Zarembski, Allan M.2022-05-162022-05-161998-01Zarembski, A. M., “Development and Implementation of Integrated Maintenance Planning Systems”, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January, 1998https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/30878Railway engineering departments have focused attention on improving the efficiency of their maintenance operations through the use of a range of computerized inspection, analysis, and planning tools. These tools are designed to help identify where resources are really required and schedule the necessary maintenance operations. These tools include; automated inspection systems, user friendly databases, and maintenance planning software systems. These tools have been applied to date in the areas of rail maintenance (the highest track maintenance cost category), surfacing (ballast/track geometry maintenance), and to a lesser extent, tie maintenance. In the case of the first two, rails and surfacing, high speed automated inspection systems are available which provide the ongoing input into the condition of the track and its day to day changes. In the case of ties, new generation track strength measurement vehicles are currently being introduced, to provide information data on the condition of the tie and fasteners. This inspection data, together with track component, traffic, and geometry information, is stored in an integrated database and then fed into the analysis and forecasting element of the integrated maintenance planning system. This is the element that takes this data and analyzes it, to predict where and when components will reach their failure limit and require replacement. This element makes use of fundamental engineering behavior relationships, in the form of track degradation models, to predict component life, identify time and location of component replacement, and combine this information into an integrated maintenance plan. This paper describes the steps involved in developing such an integrated maintenance planning system and cites examples, particularly in the case of rail, to show how these systems have been developed and implemented on several major rail systems.Maintenance planningRail systemsArticle