MANAGEMENT DECISION TOOLS FOR WINTER OPERATIONS

New winter maintenance vehicles are being equipped with differential global positioning system (DGPS) receivers and numerous sensors that collect environmental data (e.g., pavement and air temperature), equipment status (e.g., plow up/plow down), and material usage (e.g., salt spreading rate). These data are both telemetered to a dispatch center and recorded on magnetic media for later downloading. Data are transmitted and recorded as often as every two seconds. Data such as these, both in type and in quantity, have never before been available. With the availability of new data, agencies are exploring the possibilities for improving the performance of winter maintenance operations. Performance measures can be computed from data collected by DGPS receivers and sensors on winter maintenance vehicles using geographic information systems for spatial analysis. A performance measurement approach ensures that the applications of these data support the real needs of decision makers for evaluating and improving winter maintenance operations. The measures can be directly tied to the business processes and performance of operations. Performance measures and decision support chart representations of the performance measures were identified and refined through a series of meetings with transportation professionals from many levels including a workshop for winter operations engineers, county commissioners, patrol supervisors, program managers, and consultants. This paper presents performance measures for management of winter operations and a series of management decision tools that can be derived from the performance measures.