Operational Control

Operational control is examined by

reviewing some of the control functions of
management personnel.
1. Area In-Charge
Area In-Charge control the way work is directed and
reported by foremen.

• Directing is controlled through field inspections to ensure that

assigned activities are performed at assigned locations with
the assigned crew sizes and compositions, equipment,
materials and work methods. Decisions about unanticipated
events are reviewed to ensure compliance with good
management practices. An important aspects of this type of
control is to ensure that work performed as assigned results in
acceptable work quality and daily production.
• Reporting is controlled through field
inspections and activity card review to
ensure that activity cards are completed
accurately and submitted on time.
2. District Maintenance Engineers
• District Maintenance Engineers control
the way work is scheduled, directed and
reported. This control is accomplished
through conducting frequent field
inspections, conducting quincenal
scheduling meetings, reviewing
schedules, monitoring work assignment
results and reviewing and analyzing
monthly reports.
• The objects of this control are to ensure that
field inspections are conducted at sufficient
frequencies to identify current maintenance
needs, that reasonable work estimates are
made, that maintenance needs are
documented and retained, that schedules are
written to use resource effectively and meet
major Department objectives and priorities,
that alternate work is provided, that work is
assigned effectively and that reported data are
summarized accurately and on time.
3. District Engineers
• District Engineers control work to ensure
that important maintenance objectives
are achieved and that money is spent
accordingly. They control procurement of
resources to ensure economic and timely
acquisition and a balance of expenditures
in accordance with the performance
budget.
• They control scheduling to ensure
resources are deployed according to
plans and standards. District Engineers
must conduct sufficient field inspections
and review and analyze management and
accounting summary reports to discharge
their control functions.
4. Regional Directors
• Regional Director supervise regional
maintenance staffs to ensure that
necessary coordination among
district/cities is provided, that important
maintenance objectives are achieved and
that money is spent accordingly.
 System Control
System Control is achieved through reviews of
procedure, policies, plans and standards, including
data analyzes. These reviews are conducted by the
Central Office, involve regional and district/city inputs
and usually occur on an annual basis. The object of
system control is to revise procedures, policies, plans
and standards to better reflect Department’s
objectives and priorities.
 Management and Fiscal Control
A basic concept of highway maintenance
management is the use of standard costs for planning
and reporting the work program. This concept places
emphasis on identifying and prioritizing work needed
thereby controlling expenditures, rather than having
expenditures control the work. The success of this type
of management depends on realistic and current
standard unit costs for labor, equipment and material
based on accurate and reliable financial reports.
Management and fiscal reporting systems should be
separate entities and comparisons and adjustment
made just once a year.
• If management costs are realistic and reported
usages true and accurate, the difference between
total planned and actual performance budgets
should be comparable to the difference in the total
fiscal allotment and actual expenditure. It is of no
value to make comparisons of costs for specific
resources in the management standard cost reports
and the fiscal reports because labor and equipment
fiscal costs are reported in the management reports
as cost of material used. Control of standard unit
costs must be based on reliable and compatible fiscal
data plus adjustments from analysis of annual
management reports.