Levels of service
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Levels of service (LOS) is a term in asset management referring to the quality of a given service. Defining and measuring levels of service is a key activity in developing infrastructure asset management plans.[2][3][4] Levels of service may be tied to physical performance of assets or be defined via customer expectation and satisfaction.[4][3] The latter is more service-centric rather than asset-centric. For instance, when measuring the LOS of a road, it could be measured by a physical performance indicator such as Pavement Condition Index (PCI)[1] or by a measure related to customer satisfaction such as the number of complaints per month about that certain road section.[2][5] Or in the case of traffic level of service, it could be measured by the geometry of road or by travel time of the vehicles, which reflects the quality of traffic flow. So, levels of service can have multiple facets: customer satisfaction, environmental requirements and legal requirements.[6]
Levels of service also can be seen as technical or strategic. Technical LOS reflects the service provider's perspective, while strategic LOS represents the customer or user's perspective.[4][3] For instance in the case of sewer infrastructure, a municipality (as the service provider) may measure the number of micro-cracks in a pipe or sewer and model its expected lifetime to ensure the quality of the service, but the user's main concern is the availability and reliability of the sewer system, not necessarily the technical aspects of the physical infrastructure. In simple words, as long as the user can flush his/her toilet, he/she may not have any issue with the deterioration of the pipe.