Navab-Kashani, R; Gay, L F and Bayat, A (2015) Productivity improvement of sewer CCTV inspection through time study and route optimization. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 141(6): 04015009, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is the most widely used visual inspection method for sewers. Given the amount of public money spent on these inspections in Canada annually, productivity improvements may represent significant financial savings to the public. This paper presents a study based on several sewer mainline CCTV surveys in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The overall objective is to enhance sewer CCTV inspection production rate through the duration reduction of non-value added activities. The methodology includes performing a work measurement study and using a travel route optimization algorithm. The first section of the paper presents the results of the work measurement study conducted on 214 CCTV operations, as well as the calculated time allotment for each work component in the process. In the second section, an optimization technique is applied to CCTV truck movements considering the two traveling path types of road distance (actual distance traveled) and linear distance (straight distance between two points on a map) distances used to find an optimal route. As traveling to target manholes and locating those manholes are identified in the first section of the paper as the most time-consuming, non-value added activities in CCTV operations, this study investigates the application of the traveling salesman problem (TSP) as a traveling path optimization technique for daily CCTV inspections. Through the analysis of the effect of actual road distances on the CCTV inspection cycle time, this study shows that the application of a TSP solver for preplanning traveling paths can improve the inspection production rate of both daily CCTV activities and the CCTV inspection of entire neighborhoods by about 13%.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | movement, sewer, visual inspection, survey, optimization algorithm, methodology, optimization technique, Canada, inspection, savings, productivity, duration |
| Subjects: | management, algorithms, research methods, Geography, project controls, infrastructure and transport systems, quality assurance, data collection methods, health behaviours and lifestyles, professional practice, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Digital Applications, Quality Management, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here