Types of Maintenance

Scheduled - for many agencies, constitutes 70% of maintenance. Emphasis is on making pull-out. In most agencies software controls the schedule both for vehicles and maintenance personnel assignment because of the complexity of scheduling numerous vehicles and their hundreds of component parts. Employees review their assignments daily (365 days/year) in the system.

Examples of maintenance scheduling systems:

WMATA - MARS, developed internally

DART - Spear Vehicle Maintenance (Spear Technologies)

VTA - Maintenance scheduling integrated with SAP system.

Unscheduled - is incurred when vehicles break down. Estimated historical failure rates help the agency to determine how many buses are needed to cover those out of service because of unscheduled "corrective" maintenance.

Scheduled Maintenance Categories - This chart shows how WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) categorizes preventive maintenance costs.

Type	Rail Maintenance Activity
Daily	Cleaning Graffiti check Visual inspection interior, exterior Functional test safety components, lighting, emergency evacuation equipment
Monthly	Visual inspection of electrical and mechanical components
A. Every 60 days	Major cleaning Preventive cleaning of motors Test functionality of designated components
B. Semi-annually	Clean aluminum All under A, plus Brake calipers check, coupler checks
C. Annual	All under A and B, plus Routine overhaul of selected electrical and mechanical components
Scheduled car body refurbishment	Interior - replace carpet every 5 years, paint every 10 years