Integrated Mobile Work Management and Mobile GIS

Integrated Mobile Work Management and Mobile GIS

Richard Webb
Gyronita Consulting Ltd, 26, Branbling Road
Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 6AY, England

Alan Brown
Procis Software Ltd, Alexander House
19, Fleming way, Swindon, Wilts
SN12NG, England

Faced with continuing pressures to improve operating efficiency Severn Trent Water (UK) has embarked on a project to implement an integrated field system that links work management and GIS together. Utilising the technologies of handheld computers and mobile communications, the field system has been used as a tool to realign the business process of managing the work on the geographically dispersed network of assets. The business benefits are seen to be significant with a target for all field workers of a productivity gain of 25 - 35 %. Pay back for the project is under two years.

Introduction
Severn Trent Water is the second largest Water Company in the UK. It has a history of steadily improving operating efficiencies year on year. This paper sets out the reasons why it decided to invest in field systems and describes the approach adopted in implementing them.

Section 1 Business Issues

Business Climate
Pressure from the regulator, customer and shareholder all serve to emphasise the need to improve the efficiency of the business. Recently Severn Trent Water (STW) has recognised that developments in portable computing devices, along with the advent of Wireless Communications, provide an opportunity to redefine the business process of managing the field workforce, using the new technologies, to enable an improved service to the customer, whilst at the same time achieving considerable savings.

Business Benefits
The implementations of field systems affect the areas of the business that relate to the operation of the assets. All Utilities have the same features of geographically dispersed assets, geographically dispersed customers and geographically dispersed work force. Introducing mobile work management allows the business process of allocating tasks to the field worker and monitoring the progress of the tasks to be streamlined. It delivers benefits in improving the productivity of both the field workers, and the dispatching staff based in the office. In a typical Utility 50% of the staff can be classified as field workers and fall into the scope of such a concept. It is feasible to anticipate an improvement in efficiency up to 25% - 35% from each field worker.

Business Model
The benefits from introducing mobile working are maximised by viewing the business as divided into two parts. The diagram below illustrates the new business model.

The field working half of the business is the mobile workers, and the aim of the realignment of the business process is to keep the field workers out in the field as much as possible, because the customers and assets are geographically dispersed. The centralised support component of the Company are the functions that manage the field activity, whether it be generated from customer service, maintenance, operations activities, or reactive work to respond to breakdowns, outages or heavy weather events.

Need for Strategic View
Implementation of the concept of field working crosses several traditional sections of the business. It is unrealistic to expect to achieve the efficiency gains and change over several business sections without working to a strategic view. The maximum benefit is gained only when all components are put in place. In making the case for the investment, it is important to ensure that the total view is embraced and the benefits signed up to for the overall picture otherwise it is difficult to identify sufficient benefit to make a strong business case for each individual incremental step of implementation.

STW embraced the overall concepts and looked to implement the overall solution incrementally, recognising that the benefits would also accrue incrementally. The diagram below shows the approach adopted that embraces the overall concept, but at the same time shows the incremental implementation.

Why Mobile Work Management and Mobile GIS?
STW strategy recognises that if the field workers are to operate at maximum efficiency they need asset support data, as well as job instruction tickets. Without the support data the field workers have to return to base to obtain data to support the next job thereby introducing significant unproductive time.

Section 2 Design Issues

Data types
The field workers data requirements fall into two categories:- job ticket and support. The job ticket data is low volume and will be transmitted to the field worker dynamically, using mobile communications. The support data, such as GIS records, is high volume, and once loaded onto the handheld terminal needs less frequent updating and can be done when the field worker returns to base at the end of the week.

Building block design
The system to deliver the functionality for the field worker has several broad components. The diagram below sets out the main components.

Dispatching Module
The Dispatching module receives the work request and, using the parameters such as job type, location and skill set matches the job requests to the available field staff in the optimum way. This ensures that jobs that must be complete at a certain time, eg a Customer Appointment, are properly resourced, and that the most effective route for moving from job to job is incorporated, thereby ensuring maximum effectiveness from the field worker.

Incorporated into the module are functions such as the calendar which has the availability of each worker, and the data set that holds personnel information such as location and skills that are needed for the scheduling part of the dispatcher to match the job task to the available resource.

Communication module
The end result from the dispatching module is a task assigned to a field worker. The communications module handles the transmitting of the task to the field worker. The module holds the data indicating which communication method to use for which field worker. Once the job request is received the module then transmits the job ticket using the designated communications method that is assigned to the nominated field worker. In this way varying options for communications can be handled, so that whether it be a fax transmission to a defined location, or an overnight transfer of data via a dial up phone line, or a link via a GSM phone. A strength of the design lies in that it is easy to accommodate any changes in the methods of communication. The communication module transmits the job ticket to the designated field worker via the specified communications method

Interface to Corporate Systems
The system provided will interface to STW's DOJM work management database but by using an MQ Series interface it allows for migration to a successor system. When jobs reach an appropriate status (i.e have been planned), work requests are passed from DOJM to the field system database ready for allocation and dispatch to field workers. Work can be viewed in both summary and detail form at the office based, mobile dispatch system located in Network Management Centres and operating depots and passed electronically to appropriate mobile computers.

The mobile system enables job details to be completed on site before transmission back to field system control and will contain status information related to job, crew and work activity as well as time of day. Such status changes will be automatically forwarded to the office-based system through the real time communications facilities are provided. In addition to DOJM, other host systems such as UADMS (the STW GIS implementation) will be interfaced to the mobile system to provide mapping, asset records and other information required by the field workers.

The proposed system architecture is shown in the diagram below.

A Modular Solution
The system chosen for the mobile solution is the Procis FieldIT family of mobile products which is part of the STS STORMS work and asset management suite. The choice of a modular solution is a result of the identified need to further develop existing mobile applications and to maximise the potential of the new and emerging technologies such as Windows CE, EPOC 32 (Symbian), Java, Oracle-Lite and replication, the Internet and mobile voice and data communications. The modules diagram is as shown above.

All modules use Oracle databases (8i for the Server applications - Work, GIS etc., and 8i Lite for the mobile); utilise database replication for the transfer of data between the server and mobile databases; and can communicate via direct cable connection, over networks and via wired or wireless telephony. The language is Java because of its operating system independence which will allow implementation on a range of appropriate hardware. Java is also the language most used for web based solutions and future enhancements will utilise the product's browser capability and allow user access over the intranet and internet. This may be particularly relevant to contracted out operations

Section 3 Implementation Issues

Alignment of business processes
The business process addressed by the new working method covers all the activities that require a job to be done away from the office, in the field. The criteria is:- can the task be defined as having a start point and end point and has to be executed in the field? If the answer is yes then it should fit within the realigned business process.

The organisational impact centres around the provision of a centralised dispatching function through which all job requests are funnelled and eliminating the intermediate supervisory staff.

Incremental Build
Although the realigned business process presents a very streamlined picture, reality is somewhat different. There are many types of work, such as maintenance of plant, or switching activities on the distribution network, as well as visits to customers; a job is handled differently if it is planned, as against one which is reactive; the working practices for field workers who have several jobs per day are different to those whose jobs take longer to complete.

Implementation of a system that covers all these jobs type all at the same time would be professional suicide. The implementation must be incremental if the overall project is to be successful. For STW it was determined that 450 production workers were the first field worker group to have the new tool. The practicality of the solution was tested by running a pilot system in one depot.

Cultural environment
The introduction of the centralised dispatching function was a major change for the organisation. It required those staff who were running the centralised dispatching function to be relocated. For the field workers who were to have their work allocated in this way there was a requirement to be trained up in the way of operating the new system, to receive job instructions and send back work done reports electronically. Before any benefit could be delivered by using the system, STW had a problem because the existing bonus scheme for the production staff had a ceiling for maximum earnings in any one month, which was already being reached by the production workers. Clearly further improvement in productivity as enabled by the new mobile work management system would have little chance of success if there was no incentive for the workers to change from the existing working practises.

Section 4 Costs & Benefits
The guideline costs and benefits for implementing the system to 1000 field staff is as follows:-

Guideline costs	Łm
Hardware Ł6k per field worker	6.0
Network to GSM interface	0.25
Dispatcher software	1.00
Corporate Systems interface	1.00
Handheld s/w licences	1.00
Implementation costs	5.00
Project Management	0.5
Contingency	1.5
Total Project Costs Ł16	.25m

Guideline benefits
The benefits can be calculated assuming that key working practises and organisational changes are implemented. The following benefits are based on the assumptions that field workers will start from home, and that the dispatching function is centralised, and that the field workers are given all the support data needed to keep them on the road. Based on 1000 field workers with HOME START, eliminating the need to travel into the depot at the start of the day:

1 ˝ hours per day= 7 hours in 37 hour week. Efficiency gain = 18%
Reduction in unproductive time caused by travelling, standing time, abortive effort 2.5 hours. Efficiency gain = 7%
Total 25%
Average field worker salary including overheads Ł30k per annum
Efficiency gains at 25% Ł7.5k per annum
Efficiency gains for 1000 staff Ł7.5m per annum
Travel costs reduced by 10%
Each vehicle travels 15k miles per annum. Costs at Ł0.4 per mile = Ł6k per annum
For 1000 field workers 10% 0f Ł6k Cost saving Ł600k per annum

BACK OFFICE
Based on 500 staff involved in generation and management of tasks for field workers
10% improvement through elimination of paper work etc
500 staff on Ł30k salary = 500 * 0.1 * 30,000 . Efficiency gain Ł1.5m per annum
Total efficiency gains Ł9.6m per annum
Typical pay back period for field system project 16.5/9.6 = 1.7 years

Conclusion
STW has embarked on a strategy to streamline the field working section of the business and has concluded that the implementation of an integrated field system has a business case which shows a pay back in under two years. The technologies now available give a cost effective platform to enable the business process to be re-aligned. STW is not unique; the same compelling case for field systems can be made for other Utility Companies.