Bus Maintenance Planning with Computer Simulation

Recently, a great deal of importance has been placed on improving the efficiency of bus transit systems. This is motivated by a recent shift in objectives from those emphasizing expansion of transit systems to those emphasizing the conservation of transit resources. Such a reformation of objectives has focused management's attention on the bus maintenance function. In order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance function, managers will require accurate information systems capable of forecasting equipment failures, parts, needs, and manpower requirements. This paper describes the development of a maintenance simulation model and presents an example to demonstrate the feasibility of bus maintenance simulation modeling. The use of a bus maintenance simulation model for maintenance system planning and policy analysis is described.