Methodology to Manage Change Paul Koleber Maintenance Manager Intercity Transit Olympia, Washington Intercity Transit has gone through a transformation in its maintenance practices to achieve fuel savings, fleet longevity, manageable measurement tools to better monitor fleet activity, and compliance with our ISO certification and Sustainability Plan. What follows is a high-altitude fly-by of some of the challenges we faced, and their solutions.

Annual ridership of 4.5 million 8 million miles annually Intercity Transit Annual ridership of 4.5 million 8 million miles annually 325 employees / 40 in Maintenance 402 vehicles Sustainability Plan Gold Certification Intercity Transit was a founding signatory to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Sustainability Commitment. As a signatory to the APTA commitment, we commit to putting core process in place that set the basis for environmental, social, and economic sustainability practices. We administer these practices on an ongoing basis and continually improve them over time. In 2012, APTA awarded us and another agency the nation's first "Gold" signatory status level for our agency commitments to sustainability.  Intercity Transit completed its first Sustainability Plan in 2009, and continues to implement while tracking key sustainability indicators and maintaining ISO 14001 Certification.

Opportunity to Take Everything Out and Play With It! Measurement Tools Implementing New Technologies Does it make sense? Test it! Assume Nothing / Test Everything Consider Progressive Effects Wear Metals / Exhaust After-Treatment Measurement Tools: It was necessary to replace our oil sampling vendor due to inaccurate results. It was also necessary to research and activate various reporting capabilities not used in our Maintenance Management software. Once we were able to measure critical components, we could better evaluate the condition of our fleet to make informed decisions concerning its future. New Technologies: Several areas of concern became apparent that could be corrected with the use of new technologies; synthetic lubrication, diesel additive and Cetane-booster, AGM batteries, larger tires with higher load-range capabilities, and electric accessories to reduce parasitic loads. Assume nothing / test everything: I tasked my Staff with taking an objective, fresh look at every single thing we do in Maintenance. All possible solutions must be tested before any changes would be considered. Critical evaluation of all aspects were the norm. Consider progressive effects: As we transitioned to synthetic-blend motor oils, we found positive results in oil analysis as we saw a reduction of 50% in wear-metals. We also found an increase in fuel mileage of approximately 4%. Also, we found our exhaust regeneration cycles decreased. Just by switching to newer technology motor oil. We are reminded to consider all effects during testing and evaluation.

Restructure PM Methodology Results Restructure PM Methodology Manufacturer Recommendations FTA Compliance Lubrication Fuel Additive / Cetane Improvement Tires and Pressure Reality Check Restructure PM Methodology: To rebuild our PM program, adherence to manufacturer recommendations and FTA compliance were non-negotiable. We also considered our own in-house experience. With that, we built a team to evaluate and construct an entirely new program for each sub-fleet. The result was a reduction from dozens of PM levels to three. Lubrication: Transition to synthetic-blend motor oils, full-synthetic differential, hydraulic, and transmission oils. Service intervals doubled resulting in considerably less product introduced into waste streams, provided half the amount of oil filters for disposal, and generated labor savings. Fuel Additive / Cetane Improvement: Issues to address included asphalting, low Cetane-rating, and frequent exhaust regeneration. By adding an additive for $.02/gallon of diesel, we increased fuel mileage by more than 2%, eliminated filter plugging due to asphalting, and reduced exhaust regeneration. We also achieved increased acceleration on one sluggish sub-fleet by approximately 20%. Tires and Pressure: Replaced tires with larger tires with heavier load carrying capability and higher operating pressures. The tires performed very well, and cost $100 less/tire than previously used models. Reality Check: We drove an additional 64,000 miles in the most recent twelve-month period, and used 4300 less gallons of fuel, when compared to the previous twelve-month period.

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