Automated Order Processing and Posting to GIS
Thomas M. Winter
Wisconsin Gas Company 626 E. Wisconsin Avenue Milwaukee, WI 53202
Abstract
This paper will discuss how Wisconsin Gas Company has re-engineered and automated its
new construction process.
This system takes a customer request for service and electronically routes the request to each
logical function needed to process the application. Redundant, non-value adding steps have
been removed from this streamlined process.
A marketing representative will gather customer information either in the office or at the
customer premises. Then a notification is sent to the Permitting Department to obtain
permits, the Real Estate Department to obtain easements and to the Drafting Department to
construct drawings. When these fictions are complete, work is made available for either
internal construction crews or external construction contractors. Construction inspectors
meet construction crews at the construction site and record facility, material, and contractor
information that has occurred due to the installation of the service or possible gas main
extension.
After construction completion, building, address and service information are automatically
posted to our GIS based on information from the electronic application. A digitizer reviews
the posting to the GIS and provides a quality control review of all new construction
information.
Re-Engineering Background
In Fall of 1993 Wisconsin Gas Company began a company wide re-engineering initiative to
examine all business processes. The new construction process was identified as a process
that needed significant restructuring and streamlining. Wisconsin Gas decided that a the
application needed to have excellent communication and coordination capabilities for a work
force that was geographically dispersed. The application also had to allow users to operate in
both an office and field setting. To meet these specifications; it was decided that groupware
was the medium needed for automating the new construction workflow.
A pilot project for automating the new construction process was completed in June of 1994
and upper management approved the project the following month. The cost justification of
the project was based on staff reductions resulting from streamlining the business process.
The cost justification paid for application development time, consulting time and
infrastructure costs. Application development was started in September of 1994 and
completed in May of 1995 with a 5 person project team. The interface to GIS was
246.implemented the summer of 1996 as part of a larger project to interface the new construction
workflow system to existing legacy systems.
Automating the New Construction Workflow
To automate an enterprise business workflow, a decision needed to be made on what type of
methodology to use for workflow development. There tends to be four types of workflow
methodologies in place today. One type of methodology is an information centric
methodology. This methodology is very common among systems professionals. It is good
for structuring data but weak for showing coordination. The second type of methodology is
an event centric model. This model is common for high volume workflows where tolerance
for exceptions is low, such as a billing application. This methodology is good for high
volume, straight forward work but this methodology does not work well where work routing
is not pre-established or work routing needs to be flexible. A third type of workflow
methodology is a role centric model. This model is very good at showing work coordination
but confines a process to a very rigid workflow. The fourth workflow methodology is a state
or work based model. This model very good at showing coordination and handles all types
of processes. This was the model used throughout the project and is highly recommended to
others for workflow development.*
Wisconsin Gas discovered a software package which used the state flow methodology
allowing a developer to enter and organize a business workflow in an outline type format.
After the workflow was entered in the package, the package functioned as a code generator.
The generated code was inserted into Wisconsin Gas’ groupware package. This approach to
methodology and groupware were strategic keys in the automation and implementation of
Wisconsin Gas’ automated new construction order process referred to as the ASA
(Automated Service Application) system.
Upon software and methodology selection, a project team was formed. The team collected
information on the existing workflow process, captured information from screens of existing
legacy systems and examined information from paper forms which were currently routed
between departments or between the company and external entities. With this information in
hand, the project team used the workflow methodology to streamline the existing process.
Goals were established to eliminate non-value adding steps, route work to roles in the process
only when their input was required, and have individuals add only necessary information into
the entire process once. After completion of this phase, a process that could take anywhere
from 14 to 28 steps was reduced down to 6 to 8 steps.
After workflow design was completed the project team held JAD (Joint Application
Development) sessions to design how the electronic forms in the process should look and
fiction. A developer would team up with one or more client “experts” to work on a specific
fictional piece of the application (marketing, engineering, construction inspection, etc.).
l “Quickflow Process Technique Design& Mechanics”; by Workflow Inc., 1994, p. 3-8.
247.After this phase, group discussions were held on how to view applications and implement the
electronic workflow process.
Four high-level diagrams of the ASA workflow are shown in the following pages. More
detailed descriptions are included in the exhibits to elaborate on the abstract.
