Infrastructure asset management

• US 9,311,615 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2011
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• 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:
  US12/983,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173300A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,926 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 infrastructure asset management, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing a set of sensor devices for capturing data about a set of physical assets of an infrastructure;

capturing the data about the set of physical assets;

encrypting the data about the set of physical assets;

receiving, over a network from the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets as encrypted data, the data comprising external data including environmental weather data and demographics data for each of the set of physical assets, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

routing the data received from the set of sensor devices to a maintenance analysis tool comprising specifically configured hardware and software components of a computerized infrastructure asset management system, the routing via at least one of Ethernet, wireless network, direct serial connection, parallel connection, USB, and short-distance wireless systems;

correlating, by the maintenance analysis tool, historical data, retrieved from a storage system, 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, wherein the storage system comprises at least one of the group;

VCRs, DVRs, RAID arrays, USB hard drives, optical disk recorders, flash storage devices, image analysis devices, video enhancement devices, de-interlacers, and scalers;

analyzing, by the maintenance analysis tool, the data about the set of physical assets, the historical data, and graphical information system (GIS) data about the set of physical assets to predict 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 maintenance analysis tool, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being 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, and

generating, by the maintenance analysis tool, a maintenance plan for the subset of the set of physical assets based on the analyzing and the identifying,

wherein the GIS data comprises location information about each of the set of physical assets represented by one or more layers displayed on a visual map.

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, and graphical information system (GIS) data.

3. The method according to claim 1, the computer-implemented step of analyzing comprising at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the analyzing further comprises the computer-implemented step of generating 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.

5. The method according to claim 1, the generating comprising the computer-implemented step of creating at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.

6. A system for infrastructure asset management comprising:

a set of sensor devices in communication with a bus of a computer system;

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;

capture data about a set of physical assets from a set of sensor devices;

encrypt the data about the set of physical assets;

receive, over a network from the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets as encrypted data, the data comprising external data including environmental weather data and demographics data for each of the set of physical assets, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

route the data received from the set of sensor devices to a maintenance analysis tool comprising specifically configured hardware and software components of a computerized infrastructure asset management system, the routing via at least one of Ethernet, wireless network, direct serial connection, parallel connection, USB, and short-distance wireless systems;

correlate, by the maintenance analysis tool, historical data, retrieved from a storage system, 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, wherein the storage system comprises at least one of the group;

VCRs, DVRs, RAID arrays, USB hard drives, optical disk recorders, flash storage devices, image analysis devices, video enhancement devices, de-interlacers, and scalers;

analyze, by the maintenance analysis tool, the data about the set of physical assets, the historical data, and graphical information system (GIS) data about the set of physical assets to predict 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, by the maintenance analysis tool, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being 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, and an output component configured to;

generate, by the maintenance analysis tool, a maintenance plan for the subset of the set of physical assets to reduce the probability of failures within the geographic location, based on the analyzing and the identifying,

wherein the GIS data comprises location information about each of the set of physical assets represented by one or more layers displayed on a visual map.

7. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 6, the data about the set of physical assets further comprising at least one of the following:

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

8. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 6, the analysis component configured to perform at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

9. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 6, 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.

10. The maintenance analysis tool according to claim 6, the output component configured to create at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.

11. A system comprising:

a set of sensor devices in communication with a bus of a computer; and

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

capture data about a set of physical assets from the set of sensor devices;

encrypt the data about the set of physical assets;

receive, over a network from the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets as encrypted data, the data comprising external data including environmental weather data and demographics data for each of the set of physical assets, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

route the data received from the set of sensor devices to a maintenance analysis tool comprising specifically configured hardware and software components of a computerized infrastructure asset management system, the routing via at least one of Ethernet, wireless network, direct serial connection, parallel connection, USB, and short-distance wireless systems;

correlate, by the maintenance analysis tool, historical data, retrieved from a storage system, 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, wherein the storage system comprises at least one of the group;

VCRs, DVRs, RAID arrays, USB hard drives, optical disk recorders, flash storage devices, image analysis devices, video enhancement devices, de-interlacers, and scalers;

analyze, by the maintenance analysis tool, the data about the set of physical assets, the historical data, and graphical information system (GIS) data about the set of physical assets to predict maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets arising from an anticipated weather condition similar to the at least one weather condition;

associate, by the maintenance analysis tool, the failures with a portion of the geographic location during at least one weather condition;

identifying, by the maintenance analysis tool, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being clustered within the 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, detect failures of a subset of the set of physical assets; and

generate a maintenance plan for the subset of the set of physical assets based on the identifying,

wherein the GIS data comprises location information about each of the set of physical assets represented by one or more layers displayed on a visual map.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, the data about the set of physical assets further comprising at least one of the following:

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

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium to perform at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium 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.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium to create at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.

16. A method for infrastructure asset management, the method comprising:

providing a set of sensor devices for capturing data about a set of physical assets of an infrastructure;

capturing the data about the set of physical assets;

encrypting the data about the set of physical assets;

receiving, over a network from the set of sensor devices, the data about the set of physical assets as encrypted data, the data comprising external data including environmental weather data and demographics data for each of the set of physical assets, the network comprising at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a broadband network, or a wireless network;

routing the data received from the set of sensor devices to a maintenance analysis tool comprising specifically configured hardware and software components of a computerized infrastructure asset management system, the routing via at least one of Ethernet, wireless network, direct serial connection, parallel connection, USB, and short-distance wireless systems;

correlating, by the maintenance analysis tool, historical data, retrieved from a storage system, 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, wherein the storage system comprises at least one of the group;

VCRs, DVRs, RAID arrays, USB hard drives, optical disk recorders, flash storage devices, image analysis devices, video enhancement devices, de-interlacers, and scalers;

analyzing, by the maintenance analysis tool, the data about the set of physical assets, the historical data, and graphical information system (GIS) data about the set of physical assets to predict maintenance requirements for each of the set of physical assets arising from an anticipated weather condition similar to the at least one weather condition;

detecting, by the maintenance analysis tool, failures of a subset of the set of physical assets;

associating, by the maintenance analysis tool, the failures with a portion of the geographic location during the at least one weather condition;

identifying, based on the analyzing, a subset of the set of physical assets, the subset being 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; and

generating, by the computer system, a maintenance plan based on the identifying, wherein the GIS data comprises location information about each of the set of physical assets represented by one or more layers displayed on a visual map.

17. The method of claim 16, the data about the set of physical assets further comprising at least one of the following:

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

18. The method of claim 16, the analyzing further comprising performing, by the computer system, at least one of the following analytics:

predictive modeling, optimization, and spatio-temporal analysis.

19. The method of claim 16, the analyzing further comprising generating, by the computer system, 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.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising creating, by the computer system, at least one of the following:

a work order schedule, and a maintenance route plan.