Using Discrete-event Simulation to Support Building Asset Management: An Exploratory Case Study

Among the Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT) capital assets, Transportation Equipment Fund (TEF) shops provide a crucial service by ensuring proper care and maintenance of most of the state vehicles and equipment. Therefore, any reduction of TEF shop facilities capabilities could jeopardize not only WSDOT vehicles and equipment maintenance but also WSDOT's ability to fulfill its core mission. Given the importance of TEF shops, this exploratory case study analyzes the building system failures that have occurred or are likely to occur in these facilities, and utilizes discrete-event simulation to investigate how WSDOT operations can be affected by these events. In particular, by creating a model capable of simulating the service operations performed in the TEF shops, this study quantifies the consequences of failures on the shop activities and road users. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation of the discrete-event simulation model and its associated data gathering efforts. Further building systems failure analysis and impact assessment are within the scope of another publication.