a data warehouse as part of the On Key deployment. This will allow for analysis across multiple sources and enable completeness of information.

Saskatchewan is facing a current infrastructure deficit, that is the current resources allocated to support its infrastructure are not in line with maintaining the current level of service into the future. This deficit has lead to a common assumption that assets are more likely to fail to provide their required service with age. While obsolescence and other factors may be related to age, the present work set out to investigate the relationship between probability of failure to provide service and expected life of assets, to allow asset managers to create more robust risk management strategies as part of their asset management plans. For the present work, failure is defined as any functional failure where the asset has not met its required level of service. By the functional failure definition, a failure can be any event from a short duration service interruption to catastrophic breakdown of an asset. The purpose of the present work is to look at probability of failure, and not consequence so assets will have two states in the study, fully meeting their required level of service (function) or not meeting their required level of service (functional failure). In the 1970s, two researchers with United Airlines, Nowlan and Heap, completed a study of when assets in aviation were likely to fail. The way failure is defined in their report is in line with the failure definition in the present work. Nowlan and Heap’s work lead to classifying failures into six different patterns. The largest group of failures, known as the F pattern, show that assets were more likely to fail early in their lives. The present work employed a similar study of its assets over a 13 month period to see if similar patterns could be found. To complete the study at the Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant, asset failure data was taken from the City’s Avantis Asset Management System. Failures were broken down by asset type and sub-type based on functionality to observe their age relative to expected life when they failed. The present work determined that the approach was sound and that there was sufficient data with some types of assets to fit to the patterns developed by Nowlan and Heap. The present work shows that likelihood of failure to provide service is not connected with age, and that additional study of the Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant asset’s is required in order to determine exact patterns of probability of failure for each of the assets types. After classifying the failures by each asset type, and accounting for errors in the data caused by the warranty period on assets that are maintained by the contractor, all types of assets were found to have higher occurrences of failure in the early portion of their lives than closer to the end of their expected life. Furthermore defining the shape of each asset type failures made it clear that age-based failure was not dominant. The study results lead to the conclusion that more research should be conducted not only at the Saskatoon WTP but with other infrastructure to better understand when assets are likely to fail to provide service so that probability can be integrated with risk management programs. Lastly this study has shown that it is not correct for asset managers to assume any pattern of failure for their assets without investigation.

With the increasing cost of new construction projects, keeping the built facilities at acceptable levels of functionality has become a vital and challenging task. This is particularly so for non-residential buildings, such as schools, which are important infrastructure assets that require frequent maintenance and repair of their many components and sub-components. Maintenance and repair jobs, however, involve huge sets of data which contain useful interrelated information about costs, resources, conditions, and productivity. To support decision making at different management levels with respect to the utilization of resources requires the managing, analyzing, and visualizing of these huge amount of data. This thesis presents a simple and inexpensive approach to managing, reporting, and facilitating the visualization of maintenance and repair data for school buildings. The proposed model conveniently integrates widely used spreadsheet software – MS Excel – and Geographic Information System (GIS) software – MS MapPoint. The spreadsheet’s simple and powerful capability of managing data is exploited to design a data warehouse that can facilitate reporting and visualization. The Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language was used to facilitate the integration between the two software systems and to automate the generation of a variety of reports and maps that can show analysis trends, reveal hidden relationships, and support decision making for different management levels. A real-life case study involving two years of maintenance data for 93 schools at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is used in this thesis to illustrate the development of the model and to demonstrate its simplicity and efficiency. The use of the model as part of an integrated framework for building asset management is also highlighted.