The Executive Support System of Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), Canada, is currently implementing an asset management business framework (AMBF). The AMBF provides the ministry with an ambitious blueprint for incorporating asset management concepts into its existing business processes. A key component in the AMBF is the ability to integrate results from the ministry's existing management systems. In support of the AMBF, MTO has developed a prototype executive support system (ESS). The ESS is a what-if analysis tool that predicts network performance over time using data from the ministry's pavement and bridge management systems. It enables decision makers to evaluate the relationship between performance and budget and to view results by region, corridor, or functional class. This paper presents the analytical approach used to develop the ESS and describes how it was implemented by MTO. The ESS uses a candidate-based approach to system integration, which enables the integration of any management system capable of generating work candidates and estimating their impact on a defined set of performance measures. The ESS brings together data from these systems and performs an additional level of cross-asset economic optimizations, taking into account user-defined operating assumptions. Although much work has recently been done on the integration of pavement and bridge systems, the objective of this paper is to present a practical example implemented by MTO.