A Central Integration Point for Asset Management

Articles

Written by Karen Richardson Monday, 17 August 2009 11:09

Article-Feature-A Central Integration Point for Asset Management

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, division of Irrigation, Power and Safety of Dams (IPSOD) maintains more than 100,000 structures on 16 irrigation projects and more than 100 smaller irrigation systems spread across that land, primarily in the Western United States. With so many structures across a vast landscape, BIA field crews had a challenge just finding the assets needing maintenance. Already using IBM’s Maximo for work orders, BIA was interested in providing maps on work orders for field personnel so they could easily find assets, especially those without street addresses.

The oldest bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was established in 1824. BIA is responsible for the administration and management of 66 million acres of land held in trust by the United States for American Indian, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives. The BIA division of Irrigation, Power and Safety of Dams (IPSOD) maintains more than 100,000 structures on 16 irrigation projects and more than 100 smaller irrigation systems spread across that land, primarily in the Western United States going as far East as Montana.

BIA field crews map the location of a bridge along an irrigation ditch using a Trimble GPS receiver.

With so many structures across a vast landscape, BIA field crews had a challenge just finding the assets needing maintenance. Irrigation ditches and structures, high and significant hazard dams, unclassified and low hazard dams and power infrastructure all needed to be maintained as efficiently as possible. Dispatching a field crew and not knowing exactly where assets were located could pose a real problem and add considerable expense. Already using IBM’s Maximo for work orders, BIA was interested in providing maps on work orders for field personnel so they could easily find assets, especially those without street addresses.

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BIA first deployed global positioning system (GPS) units to the field in 2002 for collecting structure location data. This initial collection and processing of data took five years, and now the data is continually maintained and updated. ESRI’s GIS technology was chosen to create the mapping interface to IBM’s Maximo. Since BIA had an Enterprise Site License (ELA) for ESRI software, this decision ensured BIA would be able to interface with other systems across the organization also using ESRI technology.

This irrigation ditch structure is typical of the many structures that the BIA IPSOD team needs to maintain.

The BIA IPSOD Asset Map Viewer functions as a master asset repository. The application is used by approximately 200 workers across the country through the BIA Intranet. The Asset Map Viewer serves as a central integration point to other systems including IBM Maximo, Deferred Maintenance Reporting, Federal Real Property Profile Reporting and as an Image repository.

A worker uses the system by first opening the main Map Viewer window. No login is required since security is integrated with Active Directory. An Access Control List (ACL) lists irrigation and utility sites that are available to each user. Once in the system, the Map Viewer zooms to the assets selected. The user interface was created to look similar to other popular Web mapping applications for ease of use. Assets are selected by either searching the map or using a text search engine. Buttons on the map are used to easily display information from all the integrated applications. From the Map Viewer, users can access photos, deferred maintenance data, Maximo information and Maximo work orders.

The Asset Map Viewer is the main portal for asset information and is used by more than 200 workers daily across a broad geography.

BIA is currently working towards integrating ArcGIS Server and Maximo for their infrastructure management. By integrating the two software, BIA will be able to take advantage of ArcGIS’s geodatabase to efficiently store the large volume of infrastructure locations and asset data.

While BIA understands Maximo, the National Park Service, another Department of the Interior (DOI) organization, has extensive knowledge of ArcGIS Server, using the software to map and maintain park buildings on its lands. The two organizations first met at the 2008 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California and began a discussion to see how their respective workflows could benefit each other. During the meetings, BIA assessed the NPS NPMap application and NPS did the same with the Asset Map Viewer.

“We realized NPS was further ahead of us in implementing the ArcGIS Server technology, but we were ahead in integration, specifically with Maximo,” says Assad Reichdan, technical program manager, Division of Irrigation, Power and Safety of Dams, Bureau of Indian Affairs. Today, BIA has incorporated the NPMap application, has integrated Maximo, and is sharing this technology with NPS.

The Asset Map Viewer is based on ESRI’s ArcGIS Server and provides access to other systems housing asset information including IBM Maximo.

Since first collecting the location data of each of its structures, BIA has seen the value of GIS. As a US government agency, BIA is careful when making decisions about how to spend taxpayers’ money. By using GIS to make asset information stored in Maximo accessible to users across the Bureau, BIA has saved money that would have been otherwise spent on upgrading the department’s infrastructure. Today, workers can go out in the field and find the assets they need to work on, access all open work orders and update data. This has not only increased the efficiency of the organization, but the accuracy of the data.

Reichdan explains, “It has been a common theme in the data analysis world that spatial data will be as common as text data. By enhancing our facilities management with GIS, we have seen the value of using spatial data. We want to be at the forefront of this next innovation.”

Karen Richardson is a writer with ESRI, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .