Trouble-call Management: An application solution
The old way
One of the main drawbacks to the old system was the way the information was handled. In most cases, a
call was received in the Distribution Center and recorded on a paper document called an “X-Order.” (Why
it is called an X-Order has been lost to time, but apparently this term came into being way back in City
Water history.) The X-Order was given to the dispatcher, who called a crew and assigned the job. If the
call was received somewhere other than the Distribution Center, call details were written on a notepad and
the information relayed to the dispatcher by telephone, where an X-Order was written and a crew assigned.
In either case, the X-Order was then placed in the supervisor’s in-box and handed to the crew at the end of
the day. Carbon copies were kept of all X-Orders at the dispatcher’s desk as a method of tracking
unfinished jobs.
Once the crew completed its work, workers would make some notes about what they did on a scrap of
paper. These notes were then transferred to the X-Order. The supervisor would review what the crew had
written and assign another crew to do follow-up work if necessary. If another crew was required, the X-Order
was routed to the next crew for completion, and so on, until the job was completed. The completed
X-Order was given to the dispatcher, who paired it with the carbon copy and filed it for future reference.
One of the many problems with the old paper system was that an X-Order maybe stuck in the paper
shuffle for several days following completion of the work before a supervisor or dispatcher would become
aware that follow-up tasks were necessary.
Strategies to meet the work requirements
A water quality complaint, if handled improperly, had the potential to create a public health hazard. It
became clear that the old system was deficient and City Water needed a better way to respond to and track
water quality complaints. A timely response to a taste and odor complaint could prevent a major system
incident. City Water decided to require a response to all water quality complaints within the same business
day. One of the main tasks of the new system would be to ensure this goal was met.
One of the main requirements of a new system was to keep track of important jobs without having to
shuffle paper or check piles of X-Order copies to find something.
Another requirement was to have the ability to cut down the number of times information was written and
copied from one source to another. This was accomplished by having a central data entry point for all calls
and by connecting the dispatcher to this data store.
In the past, procedural standards and policies were committed to memory. Depending upon the situation or
who was involved, the same type of call could be handled in several different ways. To bring a measure of
consistency to the utility’s responses, a new system was required to contain guidelines and procedures for
handling various types of routine calls and water quality conditions.
Finally, data were needed to analyze the trends of unsuitable water quality in the system and to allow
engineers and operators to make system adjustments in response. This made the case for using a database
to store the call data, enabling decision-support querying and analysis.
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