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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. A Guidebook for Developing and Sharing Transit Bus Maintenance Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13562.
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Page 3
Page 4
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. A Guidebook for Developing and Sharing Transit Bus Maintenance Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13562.
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Page 4
Page 5
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. A Guidebook for Developing and Sharing Transit Bus Maintenance Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13562.
×
Page 5
Page 6
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 1 - Introduction." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. A Guidebook for Developing and Sharing Transit Bus Maintenance Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13562.
×
Page 6

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

3CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This Guidebook is designed to give users a great deal of flexibility in applying the material contained in it to develop maintenance practices. Because of this flexibility, it is highly recommended that you become familiar with the table of contents and pay particular attention to the sections below on “Guidebook Structure and Contents” and “Using this Guidebook.” The sections summarize the various approaches that can be taken to apply the Guidebook. OVERVIEW Simply stated, maintenance practices are written instruc- tions for carrying out specific job tasks such as preventive maintenance inspections (PMIs) and other bus- and facility- related repairs. Agencies use a variety of terms to describe these instructions, such as process sheets, recommended practices (RPs), standard operating procedures (SOPs), work standards, and others. This Guidebook, however, will refer to these instructions as “practices.” Practices provide maintenance personnel with a clear indi- cation of what the agency is looking for in terms of a finished work product. Without these instructions, workers can approach jobs in a manner that may not be efficient, com- prehensive, safe, or in keeping with the agency’s expecta- tions for overall work quality. Understanding that agencies have dissimilar resources and needs, this Guidebook is designed to offer flexibility in selecting an approach that works best for each maintenance operation. The Guidebook is intended to assist agencies of all sizes, including those operating smaller buses in rural areas. In con- ducting research for this project, input was solicited from a variety of groups, including the Bus Equipment and Mainte- nance Committee (BEMC) of APTA, the TRB Committee on Transit Fleet Maintenance, as well as maintenance represen- tatives from the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA), which represents the interests of small and rural agencies. Several of the sample maintenance practices included in Chapter 6 pertain to the smaller buses typically operated by CTAA member agencies. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to send maintenance personnel to meetings where they can make contacts and exchange information on a variety of techni- cal subjects. This lack of communication opportunity comes at a time when bus technology is becoming increas- ingly complex, workers are required to do more with less, and employee turnover is more prevalent. Budget cuts have also forced some agencies to abandon apprenticeship programs that pass down valuable knowledge from senior mechanics to new hires. Fortunately, there exists a great deal of collective knowl- edge within the transit community. This Guidebook project taps into that knowledge to: 1. Get agencies to understand the benefits and importance of using maintenance practices; 2. Provide agencies with the guidance needed to write practices based on their own needs, abilities, climate, and shop conditions; 3. Make the guidance easy to understand and apply; and 4. Build a library of practices that agencies can share with their peers. GUIDEBOOK STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS The first three Guidebook chapters contain essential information needed before setting out to develop an actual practice. They include instructions on collecting, evaluating, and synthesizing reference material from a variety of sources; tailoring practices to your own local conditions; integrating practices with training; addressing regulatory compliance issues; improving writing skills; and inserting photographs. Preparing yourself with this material in advance will make the finished practice more useful and effective. Chapter 4 is the heart of the Guidebook because it offers a format and step-by-step instructions for writing practices and ends with suggestions for validating and updating practices. Chapter 5 describes how to give your practices a uniform title when sharing them with others over the Internet. Although manual distribution methods were explored for sharing prac- tices, the resources required were far too great. The solution chosen was an Internet-based Web Board established as a companion to this Guidebook. In addition to housing a

collection of agency practices cataloged under major head- ings, the Web Board makes it easier to locate needed refer- ence materials. Additional information on the Web Board is provided below and in Chapter 2. The Guidebook concludes with Chapter 6, a series of seven sample practices developed from applying the guidance offered here to popular maintenance tasks. The sample prac- tices illustrate what a completed practice could look like in terms of structure and content. Like existing agency practices found on the Web Board, the sample Guidebook practices could serve as a useful starting point for developing your own practices on similar topics. USING THIS GUIDEBOOK Use of this Guidebook is completely voluntary and can be applied in whole or in part. There is no one approach that is “right” for all agencies to use. Unlike standards and RPs developed through a consensus-driven process requiring uni- versal approval, material in this Guidebook can be used to develop practices tailored specifically to your own mainte- nance operation. Agencies that already have practices can use the guidance to improve them, while those without prac- tices now have a framework to get the process going. The Guidebook and its Web Board component, which may appear overwhelming at first, are actually designed to give agencies a variety of choices as they set off to develop or improve their practices. The Guidebook also accommodates those with or without computer skills and Internet access. The hard-copy version includes all of the essential material needed to develop practices without using a computer. Those with computer skills, however, can access additional Guide- book features and the Internet-based Web Board to make the job easier. You have several choices in applying the Guidebook. The recommended approach is to read all of the background material contained in Chapters 1–3 in preparation for writing the practice as described in Chapter 4. A second approach is to go directly to Chapter 4 and begin writing the practice, referring back to the previous three chapters as needed for specific information. A third and “fast-track” approach, although not necessar- ily the best, is to use one of the sample practices included in Chapter 6 or one of the existing agency practices cataloged under major bus maintenance headings on the Web Board as a starting point to develop your own practices. You can also upload your agency’s practices to this collection at any time. If you decide to skip around and use only select parts of the Guidebook, it is strongly recommended that you first become familiar with the table of contents because it pro- vides a useful roadmap of all the material covered. In addi- tion, it is strongly recommended that you read the section on legal considerations found at the beginning of Chapter 2 and in Appendix A before you write any maintenance practice. 4 You also have a choice when it comes to physically writ- ing the practice. If you prefer the “manual” approach and are uncomfortable with computers, you can use the format con- tained in Chapter 4 to write practices using more traditional means (e.g., typewriter and pen and paper). For those with a computer and Internet access, the Guidebook is available in electronic format. It includes an MS Word® template so you can compose your practices directly on a personal computer. You could also use your own word processing program to write practices without the template. The template not only standardizes the document style (e.g., font, margins, and page layout), but also provides links to specific instructions and reference sections contained in the Guidebook (e.g., instructions for inserting photos and tips on writing well). Without the template, you would use the table of contents to reference the appropriate pages of the hard-copy version. An electronic version of the Guidebook and the Word template are available as a download on the Web Board described in Chapter 2, Part 2. The various approaches to writing practices are intended to accommodate the various skills and resources available to agencies. It is hoped that the added flexibility will encourage more agencies to develop practices and enjoy the many benefits offered by them. BENEFITS Other Transportation Industries The benefits of having—and using—documented mainte- nance practices cannot be overemphasized. In the airline industry, where steps to ensure passenger safety are un- matched, airlines, aircraft makers, and the federal government all cooperate to make certain that documented practices guide every essential maintenance task. The trucking industry publishes hundreds of RPs for their members. United Parcel Service (UPS), for example, develops practices that are so detailed that another mechanic can take over a major job at any time knowing exactly where the previous mechanic left off. Private and public railroads also produce standards and RPs. As one example, APTA is leading a standards-development effort that includes the development of maintenance practices for both rail and bus transit. All of these organizations under- stand the benefits derived from using practices to guide and standardize routine maintenance tasks. APTA’s Bus Standards Activities On the bus side, APTA is involved with two standards activ- ities. One is a program for developing voluntary RPs. Unlike the agency-specific practices developed from this Guidebook, APTA’s RPs are being developed by consensus for use by the transit industry as a whole. As a result, material contained in them tends to be generic because of their universal appeal. However, agencies can use material contained in the APTA

RPs as is or can use this Guidebook to make the RPs reflect specific agency procedures and conditions. The other APTA program involves a collection of RPs developed by the American Trucking Association (ATA) for the heavy-duty trucking industry. Since many truck compo- nents are similar to those used in transit buses, several of the ATA’s existing practices also apply to transit buses in whole or in part. The collection of these ATA trucking RPs, entitled “Recommended Maintenance Practice for Transit Buses,” is an essential reference document available through APTA. Chapter 2 contains information on how to obtain the bus RPs being developed by APTA and the truck RPs assembled by the ATA. Specific Benefits to Bus Transit Many transit agencies already understand the benefits of using practices. In a survey of 62 agencies conducted as part of this project, over 56 percent reported that they use main- tenance practices. Among agencies with such practices, the average number of practices was 34. Agencies without prac- tices may recognize the value of practices, but simply lack the resources or time needed to prepare them. Practices benefit both workers and management. The primary benefit to workers is that practices provide a clear set of instructions on how to accomplish specific maintenance tasks that can be referred to over time. The instructions impart the agency’s collective wisdom based on its own experiences and the knowledge gained from others. As new information becomes available, practices can be updated to reflect the most complete, most efficient, and safest manner in which to get the job done. For new hires and seasoned workers alike, practices serve as a convenient refresher to ensure that all job procedures have been correctly followed. Practices can also provide workers with other essential information, such as safety pro- cedures, replacement parts and tools needed for the job, a glossary of terms to promote universal understanding, and proper disposal and handling of any hazardous materials gen- erated from the job. The primary benefit to management is that practices help ensure consistency between jobs regardless of who performs the work. Practices can also include a standard repair time (SRT), allowing management to monitor worker perfor- mance, schedule work, determine staffing levels, and esti- mate job costs. The costing information could be used for budgeting purposes and to determine if outsourcing certain jobs is more cost effective. Written practices are also useful to management in that they can easily become part of the agency’s training curricu- lum. Several agencies with in-house training programs use their practices as teaching aids. For those without training programs who hire qualified technicians or rely on outside training, written practices take on even greater importance because they provide uniform work instructions to employ- 5 ees regardless of how and where they were taught. And for those who monitor worker performance, practices are absolutely essential in that they serve as a “common denom- inator,” where all workers are measured against the same set of work instructions and expectations. DETERMINING THE NEED FOR PRACTICES Written practices may not be needed for all maintenance tasks—it all comes down to priorities. PMIs are certainly a good place to start because they are central to every good maintenance operation. Additionally, having detailed PMI practices for each vehicle type and key components goes a long way to help satisfy the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA’s) Triennial Review requirements. In conducting its review, FTA requires grantees to show proof that they have a documented maintenance plan for federally funded buses and facilities. Examples of the material required by FTA include: • A maintenance plan that is current for vehicles and facilities, • PMI checklists consistent with the grantee’s current operating fleet and with the manufacturer’s minimum maintenance requirement for vehicles under warranty, • Specific maintenance procedures for wheelchair lifts and other accessibility equipment, • Proof that the grantee’s maintenance plan and PMI activities ensure that assets are protected from deterio- ration and reach their maximum useful life, • A record-keeping system that permanently records the maintenance history of facilities and equipment, and • A schedule for facility/equipment PMIs. The questions below will help you prioritize the need for maintenance practices. Although no set number of “yes” responses would indicate a need to develop a practice, the issues raised here will hopefully cause you to recognize the many benefits offered by practices and then motivate you to prioritize and develop them. 1. Are there regulatory requirements that would be bet- ter served by having documented practices in place? 2. Is there a need to document compliance with any specific requirement? 3. Are there excessive shop comebacks and/or road calls that result from improper repair or inspection activities? 4. Is there a lack of consistency in performing certain inspections or repairs from one mechanic to another or from one maintenance facility to another (e.g., those with different lifts, layout, and equipment)? 5. Are the tasks on a particular job transferred to another mechanic on a different work shift (i.e., where the second mechanic would need to know where the first left off)?

6. Is there a risk of warranty loss due to improper main- tenance in specific areas? 7. Would there be a benefit in establishing time standards and monitoring compliances with those standards for specific repairs or inspections? 8. Would there be a benefit in documenting the need for special tools, safety precautions, or the handling of hazardous waste for specific inspections or repairs? 9. Would there be a benefit in identifying in advance all of the parts (individual or kits) needed to perform a specific maintenance job? 10. Would instructions written in another language, such as Spanish, improve the quality of inspections and repairs? 6 11. Would there be a benefit in identifying the total cost (i.e., parts and labor) for specific maintenance jobs? 12. Would there be a benefit in ensuring consistency between classroom training and the way maintenance jobs are carried out in the shop? The issues raised in these questions can all be addressed by maintenance practices. A logical approach would be to first develop or improve practices pertaining to PMIs and then move on to specific areas that generate the most road calls, repeat failures, and other unscheduled maintenance activities.

Next: Chapter 2 - Reference Materials and Web Board Use »
A Guidebook for Developing and Sharing Transit Bus Maintenance Practices Get This Book
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TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 109: A Guidebook for Developing and Sharing Transit Bus Maintenance Practices provides guidance on how to develop effective transit bus maintenance practices tailored to the local operating environment. The report provides seven sample practices developed using the guidance.

An on-line Web Board, referenced in TCRP Report 109, no longer exists; however, the ListServ capability of the original Web Board has been taken over by the Transit Maintenance Analysis and Resource Center (TMAARC). TMAARC is managed and funded by the Florida Department of Transportation and administered by the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research.

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