Justifying Mobility: The New Customer Ethos

Improving the Business Process
Until recently, the driving force behind the implementation of mobile technology was always the need for internal business process improvement.

Proponents of mobile computing have emphasized the potential for large productivity gains that can result from automating field activities -- activities that have resisted automation in the past. And certainly this perception is proving to be the reality. When applications are well-designed and geared to the field (as opposed to moving office systems into mobile settings), field computing does, indeed, have the ability to make mobile workers more productive and improve the flow of processes between the office and the field.

Let’s look, for a moment, at the Southern California Edison Mobile Design case study referred to above and see how mobile computing has streamlined the design process, cutting redundancy and error, and increasing productivity.

Southern California Edison is the primary provider of electric service for most of southern California. Their mobile design application was developed to automate the part of distribution planning that has typically taken place in the field. The application is referred to at Edison as the Planner Office because it gives SCE’S distribution planners a way to take information and computer capability out of the office into the field.

Here’s how the application is changing the design process at Edison. The majority of the utility’s design jobs are small and medium-sized projects requiring planners to travel to the job site. Under the old system, planners had to take notes, confirm data from paper maps, record existing facilities, and sketch out the new facility. Then, after returning to the office, the planner would work from these notes to complete the design process. This consisted of entering assembly data into a work management system and then redrawing the sketch.

The new system is based on capturing data at the source and creating an all-digital work order cycle from job inception to completion. Using their high-performance pen computers, planners create a drawing on the spot by selecting assemblies (poles, conductor, transformers, etc.) from a standardized list and tapping the screen to place a symbol on a downloaded AutoCAD map or field sketch.

As a planner is placing poles or showing where a line should be extended, for example, the assembly database automatically calculates the material list and cost estimates. The system also lets planners do engineering calculations (voltage drop, flicker, guying rules, etc.) to verify the design. And it includes budget items/PUC rules, task qualifiers and access to reference materials at the project site.

Productivity gains resulting from this application have occurred for several reasons, including the fact that the Planner Office has eliminated certain tasks and consolidated others. Planners no longer have to do things twice, first at the job site and then, again, in the office. For example, after the sketch is created at the job site, it is uploaded into Edison’s work management system, eliminating the need tore-create the sketch in the office. There is no longer a need to look up assembly codes or create a material list. And the Planner Office has also eliminated less demanding but tedious and time-consuming tasks like labeling sketches.

In addition to eliminating redundancy and speeding up the design process, the new system also reduces errors. By basing designs on a database of compatible units or assemblies, designs can be checked for voltage drop, flicker, and other factors. The system also enforces corporate design standards by ensuring that guidelines are followed in the design process.

In terms of the business process, Edison’s Planner Office illustrates the dramatic gains that can be achieved by taking a process that has been relatively unchanged for many years and applying technology to it. The type of productivity gain afforded by the Planner Office will continue to be a driving force in the adoption of mobile technology throughout the utility industry -- especially in the face of increasing competition. But this issue of competition and impeding deregulation also introduces a new consideration: the customer.