Infrastructure asset management

• US 9,299,046 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2014
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Davenport, Andrew J., Dong, Wei Shan, Fenhagen, Frank D. IV, Hampapur, Arun, Jiang, Zhong Bo, Kalagnanam, Jayant R., Li, Hongfei, Mahatma, Shilpa N., Sun, Wei, Xie, Lexing
• Primary Examiner(s): Padot, Timothy
• Application Number:
  US14/259,528
• Publication Number:
  US 20140236650A1
• Time in Patent Office: 706 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.28, 702/184
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

An approach for infrastructure asset management is provided. This approach comprises an end-to-end analytics driven maintenance approach that can take data about physical assets and additional external data, and apply advanced analytics to the data to generate business insight, foresight and planning information. Specifically, this approach uses a maintenance analysis tool, which is configured to: receive data about a set of physical assets of an infrastructure, and analyze the data about the set of physical assets to predict maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets. The maintenance analysis tool further comprises an output component configured to generate a maintenance plan based on the predicted maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets.

Claims

1. A method for water and sewer infrastructure asset management, comprising:

providing a set of sensor devices configured for capturing data about a set of physical assets of an infrastructure, the set of physical assets comprising at least one of;

a water or sewer metering unit, a water or sewer pipe, a fire hydrant, or a water or sewer drainage unit;

providing a graphical information system;

receiving, at the set of sensor devices, data about the set of physical assets of an infrastructure located in a geographic region, the data comprising at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

capturing, by the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets;

encrypting the data about the set of physical assets;

receiving, by at least one computer, over a network, the encrypted data about the set of physical assets from the set of sensor devices, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

correlating, by the at least one computer, historical data comprising a manufacturer of each of the set of physical assets, a geographic location of each of the set of physical assets, and at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

analyzing, by the at least one computer, the correlated data, the data about the set of physical assets, and data from the graphical information system;

predicting, by the at least one computer, based on the analysis, maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets arising from an anticipated weather condition similar to the at least one weather condition;

identifying, by the at least one computer, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being of a particular manufacturer and clustered within a portion of the geographic location, the subset comprising a higher rate of previously necessitated maintenance during the at least one weather condition, as compared to other physical assets within the set;

generating, by the at least one computer, a maintenance plan for the subset of the set of physical assets based on the analyzing and the identifying; and

prioritizing, by the at least one computer, a dispatch of maintenance personnel based on the maintenance plan.

2. The method according to claim 1, the data about the set of physical assets further comprising at least one of the following:

failure data, maintenance data, usage data, graphical information system (GIS) data, and demographic data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises correlating, by the at least one computer, the at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets with a geographic location of each of the set of physical assets.

4. The method according to claim 1, the analyzing comprising at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the analytics generates information about the set of physical assets, the information comprising at least one of the following:

failure association, maintenance prediction, event clustering, and usage forecasting.

6. The method according to claim 1, the generating comprising creating, by the at least one computer, at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a service solution provider provides a computer infrastructure that performs the method for one or more consumers.

8. A system for infrastructure asset management comprising:

a set of sensor devices in communication with a bus of a computer system, the set of sensor devices configured to capture data about a set of physical assets comprising at least one of;

a water or sewer metering unit, a water or sewer pipe, a fire hydrant, or a water or sewer drainage unit;

at least one processing unit;

memory operably associated with the at least one processing unit;

the bus; and

a maintenance analysis tool storable in memory and executable by the at least one processing unit, the maintenance analysis tool comprising;

an analysis component configured to;

receive, at the set of sensor devices, data about the set of physical assets of an infrastructure located in a geographic region, the data comprising at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

provide a graphical information system;

receive, at the set of sensor devices, data about the set of physical assets of an infrastructure located in a geographic region, the data comprising at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

capture, by the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets;

encrypt the data about the set of physical assets;

receive, over a network, the encrypted data about the set of physical assets from the set of sensor devices, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

correlate historical data comprising a manufacturer of each of the set of physical assets, a geographic location of each of the set of physical assets, and at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

analyze the correlated data, the data about the set of physical assets, and data from the graphical information system;

predict, based on the analysis, maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets arising from an anticipated weather condition similar to the at least one weather condition;

identify, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being of a particular manufacturer and clustered within a portion of the geographic location, the subset comprising a higher rate of previously necessitated maintenance during the at least one weather condition, as compared to other physical assets within the set;

generate a maintenance plan for the subset of the set of physical assets based on the analyzing and the identifying; and

prioritize a dispatch of maintenance personnel based on the maintenance plan.

9. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 8, the data about the set of physical assets further comprising at least one of the following:

failure data, maintenance data, usage data, weather data, graphical information system (GIS) data, and demographic data.

10. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 8, the analysis component configured to perform at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

11. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 8, the analysis component configured to generate information about the set of physical assets, the information comprising at least one of the following:

failure association, maintenance prediction, event clustering, and usage forecasting.

12. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 8, the output component configured to create at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.

13. A computerized system comprising:

a set of sensor devices in communication with a bus of a computer, the set of sensor devices configured to capture data about a set of physical assets comprising at least one of;

a water or sewer metering unit, a water or sewer pipe, a fire hydrant, or a water or sewer drainage unit; and

a computer program product for infrastructure asset management, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage media, and program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media, which when executed by a processor cause the computer to;

receive, at the set of sensor devices, data about the set of physical assets of an infrastructure located in a geographic region, the data comprising at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

provide a graphical information system;

receive, at the set of sensor devices, data about the set of physical assets of an infrastructure located in a geographic region, the data comprising at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

capture, by the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets;

encrypt the data about the set of physical assets;

receive, over a network, the encrypted data about the set of physical assets from the set of sensor devices, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

correlate historical data comprising a manufacturer of each of the set of physical assets, a geographic location of each of the set of physical assets, and at least one weather condition that previously necessitated maintenance for each of the set of physical assets;

analyze the correlated data, the data about the set of physical assets, and data from the graphical information system;

predict, based on the analysis, maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets arising from an anticipated weather condition similar to the at least one weather condition;

identify, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being of a particular manufacturer and clustered within a portion of the geographic location, the subset comprising a higher rate of previously necessitated maintenance during the at least one weather condition, as compared to other physical assets within the set;

generate a maintenance plan for the subset of the set of physical assets based on the analyzing and the identifying; and

prioritize a dispatch of maintenance personnel based on the maintenance plan.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, the data about the set of physical assets further comprising at least one of the following:

failure data, maintenance data, usage data, graphical information system (GIS) data, and demographic data.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media to perform at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media to generate information about the set of physical assets, the information comprising at least one of the following:

failure association, maintenance prediction, event clustering, and usage forecasting.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media to create at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.