Every asset ages. Pipes, roads, computers, cars, etc. This fact is inevitable. And, as a result of the aging process, every asset suffers a degradation in its intended capability or performance over time. Yet every day, millions of people in the U.S. get up in the morning expecting that they will be able to travel to work, drink clean water, use the Internet, and so on. It usually takes a catastrophic event to grab our attention to make us focus on infrastructure. The requirements to replace and fix assets in our national infrastructure far outweigh our capabilities to do so. Clearly, government and private industries need a method to understand how various infrastructures can stay operational for the full intended service life. Consequently, there is a need for an asset management tool that captures inventories, aging information (e.g., asset condition, decay curves), finances/accounting, and maintenance plans and integrates them in a way that helps government and private organizations to form realistic and accomplishable tactical and strategic plans. ViaSim proposes to meet the Phase I requirements by developing and testing a prototype asset management tool that simulates the life cycles of multiple infrastructure assets.
