LIRR Case Study

Long Island Rail Road Pennsylvania Station Implementation of a Computerized Maintenance Management System -- 1995

By George Oberlander, Jr., I.E.
Syska & Hennessy, Facilities Management Division

    In July 1994, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) opened the refurbished Pennsylvania Station to the public. In addition to rehabilitating the architecture of the station, new escalators, HVAC and electrical systems were installed. The entire Pennsylvania Concourse Level Improvement Project, which began in the early 1980s, cost $190,000,000.

    To help protect their investment, which includes a 1,000-ton chiller plant, seven hydraulic elevators, 400kw emergency generator plant, 15 escalators, 124 air curtains, 28 air handling units, CCTV, communications systems, concession utilities, etc., the LIRR sought out and purchased FamTrac, a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), from Syska & Hennessy, an established consulting engineering firm in Manhattan.

    FamTrac's primary purpose is to protect the LIRR's investment by producing weekly preventive maintenance (PM) work orders, which are tailored to maximize the life expectancy of the equipment while minimizing system downtime.

    Typically, it takes a few years for a facility with a new CMMS to produce PM work orders for all installed equipment. Remarkably, after only five months, the LIRR is tracking 52% (1,500 out of 2,880) of its manhours. Tracking 52% of manhours means that of the 8 hours available for maintenance in any given day, 4.2 hours are tracked. This is considered good by industry standards.

    Currently, 25% ($37,000 out of $150,000) of the monthly facilities maintenance budget for Pennsylvania Station is tracked. With contract maintenance incorporated into the system in 1996, this should increase close to 100%.

    What makes these figures more impressive is that currently only one person enters and closes out work orders -- Staff Engineer/Facilities Manager Joe LaRocco. Mr. LaRocco processes the equivalent of more than 1,500 hours of work orders each month and provides an array of management reports on the maintenance activity.

    Predefined work descriptions for routine tasks such as tunnel inspections and escalator repairs are used to create work orders. This saves time and money by eliminating the inefficient task of repeatedly typing common work descriptions.

    Creating detailed PM and predefined work descriptions reduces the time required in managing efforts as the procedures already contain the "Special Instructions" required to complete the task.

    When LIRR manpower required for this implementation effort was not available, Syska & Hennessy was retained to assist in various tasks such as data collection and entry.
Since the facility is new, and few people on staff were familiar with the installed electrical system, a panel shutdown program was also implemented. In addition to providing field-verified, color-coded single-line and plan drawings, Syska & Hennessy configured FamTrac to allow users to search for a circuit and to determine what panel feeds it.

    For example, assume that "Ticket Machine #1" loses power. What panel feeds that machine? By using the panel shutdown program, users are able to search the circuit database by entering "Ticket Machine #1" at the keyboard and the program displays the location, circuit and panel number.

    In 1996, FamTrac will continue to expand its functions at Pennsylvania Station. Nameplate data for various equipment will continue to be collected and entered into the system. Collecting nameplate data and storing it in the system provides facilities managers with access to all information (e.g., spare parts, manufacturers, model numbers, etc.).
In addition, the inventory system of FamTrac will be configured to track parts used and to automatically generate purchase orders by vendor.

    Since Pennsylvania Station's stockroom is not manned, the inventory system will be automated as much as possible. Inventory items will be printed in bar code format allowing for items used to be scanned during work order close out. This will deduct the parts used from the stockroom. At the end of each month, purchase orders will be automatically generated based on the reorder point of the item.

    To ensure that contractors are completing work as per their agreement, both PM and repair maintenance work orders will be generated from the system detailing the work the contractor is completing.

    These work orders will be issued directly to the contractor and will be required to be completed and returned to the staff engineer, so that all equipment owned by the LIRR will have a complete maintenance history.

    In summary, FamTrac has enabled LIRR to not only protect their investment but also to improve productivity. With the implementation of the enhancements slated for 1996, LIRR will have state-of-the-art maintenance management and the associated cost savings.

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