ROLE OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS IN BUS MAINTENANCE PLANNING

Transit maintenance costs increased dramatically between the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the same time, transit funding assistance has become less available. These circumstances require that managers operate their maintenance systems more efficiently and that they adopt new cost-cutting policies. It is proposed that maintenance managers use quantitative techniques in planning the operations and policies of maintenance systems. The suggested quantitative techniques, commonly used in other areas of business, industry, and government, may be employed to plan transit maintenance system policies and operations. A simplified simulation model of a hypothetical maintenance system is presented as an example of the use of analytical techniques in maintenance planning.