GIS enhancement The main purpose of GIS is to maintain and process georeferenced data. Thus GIS integration in AM/FM enhances the overall database clarity thereby increasing the ability to locate threatened assets, manage any potential damage to them, and adopt remedial step for the same. Any fault in any infrastructure link whether natural or manmade, must be quickly reviewed to ensure public safety and solve public inconvenience. However with the aid of GIS addressing public grievances has become much more organized. In the operation and planning phases of any asset development today a new paradigm has been discovered by the mass adoption of databases that first allowed the development of AM/FM software, and then the development of GIS. GIS enables authorities concerned to integrate business data into the system and generate sophisticated reports that can be used for operations and planning. Benefits of AM/FM/GIS
In recent times the global economy is facing the growth and development of the Asian economies. The 'eastern' world has woken up and is fast catching up with their 'western' counterparts. Infrastructure strengthening has thus become important in Asian countries. Thus the advent of AM/FM/GIS has also been welcomed and ingrained in these countries. Several challenges face the Asian region owing to the differences in technology user demographics, infrastructure standards and usage patterns. This region began their AM/FM/GIS development baselined on US-based technology. These were English language based systems that were to be used by countries with an entirely different representation of language. When an AM/FM/GIS system was being developed for Malaysian Electric Company, the core technology was from the US. However many home grown IT applications were specific to Malaysian population needs. While such changes in themselves may not have a large direct impact on the core technology underlying these GIS packages, they enrich the overall knowledge repository for the user community. Thus, new ideas and approaches are tried, and incorporated into the general technology. So the Asian developers have been overcoming technology challenges and language barriers at the same time. For example, many challenges were faced by the GIS pioneers at Osaka Gas in Japan. (Figure 1) Osaka Gas is Japan's second largest natural gas supplier serving over 6.6 million natural gas customers. In 2002, Osaka Gas launched its information technology project; the GIS based New Gas Pipe Facility Management System (New Map System). However it overcame these differences and AM/FM/ GIS implementation led to many benefits.  Figure 1. Osaka Gas New Gas Pipe Facility Management System For instance in Osaka Gas previously their facility maps were fed into the computer by digitizing paper maps of construction drawings that were based on handwritten gas pipe construction information. With the adoption of the new project in 2002 the company decided to convert to an enterprise-shared spatial database and to use GIS as a common platform for the company's internal systems. GIS has replaced their old processes with automated data exchange processes, which has cut their operation costs drastically. Another cost saving factor is that the system is able to automate CAD drawing importation (location adjustment), which released specialists to engage in other facility related work. Osaka Gas won ESRI's Special Achievement in GIS Award in 2004 because of its innovative use of enterprise wide applications. Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) began a New Distribution Information System (NDIS) in 2003 at KEPCO's Seoul offices headquarters. NDIS was part of the company's overall program to upgrade its information system. KEPCO had decided to upgrade from its previously used KEPCO Distribution System based on IMS Graphical Facilities Information System (GFIS) to NDIS technology to more effectively address its company-wide information management requirements. There was also KEPCO's need to comply with NGIS (Korean National GIS) requirements. Shanghai's Western District Power Supply Board (WDPSB) in China supplies an area of 50.24 sq. km . By 1999, the population exceeded 1.5 million, with 420,000 consumers demanding 879 MW of electricity from the system. In the late 1990s, the WDPSB decided to develop a computer-aided information management system. Following detailed investigation of the problems, combined with consideration of the evolving computer technology, WDPSB recognized the need for a system that provided spatial information. As a result, it decided to integrate an AM/FM/GIS into information management system for WDPSB. The information management system of the WDPSB is a key scientific and technical project of Shanghai Urban Power Supply Corp. It is also a key project of Shanghai Municipal Science Commission. Improved results and social appreciation has been achieved since it was put into service. Thus following a steady course of adoption AM/FM /GIS is being implemented and also benefiting several organizations in Asia.  Figure 2. GIS used in NDPL's power distribution |