Advanced ArcGIS-Integrated Risk-based Analytical Asset Management and Capital Planning
NASSCO PACP, MACP and LACP certified, InfoMaster is a complete ArcGIS-based asset integrity management and capital planning software for water and wastewater networks. It leverages existing GIS and IT investments with advanced modeling and sophisticated predictive analytics to give utilities a cost effective business intelligence and data collection platform for more informed, action-oriented decision making. With versions designed for the desktop, Web, and iOS mobile devices, InfoMaster enables day-to-day operational management and long-term network planning for users throughout the organization.
A highly advanced and powerful analytical asset management tool, InfoMaster uses state-of-the-art mathematical models to predict when a water or sewer pipe will fail, helping utilities determine the most cost-effective solution for avoiding or correcting the problem. In this way, users can ensure the best distribution of dollars spent on replacement and repair of underground pipes. It marks the first time utilities have been able to manage and control the flow of both data and water for better, faster and more accurate decision making.
Applications
Business Intelligence for Water and Sewer Systems
Globally, aging water and wastewater infrastructures are rapidly deteriorating and sometimes failing — with potentially dire human, environmental and financial consequences. Deterioration can increase gradually with time, or occur in discrete steps. As this aging process continues, the need for effective asset integrity management becomes more pressing. Maintaining water and sewer assets in fit-for-purpose condition throughout their target lifespans is a primary goal for utilities worldwide, and selecting the right pipes for rehabilitation at the right time is one of the main asset management challenges. When estimating the service lives of pipes, utilities have generally relied on predictions of the durability of the pipe materials with which they are constructed. However, because of varying environmental and climate conditions, soil type, pipe size, internal corrosion, quality of installation, transient pressure and operational pressure zone changes, and other factors, this method is not always accurate. One reason is that because most pipes are buried, there is little data available about how they deteriorate and fail.
An understanding of how pipes fail, combined with a quantitative grasp of the underlying causal factors likely to induce failure, is valuable in formulating a targeted approach to rehabilitation, repair and renewal planning. InfoMaster accurately estimates both the likelihood (condition) and consequence of failure/criticality (the impact of a failure in terms of repair cost, disruption to the public and economy, impairment of system operation, regulatory compliance, public health and safety, and damages to the environment) for each individual pipe in the network, as well as the amount and time of occurrence of future failures. This critical information facilitates a proactive approach to identifying and managing these high-risk assets to help preserve structural integrity and keep the network operating well into the future. It also eliminates reactive maintenance: waiting for pipe failures to occur before repairing. With minimal effort, utilities can quickly pinpoint assets at the greatest risk of failure, identify the best possible improvement alternatives for optimal system performance, prioritize and phase improvements based on available budget, and realize significant cost savings.
Out-of-the-Box Data Hub
Unlike many traditional business intelligence applications, InfoMaster comes preconfigured to understand water and sewer networks. InfoMaster knows that sewer pipes have upstream and downstream manholes, a hydrant is connected to the distribution system with a lateral, scoring of CCTV defects, and dozens of other items functionality specific to water networks. The database leverages the existing ArcGIS water and wastewater data models to include the ability to store information about incidents and tasks related to the network. Central to InfoMaster is its ability to exchange with other enterprise CMMS or ERP databases enabling a true 360 degree view of the infrastructure.
(CCTV acceptance inspection and condition assessment of sewers is standard practice in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, UK and EU. The PACP, MACP and LACP programs of the US National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO); the Conduit Inspection Reporting Code of Australia WSA05, published by the Water Services Association of Australia; the New Zealand Water and Wastes Association Pipe Inspection Manual; the UK MSCC4 Inspection Codes; and the EU Visual Inspection Coding Systems EN 1350802, provide guidance to utilities in determining the acceptability of sewer defects and features.)
Importance of InfoMaster Comprehensive Condition Assessment
Condition assessment enhances the ability of utilities to make technically sound judgments regarding asset management. Some utilities presume that older pipe must be in poorer condition than newer pipe, which is not always the case. There are many examples showing 80 year old pipe in excellent condition and 30 year old pipe near failure. The only way to know for sure is to take a look – perform a condition assessment. Being able to organize the assets of your system by maintenance and replacement needs is an essential step toward better management.
Specific benefits of a formal condition assessment program include:
Pipe Failure/Deterioration Modeling
InfoMaster features the non-homogeneous Markov chain process (NHMC), non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP), Linear Extended Yule Process (LEYP), Cox proportional hazards model, and advanced time-based probabilistic Weibull and Herz models for modeling the aging processes of water and wastewater network pipes and accurately estimating their lifetimes and structural/functional failure potential and distribution over time. These powerful asset integrity modeling techniques let users accurately estimate the likelihood of pipe breaks in the future and determine the parameters that most affect that likelihood. These may include pipe diameter, length, material, year of installation, location, operating pressure, rainfall, land use, soil properties, temperature, traffic loads, seismic zone, ground water level, proximity of other underground installations, and history of failure. Understanding these factors gives utilities an optimized, mission-critical basis for rehabilitation prioritization and failure prediction. Economic-based Nessie curves are also available to plan for the future cost of asset replacement. These curves are based on the design life of the pipelines and not on structural condition and failure considerations.
InfoMaster provides reliable pipe failure predictions, even for limited failure records and when applied to different pipe materials. It also features complete Business Risk Exposure (BRE) redundancy calculation derived from sophisticated graph-theoretical loop generation algorithms. The software can greatly assist water and wastewater utilities in assessing their pipes’ propensity to fail, identifying critical ones, prioritizing their inspection, and determining rehabilitation requirements.
Valve Criticality Modeling
InfoMaster automatically identifies all critical valves in terms of their potential impact on the customer levels of service, either when they are shut or fail to shut, during planned or emergency work — enabling maintenance and replacement to be targeted to those valves. The consequence of each valve operation can be measured in terms of the number of properties being disconnected or receiving an unacceptable level of service (e.g., low pressure). These capabilities help water utilities develop an optimal investment regarding valve maintenance, minimizing the impact on customer levels of service and improving knowledge on the operation of the network.
Proactive Capital and Operational Planning
InfoMaster gives utilities a new perspective on their capital and operational planning. Armed with a clear view of their infrastructure condition, capital and recurring costs, likelihood of failure, consequence of failure, historical incidents and maintenance, planners and managers can revamp capital and operational plans. Utilities can shift operational budgets away from reactive and into proactive management.
Comprehensive Scenario Comparison
InfoMaster provides a comprehensive scenario comparison tool that allows users to easily track, review, analyze and validate any number of scenarios, instantly compare different asset renewal planning strategies, and select the best alternative. This powerful capability helps users effectively optimize their Capital Improvement Programs (CIPs).
Rich Results Presentation and Reporting
InfoMaster utilizes the rich ArcGIS results and presentation environment, letting users create thematic maps with flexible symbology and rich detail. Its built-in report generator comes with dozens of standard reports and also allows users to quickly build custom reports and graphs against any piece of data stored in the system. In addition, management dashboards make it possible to effectively track level of service metrics and other key operational data, allowing at-a-glance assessments of the past, present and future state of strategic assets.
Increased Enterprise Asset Management Value
InfoMaster automatically imports InfoWater (SA) and InfoSWMM (SA) network models and facilitates significantly better planning and control by giving utilities critical insight into all enterprise assets, their conditions, aging and work processes. It also features direct integration with Cityworks (Azteca Systems Inc., Sandy, UT), Cartegraph (Dubuque, IA), infraMAP (iWater, Irvine, CA) and Lucity (Overland Park, KS), and can interface with other leading maintenance management software (CMMS). The software enables utilities to use information and analytics in new ways to drive higher productivity and quality while managing costs and increasing operational flexibility.
Robust Maintenance Management
InfoMaster provides fully customizable data entry forms and robust work order and inspection management, scheduling/dispatch; customer complaint and service request tracking, preventive maintenance schedules; historical records and detailed report generation, making maintenance operations more productive and more efficient and assuring standards compliance.
InfoMaster Mobile
InfoMaster Mobile enables infrastructure data to be created, used, consumed, and verified by staff in the field on a variety of devices. Using the Esri ArcGIS Server, InfoMaster Mobile leverages the geodatabase for use outside the office. It can run on both Web browsers and iOS (iPad, and iPhone) devices.
Discover some of the many benefits of InfoMaster:
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