UNIT 55 - FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (AM/FM)

UNIT 55 - FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (AM/FM)

Compiled with assistance from Warren Ferguson, Ferguson Cartotech, San Antonio
• A. INTRODUCTION

• B. AUTOMATED MAPPING
  • Automated mapping capabilities
  • Automated mapping shortcomings

• C. FACILITIES MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
  • Facilities management systems capabilities
  • Facilities management systems shortcomings

• D. AM/FM
  • AM/FM examples
  • Benefits of AM/FM systems

• E. CHARACTERISTICS OF AM/FM
  • Functionality
  • Organizations

• F. EXAMPLE - EASTERN MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT
  • Background
  • System development
  • System configuration
  • Map products
  • Applications development

• REFERENCES

• EXAM AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• NOTES

The slide set contains a few slides that could be used to illustrate this unit.

UNIT 55 - FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (AM/FM)

Compiled with assistance from Warren Ferguson, Ferguson Cartotech, San Antonio

• facilities management is a very influential, well organized GIS application area

• has major representation from utility companies - telephone, electricity, gas
  • projects tend to be very large, well funded and critical to the efficient operation of the utility

• umbrella term used by these organizations is AM/FM - Automated Mapping and Facilities Management

• AM/FM is primarily distinguished by the context of applications: utilities, urban facilities management

• AM/FM is an information management tool
  • data used for day-to-day decisions only, is not an analytical tool
    • e.g. maintenance crews use information to locate and repair breaks in service
    • e.g. construction drawings are produced and sent to the field for installation

• AM/FM is the integration of two tools
  • automated mapping produces maps
  • facilities management provides digital inventories of facilities
  • AM/FM links the two to provide geographical access to facility inventories

• with control of different layers of information, provides a variety of ways to output from a single database
  • e.g. by turning on or off layers, a street light map or electrical feeder map could be produced from the same database

overhead - Automated mapping
• better map maintenance is a major benefit of automated mapping
  • productivity increases 2 to 10 times over manual methods

  • no problem with physical or content deterioration of maps since they can be produced as needed or as updated

• centralized control is a major benefit to major corporations
  • paper documents are replaced by a central digital store
  • copies can be produced and distributed as and when necessary

  • computerization provides easier but better controlled access
    • in the paper world, when a document was checked out no one else could access the information - elaborate systems were set up to ensure return of the document
    • in a digital world we can control who can access and for what purpose (read only, edit etc.)

• provides only graphic output, no means of query
  • e.g. cannot obtain attributes of objects
  • e.g. cannot access objects by their attributes

• because objects are not connected topologically, cannot carry out sophisticated analysis of networks

• cannot relate map information to other records

• exist in many organizations

overhead - Facilities Management
• consist of computerized inventories of the organization's facilities
  • capabilities for sorting, maintaining and reporting information
    • e.g. many utilities have pole files containing information on each pole
    • e.g. date of installation
  • many types of reports can be generated

• can maintain a digital representation of the facility network to allow engineering, network analysis in tabular, numeric form (not spatial)

• no geographic capabilities
  • can generate only alphanumeric reports
  • cannot access records geographically
  • cannot generate geographic reports (maps)

• redundancy must arise if both automated mapping and facilities management systems are maintained, one for mapping and the other for inventory

overhead - Automated mapping/Facilities management
• combine automated mapping and facilities management into one system
  • geographic information provides a new window into the facilities database
  • information can be retrieved by pointing to a map image
    • e.g. point to an electrical cable and retrieve kVA (kilovolt-ampere) rating, length, mortality, or list of transformers connected to it

• AM/FM is a very successful marriage of two traditional concepts

• locating pole or facility item by street address

• generate reports on street lighting - does it meet standards in specified area?

• generate maps of electrical circuits or feeders at prescribed scale

• produce continuing reports on property

• provide reports for tax purposes

• reduces the cost to maintain information
  • no physical maps to deteriorate, get lost, misfiled
  • data is more accessible and secure

• impact the organization by integrating operations
  • departments must cooperate because they now share data
  • reduces potential duplication between departments
  • ensures consistency of information base across departments

• new forms of report available
  • new information provides basis for new forms of management

• scale:
  • service maps are needed at a scale of 1" to 100'

  • general systems planning may require scales down to 1:1,000,000, e.g. for electrical utilities

• data sources:
  • data generally collected during construction or maintenance, using sketches on standard basemaps

• data quality:
  • high data quality is desirable, e.g. accurate positioning of underground facilities, but not always attainable in practice
    • much urban infrastructure (e.g. water, sewer pipes) may be more than 100 years old and many historical records may be missing

• AM/FM systems stress addition of geographical access to existing databases
  • database likely to remain on mainframe
  • geographical access may be from workstation with geographical data maintained locally
  • non-geographical data characterized by frequent transactions - requires access to database from many workstations
  • geographical data input independently using specialized graphics workstation

• backcloth used for input
  • backcloth is a basemap showing the facility locations to be digitized as well as other geographic details, e.g. streets, parcels
  • digitizing may be done on screen with backcloth displayed in raster form using video technology
  • however basemap itself is not entered into database

• some vendors supplying the AM/FM market argue that:
  • AM/FM applications are literally "geographic information systems" - providing geographically based access to information
  • systems which provide analysis and modeling functions are better described as "spatial analysis systems"

• AM/FM International - mostly utilities with strong representation by vendors, governments
  • little involvement as yet in education, research
  • branches in many countries

Background

• the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) of Riverside County, California, provides agricultural and domestic water, sewer collection and treatment and water reclamation services to a service area of 534 square miles, population of over 250,000
  • land use in the service area is a mix of very rapidly growing urban and suburban areas as well as rural farm land, mountains and desert
  • has 50,000 domestic water customers supplied with water imported from the Colorado and California Aqueduct Systems as well as from 54 local ground water wells
  • 33,600 sanitary sewer customers served by 5 regional water reclamation plants treating more than 24 million gallons of sewage per day
  • has an annual operating budget of over $60 million

• area is developing very rapidly
  • population in the service area is anticipated to reach between 600,000 to 1 million by the year 2010
  • number of customers is expected to triple in that time
  • number of company employees will increase from 340 to 800
  • this extremely rapid growth has made it very difficult for the company to keep up-to-date on service maps and to plan properly for the installation of new services

• initially the interest in automation was simply a recognition of the immediate need for automated mapping as a way to deal with the backlog of mapping and record updates

• however, during the process of system planning, several other potential information and engineering applications were also identified

• therefore, the purpose of the AM/FM is:
  • on the short-term, to map and manage facilities in the high growth environment
  • on the long-term, to incorporate planning and sewer and water engineering analysis into the system

• with the assistance of a consultant the EMWD developed a plan for implementation of a major AM/FM system based on Intergraph equipment and software

  overhead - EMWD proposed AM/FM system configuration

• map products were the initial purpose of the system and their production is critical to the immediate success of the system

  overhead - EMWD Map products

  • lists the maps which will be produced once the database is complete

• the current Facilities Master Plans identifies and recommends computer programs for engineering analysis in the long range planning of new facility construction and operating procedures
  • therefore, the system is designed to allow storage and interactive access to information for flow analysis of sewer and water models, using existing engineering analysis programs
  • during the development of the AM/FM database, designers needed to identify and incorporate additional attributes that would be used in these models

• for long-range planning of facilities the system is designed to:
  • provide spatial analysis capabilities to allow projection of future resource requirements based on demographic and economic data
  • provide tools for the generation of construction work orders and detailed mechanical and electrical design drawings

• system designers also ensured that the final system will support the inclusion of topographic data which can be used in several anticipated applications, including
  • hydraulic network analysis
  • groundwater modeling
  • identifying locations for radio telemetry facilities that will be used to provide real time data on flow and water levels

• customized report generation will assist the maps and records department provide inventory and facility asset information for the County Tax Assessor
  • records will be generated by facility type, geographic area or any combination of attributes requested
  • digital tax rolls from the Assessor's office can be quickly checked against the property owner data maintained by EMWD

• customer service department will use the system to provide integrated access to meter reading, customer billing, facility locating and other inquiry processes

Many examples of AM/FM installations are described in publications from AM/FM International including the annual conference proceedings and their trade journal, The Scribe.

Wagner, M.W., 1989. "The Eastern Municipal Water District AM/FM/GIS project," Proceedings, Conference XII, AM/FM International, New Orleans, April 1989, pp. 526-541. Describes in detail the planning and implementation plan for the EMWD system reviewed in this unit.

EXAM AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Compare and contrast the application fields of AM/FM and resource management, and the systems which have been developed to service them.

2. Why would a raster-based system like IDRISI not be useful for AM/FM applications?

3. Examine recent issues of an URISA publication, such as the annual meeting proceedings, and describe the range of issues covered. What evidence is there for an increasing convergence with AM/FM? with resource management applications of GIS?

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