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Solving fundamental issues when integrating WAM (Works & Asset Management) Systems with GIS
Kim Park
Smallworldwide plc, Elizabeth House
1 High Street, Chesterton
Cambridge, CB4 1WR
Kim Park
Smallworldwide plc, Elizabeth House
1 High Street, Chesterton
Cambridge, CB4 1WR
Abstract
It is a now recognised and accepted that there are substantial business benefits of using Geographical Information Systems for the design and documentation of utility and telecommunication networks. Asset management packages with full work management, scheduling and dispatch capabilities have been equally successful when deployed within the operational part of the same organisation. The division of these two applications into disparate systems is more a result of development history than of user requirement.
An examination of the scope and functionality of these systems show there are additional and far reaching benefits that can be gained by the integration of these complimentary packages. There are however potential conflicts that may occur due to the way in which these systems manipulate and manage essentially the same data.
This paper will show that if a conceptual framework is first established that properly positions design systems with works and asset management systems; the development of key operational applications that meet end user requirements and provide real business benefits can be achieved. Practical production examples are given.
Introduction
Utility and telecommunication companies worldwide are facing increasing pressures to operate in a more productive and cost effective way. As global deregulation in these industries becomes more widespread so the pressure of competition increases. In this competitive environment, utility and telecommunication companies are trying to reorganise, restructure, downsize and outsource in an effort to streamline their business.
The business process consists of a complex range of inter-related tasks with no single one determining the success or failure of the business. Similarly there is no single IT solution on which an organisation’s business can depend. Historically IT solutions have been procured by different departments with unique objectives, schedules and budget constraints. Business Process Reengineering however is changing the IT focus from producing systems which support individual tasks towards an integrated solution approach.
The key to utility and telecommunication company’s success are its assets - its network and customers. The smooth and efficient running of a organisation’s network provides the goods and services that the company’s customers demand. This paper examines the role of GIS and Work and Asset Management (WAM) within the organisation. These systems are fundamental to the success of business process re-engineering upon which these companies are embarking.
The first part of the paper provides an overview of GIS and WAM, examining the scope and functionality of these systems. The following section focuses on the business benefits to be found by integrating these complementary products. A section then considers the problems that may be encountered due to the inherent conceptual differences between the packages. Finally, case studies highlight benefits that are being achieved in production today
GIS: Work and asset management
Utility and telecommunication companies typically have a number of existing legacy systems. These systems manage separate islands of data and fulfil very specific business tasks supporting many of the customer and engineering needs of the business. Examples of these are network management systems, GIS, customer information systems, billing systems and WAM systems. By looking at the data and services each system provides, areas of overlap can be identified. Overlapping areas of the business results in costs being incurred, such as data duplication and data concurrency resulting in a lack of data integrity and operating inefficiency. The following outlines the scope of GIS and WAM systems.
GIS enables the effective planning, design and maintenance of an organisation’s network assets with the ability to graphically visualise and spatially analyse the network. It does this by providing a realistic model of objects forming ‘background’ and ‘foreground’ data.
The background data is typically either simple raster or vector maps used for positional information. Alternatively, the data could be scanned copies of paper records previously created and maintained by draftspeople within the organisation representing the networldasset data. Usually the first task when adopting GIS in a utility and telecommunication organisation is to capture the data from the scanned image through a process of digitizing. The digitised data then forms the foreground data.
The foreground data represents the ‘as-built’ state of the network, combining spatial, topological connectivity and engineering information for the network elements. For utility and telecommunication companies this would include, for example: the layout of all pipes, valves, pumping stations; cables, lines, substations; fibre, coaxial and civils networks; service to customers and premise locations. In addition, it may be necessary to represent several views of the same network and maintain the integrity between them, for example: geographical, gee-schematic or schematic.
When performing planning tasks and analysis within GIS, it is crucial to have the ability to maintain different states or versions of the network. When modelling the future, the ability to represent alternatives is of great value (Eastertield et al, 1990). Version management provides the ideal environment for ‘what-if scenario studies without upsetting the ‘as-built’ state of the network. An example of this in the electrical industry would be: ‘what if there were a transformer problem and a group of customers had to be back-fed from another substation – would this seriously effect the voltage profile and result in loss of service ?’
To summarise, GIS enables the following tasks:
- Multi-user data capture
- Design and documentation of the network
- Production of construction drawings
- Spatial and topological query support
- Planning new network elements and possible changes to the network state
WAM systems are typically large, long term corporate packages providing a complex set of services. These systems are ollen referred to as ‘enterprise-wide’ systems as their applications touch almost every area of an organisation’s business.
WAM packages manage a complete range of utility and telecommunications assets, from the buildings owned, to its staff, to the actual network assets. All these are accounted, budgeted, maintained and planned for within a WAM system. The WAM applications of primary importance to support utilities and telecommunications network infrastructure are asset management and work management.
Asset Management
To reiterate, the key to a utility and telecommunication company’s success is its assets - its network and its customers. As plant and equipment are becoming more complex, the need to organise, record and maintain information about the assets in a standard and structured way is becoming increasingly important. Once a full asset inventory is established, it can then be used within other areas of the business.
Asset management maintains a registry of every physical component on the network to a great level of detail, for example: serial number, bin number, life expectancy, maintenance and location history, supplier information and warranty periods. The successful tracking and management of assets enables efficient purchasing, scheduling and budgeting within an organisation.
The aim of asset management is to minimise the downtime of the network as this is detrimental to an organisation causing unplanned costs and unhappy customers. By maintaining the network on an ‘asneeded’ basis via condition based monitoring, failure code analysis and just-in-time maintenance techniques, asset management can be turned from a cost to a profit centre by:
- Increasing equipment uptime
- Reducing defects
- Reducing maintenance costs
- Reducing spare part/inventory costs
Work management concerns the management of maintenance requests, the planning of workloads and scheduling of resources. Automating the workflow and ensuring all work is planned effectively and monitored through its lifecycle is a large contributor to minimizing maintenance costs. A workorder begins the work management flow indicating maintenance to be done in the field and resources which need to be scheduled. Maintenance requests are generated from a number of sources, for example: customers to call centres (unplanned), engineers carrying out routine inspections (planned) and by date/meter (pre-planned). A workorder documents the equipment/asset to be maintained, details of the problem, worklsteps to resolve the problem, resources and materials required and expected duration of the job.
Analysing the above information leads to the planning and estimation of outstanding workorders. This includes evaluating the maintenance details, tasks and resources, which in turn interact with and rely on labour schedules and materials management.
Work scheduling follows the planning and estimation phase and matches the desired requirement against the available resources. This is an iterative process that is closely coupled with planning and analysis. Once realistic plans are produced which optimise craft and Iabour, maintenance is formally assigned to a work crew.
Depending on the complexity of the maintenance request, work can be spread over long periods of time. Because of this, complex monitoring of the scheduled work is carried out, where modifications can be made if the predicted resources don’t meet the actuals.
The following is a diagram to summarise the workflow process:
Figure 1: Workflow Process
Integration benefits
Utility and telecommunication companies are now looking to leverage their investment in data by integrating systems, which are complementary, and where data can be shared. This is in line with the business process re-engineering methodology that these organisations are employing for change and reorganisation. Research shows that 70°/0of all business questions asked contain a spatial element - a growing number of organisations are looking for ways to integrate geographical information with other operational and decision support systems. Their aim is to add a spatial dimension to corporate information. This section will look at the benefits that can be achieved when integrating GIS with WAM systems.
Design Estimating
New build is an inherent part of any utility and telecommunications business. This is especially true in certain regions where a new service, such as cable television, is being introduced and needs to be documented from scratch. If WAM and GIS were integrated, with one single source of data, eliminating data redundancy and reducing risk of errors, this would greatly assist the design process. With the physical assets being stored in the WAM system and links to financial modules combined with the design process being executed in the GIS, integration means that new designs could now return accurate bills of materials. By utilising the different network state management in the GIS, this benefits the organisation further. Alternative designs can be held in the GIS and accurately costed thus allowing the most cost-effective design to be approved. Once the most suitable design has approval, the GIS can automatically reserve all the necessary parts from the stores/inventory in the WAM system, this in itself verifies that the design is valid and can be processed.
Maintenance and Repair
Any company with assets and equipment that have a finite life span will find maintenance and repair an intrinsic part of the business process. Typically WAM systems store everything about the asset requiring attention except the location of it. By linking with GIS, where the graphical representation is stored, it is obvious where the asset is located and where the problem resides with a glance at the graphics map base. In addition, the GIS typically stores a multitude of different data types, one of these could be a scanned architect drawing which could be associated with a complex piece of equipment held in the WAM system.
In addition to identifying the location of the problem, the analytical capabilities of the GIS can be used to derive information regarding the operational state of the network. As the network connectivity is maintained in the GIS, a query on an asset could be performed identifying all other equipment and customers that would be affected should an asset be taken out of commission for repair. This would enable the utility and telecommunication companies to notify customers of impending shutdowns to the network prior to maintenance work taking place.
Utilising the analytical capabilities of the GIS when interrogating maintenance plans can provide further benefits. The GIS can identify all preplanned maintenance scheduled on the section of network such that all repairs in a certain time span are checked and repaired at the same time. This in itself reduces network downtime and increases operating efficiency.
Scheduling and Dispatch
Scheduling and dispatching of work crews is a complex and costly part of the works management process. At the very simplest level, by providing a spatial context to a maintenance request for a crew, a map from the GIS can be provided accurately reflecting the location of the problem. This is supplementary data to that provided by the WAM system.
Without linkages to GIS, work scheduling is based on the priority of work order and resources available. Providing the spatial services of a GIS enables the location to be taken into consideration when scheduling. By visualizing the location of work orders, it means one crew can be dispatched to work on all jobs in close proximity to one another. It is evident that the utility will be operating more efficiently as the work crew is not having to encounter unnecessary travel therefore spending more time maintaining the assets. In areas where the operating district covers large geographical areas the ability to spatially dispatch teams is crucial to reducing costs.
GIS functionality can aid dispatching further by providing an optimum routing solution for work crew vans. Typically GIS stores the road network as part of the foreground data - since the maintenance location and the work crew location can be identified, routing algorithms can be used to determine the best available route.
The benefits outlined are by no means exhaustive, it is certain that other advantages to be gained from integrating GIS and WAM. The following list summarises the benefits discussed:
- single source of asset data
- validation of new design from available assets in stores
- accurate costing of new designs
- graphical representation of asset (scanned image)
- map based representation showing location of assets
- identification of customers affected by network repair
- identification of other pre-planned maintenance on network to be investigated
- map based representation showing work crew scheduled jobs
- spatial analysis for work crew assignment
- routing analysis
As previously discussed historically GIS and WAM systems have been purchased independently with no intention of incorporating functionality or data from one system to another. In order to achieve the benefits of integrating GIS and WAM systems, a clear understanding of how the systems operate and differences in data management is essential.
The main difference between GIS and WAM systems are that the lifecycles of assets held in the WAM system are very different to those managed by the GIS. This is a very simple concept but one that is often overlooked.
WAM systems collect, store, manage and analyse information regarding an asset from the time it is registered in the stores department through to the time it is retired from service. Certain equipmentlassets, which can be repaired or refurbished have longer Iifecycles thus forming historical information. This type of data is essential to WAM systems for performing postoperative analysis. By analysing how an asset from one-supplier compares to another’s performance, decisions regarding future re-stocking strategies are made. Hence the brand which is the most reliable with the longest life span is more readily re-stocked in order to save money.
Maintaining and analysing information on the full lifecycle of an asset can be interpreted by saying that WAM systems store a ‘physical’ view of assets. Each unique instance of an asset is a physical record in the WAM system.
GIS however, differs in that the assets it maintains form the ‘logical’ view of the network. GIS systems are less concerned with the actual physical asset and are most concerned with how the logical asset connects one network element to the next forming the topological structured foreground data for analysis. As an example, take an asset such as a transformer in an electrical network. In WAM terms this asset has a lifecycle, it performs a function in the field, needs refurbishment, gets fixed and is then returned to the field to perform a similar function. Using this example, the transformer could first have been used in a substation in London - once refurbished, it could be placed in a substation in Oxford. Though its actual location has changed, it is still the same physical transformer.
The GIS however is oblivious to the removal and replacement of a transformer even though in reality this has taken place over a period of time. The GIS system is only interested in whether ‘any’ transformer exists in the as-built model of the network. If not, network supply cannot have been running, as there would have been no topological connection in the network. If an instance of a transformer existed, the GIS would be operating in the usual way allowing analysis of the network.
The following diagram documents the relationship between logical and physical assets:
Figure 2: Logical:Physical Asset Relationship
The relationship highlighted in Figure 2 is summarised as follows:
- one logical item of plant may have several instances of physical assets over a lifetime
- one logical object in alternative designs may have several physical objects
- one physical asset may have several logical locations over its lifetime
Case studies
This following section highlights two production examples where integration of GIS and WAM packages are successfully operating.
United Energy
Following the break-up of Australia’s State Electricity Commission in 1994, United Energy emerged as the largest of five new, separately owned distribution businesses. United Energy (now owned by Utilicorp, USA) operating region covers the bay area east of Melbourne and has a target customer base of 3.5 million people. In 1995, United Energy decided it would replace its entire central computing and business systems infrastructure within 12 months. 80 0/0 of these were replaced by an enterprise-wide WAM system - United place this system and their GIS as their key operational systems and estimate that closing down their previous legacy systems have saved them &lOmillion in the first year.
Integrating GIS and WAM systems is fundamental to the success at United. The GIS stores the geographic location of assets such as cable and power poles whilst all the financial information and maintenance history is stored in the WAM system. There is a 1:1 link between all network object instances held in the GIS and WAM system. No asset information is entered or stored twice and United Energy are finding that this infrastructure provides data which is more up to date and easy to maintain.
Pre-system integration, United Energy found that when designing new network for development, information entered by designers was lost once construction was completed. Because of this, inspectors had to identi~ the asset details again when they went to check power poles and re-enter them in the maintenance system. Now with the integration, the as-built network data is directly available to the maintenance staff hence there is less danger of errors being introduced and the time savings are considerable.
Further benefits are seen when using the analytical capabilities of the GIS. United Energy deal in switching zones - a switching zone is a section of the network isolated by changing a switch’s normal operative state and is identified using the tracing functionality of their GIS. When such an outage is scheduled, links to the WAM system means that every piece of equipment in the zone, which requires it, can undergo maintenance at the same time, appropriate personnel are assigned to work and spare parts are made available. This results in less outages overall, more efficient use of resources and less disruption to customers.
In summary, the key benefit of integration at United Energy is that information relating to plant maintenance, network operation and financial performance is not only more accurate but can easily be shared between key business applications.
Entergy is one of the top ten US electrical and gas companies operating in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas and serves electricity to over 2.4 million electric and 200,000 gas customers. Entergy is currently operationally split into six regions with their GIS database standing at around 200 Gigabytes (50 Gb of foreground facility data and 150 Gb of background landbase data) supporting the regions using database cache technology. Entergy are very aggressive in terms of requirements that they expect from their IT solutions.
For some time now, Entergy have appreciated the benefits brought about by integrated technology and have applications for planning and analysis, design and outage management integrated with customer information management. Currently, Entergy are operationally using an Oracle based asset management system with integrated work management system and GIS.
Entergy’s work and asset management systems are integrated with their GIS and are used extensively in the design cycle. Previously, requests for service that required engineering design were processed manually. Without computer-based design and analysis tools, engineers did not have time to experiment with multiple designs to find the optimal, least cost solution.
Now with links between the works management, asset management and calculation packages, Designs are created graphically in the GIS and validated which external network (electrical/gas) calculation packages. Alternative designs are created in the GIS and are passed to the WAM system for estimation and costings, which can be viewed in the GIS where the selection of the optimum design takes place.
The integrated solution has:
- improved and optimized the process of creating, maintaining and utilizing physical plant data
- provided cost savings in areas of operations, engineering, construction, maintenance and accounting
- provided a single point of data entry for all distribution facilities thus eliminating several redundant systems being supported
- allowed more efficient use of physical plant and engineering staff by automating the engineering design process
It is clear from the evidence presented in this paper that there are enormous business benefits to be gained in utility or telecommunication organisations when integrating complementary software solutions. With care and a general understanding of the conceptual differences in data and services provided, a range of tangible benefits can be achieved through integration, such as:
- quality and consistency of data throughout the organisation
- improved customer satisfaction due to a reduction in network downtime
- consistency and standardisation of the design and planning process
- improvement in operating efficiency and corresponding economic benefit
References
Easterfield,M.E., Newell, R.G., Theriault, D.G. (1990): Version Management in GIS - Applications and Techniques. Smallworld Technical Paper