Automated Order Processing and Posting to GIS

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.

ASA System
This is and overview of the ASA system. The process starts with marketing clerks gathering lead information from municipalities buildersand customers. After the clerks have gatered this information, marketing representatives gater all customer information via phone or interview. A sketch is done of the construction premises and letters are generated for customers.

ASA System
After the marketing representative has completed the application,the applications are moved on to engineering (if necessary) and main orders are created (if necessary). Permitting clerks and real estate agants also work on applications if permits and easaments need to be collected for the application. Completed permites and other consturction documentation are scanned into the application. The system accommodates for the multiple, parallel workflows and manages the unit of work.

ASA System
When all of the parallel subflows have completed; the service application and main order are made available to construction contractors or internal construction crews. Constractors and WGC Crew chiefs schedule thier work off of views and fax locating instructions to Diggers Hotline. Construction inspectors meet the internal crew or contractor view in the field and record facility, material and invoicing information about the work that is being done.

ASA System Draftsman now review the completed service application and main orders as a quality review and then have information sent automatically into our facility system (SRC), our material material management system (MMS), our Customer system (CIS) and our dispatching system (CAD).

Posting to GIS
Wenapplications enter tierecord keeping phase they meready forposting to GIS. How this works is a digitizer now serves as a quality checker and scans a completed service application for information that does not seem correct. After this visual quality check, the digitizer clicks a button on the electronic form and the mapping and facility contents of the form are written to the hard drive of the workstation. The digitizer then goes into the GIS and clicks a button to read the record off the hard drive. The GI S program then reads the main order number to find a match in the GM database. If the main does not exist the digitizer will need to digitize main. If the main does exist the program continues to find the street intersection entered by the construction inspector. Upon finding the street intersection the program uses direction and length measurements entered by the construction inspector to identifi where the service intersects the gas main and then draws the gas service. If the service does not reach a building, the digitizer is prompted if they wish to add a building. Several other edit checks are included in this process. Upon completion of the drawing, the digitizer goes back into the electronic workflow and indicates that the drawing portion of the record keeping process is complete.