Example of a moderately complex asset inspection

In accordance with its pavement preservation program, a public works transportation department must inspect all of its street segments once every three years. This agency must follow a standard pavement condition rating method. The method defines ten different defect types, including longitudinal cracking, block cracking, edge cracking, distortion, and so on. For each defect type, there are three severities: low, medium, and high. The method also defines the ways in which each defect is measured, such as percent area, percent length, and so on. Finally, the inspection method calls for the defects to be evaluated multiple times in a single inspection, at 300-foot intervals along the street segment.

To meet these requirements, the agency has created an inspection type called PVSurf, which has multiple indexes defined. The inspection type includes a detail page to record information about the circumstances of the inspection, such as weather conditions, that may affect the results. On the Inspection Type form, the ten defect types are defined as observation codes. Each observation has three "Severity" nodes, each representing a level of severity: low, medium, and high.

The setup person defines indexes using the Inspection Indexes form. She defines an index for each defect type, and then a higher-level index that represents the surface condition of the street.

When Marty, the inspector, is ready to enter inspection information for the first street segment, 012000-0010, he creates an inspection using the Create Inspection process for street segments. Reading from an inspection form filled out earlier at the site of the inspection, Marty enters individual observations for each defect type at the 300-foot intervals along the length of the street segment.

Marty will create street segment inspections for the other streets he inspected, as will the other inspectors. When all the inspections are created, the agency can use Crystal Reports to generate a list of street segments in order of condition index. The agency can use this information as an input for pavement management analysis or advanced asset management tools.