Iowa State University’s College of Business is looking for ways the Iowa Department of Transportation could save millions of dollars on its fleet of 900 snowplow trucks.

Sree Nilakanta and Kevin Scheibe, both associate professors of information systems, analyzed 10 years of maintenance records for DOT snowplows. They decided replacing the trucks every six to seven years could save $2 million to $5 million a year. Currently, DOT replaces the trucks every 15 years on average.

Nilakanta and Scheibe analyzed maintenance records, purchase price and resale estimates in yearly increments. “Many DOTs have the same problem, and each one is trying a different approach. The system we’ve created is an easier way of doing the estimations and predictions,” Nilakanta said.