Speaker
Description
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory was established in 2021 as an Intergovernmental organisation with a mission to design, build and operate cutting-edge radio telescopes to transform our understanding of the Universe, and deliver benefits to society through global collaboration and innovation.
As we got ready to commence the construction of the telescopes in two remote sites, one of the key focus areas has been to develop a strong asset and maintenance management system, not only to support the development of the telescope but also to set a solid foundation for operational readiness.This oral presentation aims to provide an overview of the approach we took and our journey so far in developing a unified engineering maintenance and management system for SKAO telescopes.
There is no denying that implementing a successful, working asset and maintenance management system is a complex endeavour. And when you set out to design it for a research infrastructure such as SKA observatory: one that is rapidly transforming and spreading its wings to become a global operation with the SKA-Low telescope in Western Australia and SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa and the Headquarters in the UK , it poses a whole new level of challenge.
The starting point of our approach was to know what we want by establishing a baseline of the functional requirements, defining a standard terminology and modelling the use cases for all engineering management and maintenance activities.This provided a good base to develop the overall architecture of the functionality and visualise the interdependencies..Hence allowing us to have a clear template to assess software tools that fit our purpose.
This presentation explores the challenges posed in developing a working solution, transcending the inherited legacy practices, individual biases and the unique opportunities that arise when a diverse group of intellects come together to set up a coherent maintenance management system.
