With the aim of effectively prioritising maintenance expenditure, and carrying it out efficiently, Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s south has developed an activity based costing model for its civil maintenance operation.
Under the system, known as the Maintenance Management and Job Costing system, work teams using palm top computers log details of works required. This is then automatically uploaded to Council’s main computer system.
At this point, pre ordained criteria sort the jobs into priority order. These include the nature and severity of the defect. It also takes into account the location and exposure of the asset and the risk it represents.
When the work is carried out Maintenance Foremen use the palmtops to log the labour, hours, plant and materials used. This data is used to generate an ‘invoice’ which is charged against the appropriate funding budget account. Likewise, corresponding income is automatically credited to the work team’s account.
All work team costs including labour, plant, materials replacement, tools and sundry items, are charged to an expenditure account established for each team.
The value of output is determined by applying the ‘All Team Average Job Costs’ to the jobs completed by individual teams.
Comparison of this data allows identification of best practice among the teams with a view to improving overall performance.
Above all, the work must be performed with consideration of Council requirements in terms of workplace health and safety, conformity to specifications and applicable environmental controls.
Comparison of each team’s performance allows for performance bonuses based on Work Team Profitability assessed on the basis of the data.
Manager Civil Works, Mario Sherrie, said the system has been enthusiastically supported by work team members since it was first developed in 1998.
He said it has increased the effectiveness of maintenance operations by facilitating the identification and prioritisation of necessary works.
In the future, the system is expected to accommodate the recording of implementing Traffic Control Plans. This will provide an audit trail in accordance with RTA recommendations.
It will also allow automatic updating of Council’s corporate Customer Request Management System and linkage of the system with Council’s GIS to accurately locate asset defects.
For further information contact Mario Sherrie, telephone (02) 9710 5724.
