ESMS

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ALL REAL PROPERTY IN ONE PLATFORM

The Enterprise Sustainment Management System (ESMS) platform is the newest SMS product designed to support the established real property domains and several new domains on a single platform. While still under development, the ESMS platform will allow real property stakeholders the ability to forecast their portfolio health and financial requirements by performing consequence and trade-off analysis across every domain for which they are responsible.

Below you will find more information about the various elements of the ESMS platform as well as a status update on each domain and the progress of development to provide or migrate SMS capabilities within ESMS.

Web Application

The ESMS Web Application is a cloud-based solution that brings all real property infrastructure domains under the umbrella of a single SMS application. Performing long-range work requirement projections across domains allows for comprehensive analysis of options and related effects. ESMS provides increased control of user permission definition, teaming, and application; updated business intelligence reporting capabilities; and improved user experience.

Third Party Integration

An API Developer Portal is available to programmers for integration of third-party systems. The interfaces are designed for a variety of needs, from domain-specific data calls to more complex parameters such as maps and analysis results. APIs are access controlled on a per user basis, honoring the system security models for data restrictions. Registration is required and can be requested through the ESMS Helpdesk at {insert helpdesk email}. Support for third-party application development is a major consideration for the ESMS Development team and programmers can expect to see strong support for the API Developer Portal.

Domain Development Status

• ESMS Downloads
• ESMS Training Material
• Support

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BUILDER

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Technology

The BUILDER Sustainment Management System (SMS) is a web-based software application developed by ERDC’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) to help civil engineers, technicians, and managers decide when, where, and how to best maintain building infrastructure. Because building assets are so vast and diverse, a “knowledge-based” philosophy drives the BUILDER™ SMS process. The process starts with the automated download of real property data, and then more detailed system inventory is modeled and/or collected which identifies components and their key life cycle attributes such as the age and material. From this inventory, Condition Index (CI) measures for each component are predicted based on its expected stage in the life-cycle. Objective and repeatable inspections can then be performed on various components to verify their condition with respect to the expected life-cycle deterioration. The level of detail and frequency of these inspections are not fixed like other processes; they are dependent on knowledge of component criticality, the expected and measured condition, rate of deterioration, and remaining maintenance and service life. This “Knowledge-based” inspection focuses attention to the most critical components at the time. In addition to these condition assessments, functionality assessments can be performed to evaluate user requirement changes, compliance, and obsolescence issues. This provides a comprehensive picture of the overall performance of building assets and their key components.

Problem

The Department of Defense owns almost 300,000 buildings comprising 2.3 billion square feet. It spends about 55 percent of its installation real property maintenance funds on maintenance and repair (M&R) of these buildings. But, because of tighter resources on funding and personnel, inspection and preventative maintenance programs for critical building systems and components have been abandoned at many installations. This has forced building managers into a largely reactionary mode, responding to unexpected component breakdowns and system failures at the most inopportune and expensive time. In addition, many buildings currently serve some function to the mission that is much different than the originally intended purpose when designed. The total result is that work cannot be planned, programmed, and budgeted efficiently. BUILDER SMS addresses these issues by providing managers responsible for the building assets with a support tool for sustainment, restoration, and modernization (SRM) decisions.

Benefits

BUILDER is an asset management solution to repeated GAO criticisms of existing DoD facility management practices. It is an important tool in ensuring mission readiness and sustaining building infrastructure investment. With information about condition, functionality, and remaining service life, short and long-range work plans can be developed based on sound investment strategies, prioritization criteria, and budget constraints. Penalty costs are reduced allowing more work to be accomplished with the resulting improvement in mission readiness. Simulations can be run to show the future impact of current M&R decisions. The result is a flexible list of work items expected to be accomplished based on actual funding levels. In all, the BUILDER process provides a more proactive means of asset management and resource allocation. In addition, the knowledge-based principles have been proven to significantly lower the cost of re-inspections while providing more meaningful SRM decision support metrics.

Status

Builder is being widely adopted across the Department of Defense and is in varying stages of adoption by:

• US Marine Corps
• US Navy
• US Air Force
• US Army
• Defense Logistics Agency
• Defense Health Agency

A recent National Academies of Science report, “Predicting Outcomes of M&R Investments in Federal Facilities” highlighted BUILDER; BUILDER addresses five out of the seven recommendations of this report. Federal agency interest is widespread and CERL recently presented BUILDER at a Federal Facilities Council meeting to a diverse audience from many federal facility management organizations. As an outcome of this presentation, USACE is in discussions with multiple agencies on how to adopt BUILDER. BUILDER is also available for use in the private sector through several licensed distributors. Current users include educational, municipal, and private enterprises.

• BUILDER Downloads
• BUILDER Training Material
• Support

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RAILER

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What is RAILER®?

RAILER® is a member of the Sustainment Management System (SMS) family of software products that includes PAVER, ROOFER, and BUILDER. RAILER assists facility managers in the sustainment, restoration, and modernization of military, short line, and regional track networks. RAILER combines railroad engineering technology, infrastructure management principles, model, standards, and analysis procedures, and computer speed and power into a decision support tool. RAILER helps facility managers responsible for rail assets answer the following questions:

• What rail assets exist?
• What defects and deficiencies exist and how much do these cost to fix?
• What restrictions are imposed due to defects - what is the effect on rail operations and readiness?
• What is the physical health and condition of the track?
• What are the best short and long term maintenance strategies under limited budgets?

The RAILER System

There are thousands of miles of military, short line, and industrial railroad track that serves a vital role in transportation for the Department of Defense and the private economy. Due to lower speeds and frequency of use, this track has maintenance and management requirements which typically differ from the large Class I commercial railroads. However, in order to ensure this safe and reliable mode of transportation and protect the nation’s investment, these track networks still need to be periodically inspected and continually maintained cost efficiently. RAILER® SMS is a knowledge-based track management program that gives planners decision support in the sustainment, restoration, and modernization (SRM) of their track network. It combines condition assessment, work plan generation, and spatial analysis through a companion Geographical Information System (GIS) program to help provide support for informed decisions to managers.

The first step in the RAILER® implementation process is the creation of track inventory. This is a physical survey of what makes up the track network, and includes pertinent information about the rail, ties, switches, culverts, curves, grades, grade crossings, etc. A key part of this inventory process involves establishing a track naming convention and stationing scheme. The stationing helps to establish a reference point and location for each track. It also makes it easier to locate defects during the inspection and subsequent repair. Once the inventory is collected, a detailed inspection of the track is done to identify, locate, and record track defects. RAILER® links each recorded defect to:

1. operations restrictions and maintenance levels based on governing standards
2. a Track Structure Condition Index (TSCI) metric relating physical quality and condition, and
3. local work actions to correct the defect

This information is used to make informed decisions in the development of efficient short- and long-range work plans. Using the TSCI and the track standards with a customized set of business rules and prioritization schemes, managers can use the software to narrow down a long list of deficiencies to a filtered list of the most important work based on the condition and operations for the track. RAILER® Remote Entry Database (RED) is provided with the RAILER® SMS software to allow for electronic collection of inventory and inspection information while in the field. This software can be installed on a tablet PC for quick, accurate, and easy data collection for direct upload into RAILER® software when back at the office. The RAILER® RED software also displays defect findings from a previous inspection for verification if the defect was fixed or still remains. In addition, it displays the operating restriction for a recorded defect in real time based on the governing track standard.

• RAILER Downloads
• RAILER Training Material
• Support

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ROOFER

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ROOFER is a Sustainment Management System (SMS) that provides a systematic approach for managing a multitude of roofing types, including membrane, asphalt, shingle, and metal panel. An inventory is established by collecting physical and historical information about each roof including the physical dimensions and layout of the roof, material types, and construction characteristics for each roof component. To assess condition reliably, ROOFER uses a field-validated objective and repeatable rating system. The membrane, flashing, and insulation are evaluated independently, providing an accurate assessment of each component’s condition, waterproof integrity, and repair needs. The roof covering and flashings are inspected visually using a standardized distress survey. For insulated membrane roofs, the insulation is evaluated using the results of a roof moisture survey and gravimetric analyses of core cuts.

ROOFER enables building managers to rate their present roof condition, prioritize projects, and optimally allocate the budget. At the project level, ROOFER can help select repair and replacement strategies and identify work requirements. In the long term, this technology results in maximized roof conditions using available funds. ROOFER’s benefits include:

• Inventory of roofing assets
• Development of detailed roof plan drawings
• Detection of roof defects and development of condition indexes
• Network analysis reports for prioritizing projects and justifying funding requirements
• Project analysis evaluation to determine most cost-effective repair strategies, and work requests to document the recommended action

• ROOFER Downloads
• ROOFER Training Material
• Support

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PAVER

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Pavements should be managed, not simply maintained

PAVER (The Pavement Maintenance Management System) originally was developed in the late 1970s to help the Department of Defense (DOD) manage M&R for its vast inventory of pavements. It uses inspection data and a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) rating from zero (failed) to 100 (excellent) for consistently describing a pavement's condition and for predicting its M&R needs many years into the future. The PCI for airports became an ASTM standard in 1993 (D5340-11). The PCI for roads and parking lots became an ASTM standard in 1999 (D6433-11). The ASTM standard can be ordered from the ASTM website. The PAVER program performs multiple levels of analysis to show where to best allocate scarce M&R dollars.

PAVER is the State-of-Art technology in pavement management and its development has greatly benefitted from strong support both within and outside the DOD community. Major supporters include: US Air Force, US Army, US Navy, Federal Aviation Administration, and Federal Highway Administration. Additionally, non-DOD users, including US cities and counties, greatly benefit from the training and technology support services provided by Colorado State University (CSU) Paver Center and the American Public Works Association (APWA).

• PAVER Downloads
• PAVER Training Material
• Support

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