TECHNICAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT Jan/2014
SUMMARY The Technical Service Department has established a set of business principles to support a variety of Departments within the District that includes Maintenance, Training, Purchasing, Materials, Legal, and Planning. Warranty recovery is an intricate part in the daily functions of the Department and requires real-time data in order to process claims. The District s Ellipse asset management system was evaluated and found to have limited capabilities of capturing warranty data that was applicable in meeting the District s operation warranty needs. A secondary claiming platform was developed in a Microsoft Access database to interface with the Ellipse system to maximize data control and improve warranty capture and accountability. The interface records claims defined by repair type, tracks failure frequencies, fleet campaigns, and has the capability to generate reports for distribution. Additional report distributions have also been developed to identify key aspects and identifiers using data from the asset management system. The reports assist in analyzing and aiding in decision making from line to executive levels. The Department utilizes the information to ensure the District is in compliance with various agencies such as the California Air Resource Board and Federal Transportation Association. Report mechanisms developed like the Fleet Spare Ratio and Fleet Emission are some examples. In addition, the Department also produces quality control directives as well as process and risk analysis. SYSTEM ASPECTS Asset Identifiers Aspect Asset Inventory Asset Condition Fleet Management Maintenance Management Facilities Management Material Management Asset Analysis Identifiers Type, Location, Age, Quantity, Cost, Attributes, Rating, Serialized Component Data Signal Conditions, Warranty, Claims, Campaigns Work Orders, Labor/ Equipment Costs, Asset Conditions Work Performance, Detection, Detection, Warranty Material Costs, Inventory, Usage, Trends Life-Cycle Cost, Risk Assessment, Change Controls 1 P a g e
WARRANTY DESIGN EVALUATION WARRANTY MANAGEMENT REDESIGN The Technical Service Department evaluated the warranty application in the District s Mincom Ellipse asset management system. The Ellipse warranty template had limited functions which restricted the capabilities of capturing warranty data that was applicable to the District s operational fleet and meeting the warranty needs. A secondary claiming platform was developed in a Microsoft Access database to interface with the Ellipse system to maximize data control and improve warranty capture and accountability. The interface records claims defined by repair type, tracks failure frequencies, fleet campaigns, and has the capability to generate reports for distribution. The Ellipse warranty application was measured against fleet and facility maintenance practices which was conducted under the condition assessment of the revenue fleet. The key component of the evaluation was to assess the practices at the operating divisions and review the ability of the warranty application to provide the data in a timely and easy to understand manner. Subsequently, due to the functional issues, it was deemed to develop critical software to meet the warranty business requirements in conjunction with the Ellipse asset management system. Data transfer was established by linking the Access database to various tables in the Ellipse system. PROCESS ANALYSIS The evaluation on the Ellipse warranty application discovered various issues in managing warranty. The evaluation table identifies the elements in claim recovery and the functionality of the Ellipse asset management system. Ellipse Functionality Element Description Functionality Generate and track warranty claims from the work order system including claim number and date, vehicle/asset/component, original cost (if applicable), work performance, repair type (external/internal), material return, repair cost, claim amount, claim status (user-defined categories), claim disposition and date, actual recovery amount received, type of disposition (e.g. reimbursement, replacement part, credit toward future purchases, etc.), comments, etc. Provide the capability to re-enter or override warranty information when warranty adjustments occur Provide a method to track warranty replacement parts and associated value amounts returned to inventory Equipment Register Equipment Register 2 P a g e Provide the ability to credit a vehicle/asset or work order based on a warranty claim Track and maintain all vehicle, asset and serialized component warranty information and status (both new and repaired component warranties) Provide a method to track all warranties based on multiple categories, such as time, miles and performance, as defined by specific performance indicators Credit not applied to original ORG code Partially meets/ repaired components not tracked Partially meets/ KPI development required
Element Description Functionality Provide a method of printing electronically readable (e.g. bar code) warranty tags to physically identify parts and components removed under warranty, and include return material authorization information for parts and components Partially meets as CMF uses barcode scanners to be returned to the vendor Maintain part warranty information by part number, vendor High values number and date last purchased considered Material stocking receipt of parts under warranty and other "no cost" replacement parts. Support warranty related inventory transactions, identify items returned. Track components reclaimed as warranty failures (at good component cost) pending warranty repair. Report Distribution Report Distribution Provide a method to automatically alert personnel to the existence of all warranties when defects/problems or work orders are created prior to any repairs or replacements Provide the capability to generate a detailed user-defined report indicating the dollar amount of warranties recovered for a user-defined time period by maintenance location or system-wide, vendor, vehicle/asset/component series or type or type of failure Maintain warranty information for specific vehicles/assets/components on-line including vehicle/asset/component number, PO number and date, vendor, warranty provisions and coverage, subsystems with variation from basic coverage, date received, date placed in service, warranty effective date, warranty end date, mileage and/or operating hours and elapsed time that warranty begins and ends, etc. Track and report on number and percent failure under warranty for vehicle/asset components or parts for a specific vehicle series or asset types to determine if the failure exceeds criteria for complete fleet failure, as defined by contract or user-defined warranty provisions Ability to change or update warranty terms for a group of assets and apply the new terms to all assets in the group (such as a series of vehicles) Partially meets based on new asset parameters QUALITY CONTROL MEASURES To understand the business rules and logic behind the various fields, script was developed in the Access database to gather the appropriate data objects required from the Ellipse tables. Over 100 queries were designed using the connection which consolidated information in separate claim repositories. Additional queries were designed based off of probability distribution models to perform GAP/SWOT analysis reports to establish quality controls and increase operation efficiencies. Provided are the SQL codes used to gather data for claim processing. 3 P a g e
FLEET MANAGEMENT WARRANTY MANAGEMENT REDESIGN The Department utilizes fleet information to ensure the District is in compliance with various agencies such as the California Air Resource Board and Federal Transportation Association. Report mechanisms have been developed using specified metrics to meet this type of demand. Provided are report types, definitions used and the specific requirement that defines the reason of the action. Reporting Functions Type Definition Requirement Cost Per Mile Equipment Material + Labor/ Traveled Mileage Federal Transit Reporting National Transit Database Disposition Asset surpassed useful life expectancy for disposal Board Policy 356- Disposition of Surplus Equipment Failure Contract Provisions Terms Component Failures by Fleet Quantity Frequency of Fleet Defect Statement Federal Motor Vehicle Fleet Component Replacement by Fleet Type Safety Standard Title 49 Campaign Chapter 301 Fleet Emissions Spare Ratio Engine Year PM/ N0x Emission Summaries by Fleet Rule Spare Units/ Peak Service Requirements Air Resource Board title 13, California Code of Regulations FTA Circular 9030.1C Urbanized Area Formula Program 4 P a g e