Infrastructure‐Management‐System Analysis

Abstract

As with many communities across the United States, the basic infrastructure system of the U.S. Air Force Academy is beginning to age. To become more effective in allocating scarce resources, the academy has begun developing an infrastructure management system (IMS) to develop sound needs‐based budgets, avoid surprise equipment failures, and optimize the academy's operations and maintenance investment. The initial phase of the program was divided into two tasks: a comparative cost analysis and development of the IMS computerized system. Several conclusions useful industrywide also apply to the Air Force Academy: cost and quantity data are crucial; system simplicity is mandatory; approximately 80% of the cost of any activity will occur in 20% of the components being studied; disproportionate expenditures on highly visible infrastructure items may not be the best management; and maintenance policies have a large impact on maintenance costs.