IWC’S success in cost efective mobile applications
Distribution System Applications
The first application to be built was the hydrant testing form. The utility was using
mark sense cards with a very old card reader that had been out of warranty for several
years. The most recent breakdown required a part to be brought in from Puerto Rico.
In addition, the hydrant testers would sometime get the cards wet causing them not to
be able to be read by the machine. Something needed to be done to replace this
process. At the time several office employees were using Palm Pilots as personal data
assistants. Investigation found that several software tools were available as well as
specific hardware to address the necessary field orders. An analysis was performed
and the Palm platform and the Palm V was chosen because of its ease of use, minimal
training requirement, its metal case and inexpensive implementation costs.
All paper work orders were collected and the department manager identified the
information that they wanted captured. A mainframe database and a GIS database
were analyzed and a single datasource was created as a basis for the new system.
Several additional database tables were created to support district scheduling, Palm
assignment, and data validation for most fields. This single datasource was used to
develop the initial form. The hydrant testing form has 35 fields of information, which
includes:
Map Seq, Hydrant Make, Location, Attempted To test, Testers Name, Tested which
Nozzle, Opening Valve Size, Was Visited: (which removes record from Palm), Hydt
Tests Okay, Unable to test, Nozzle Test Response, Bonnet Test Response, Upper
Barrel Response, Internal Assembly Test Response, Lower Barrel Response,
Obstructions, Cap, Add Extension, Remove Extension, Vandal Proof Response,
Painting Required, Misc Notes, MAP, Test Sequence, Year Installed, Valve
Indicated, Branch Size, Branch Length, Vandal Proof, Hydrant Status, Last test Date,
Last Test, Key;
As the tester fills out the record he is prompted for the correct response. The form
has a field that timestamps the record. This feature has helped the utility on many
occasions. The forms are very easy to change and if necessary the lookup lists can be
linked to backend databases for dynamic changes. As many as 700 hydrant tests can
be loaded on the Palm V’s 2mb of ram.
The tester does as many as he can during the day and when the Palm is hotsync in the
evening, the tests that he has completed are removed and the databases are updated.
If more have been assigned, they are added to the palm through the one sync station
located in the report room. The database is located on the LAN so managers in
several locations can schedule work to a specific palm no matter where the palm is
synced.
This same process happens for other types of work. Palm applications for hydrant
repair, valve testing and main flushing are on the same palm. Should the field service
employee be called to perform one of these types of orders he just has to open the
form and add the requested information. These records are matched with their
desktop database record and updated or a test/repair transaction is added to the
database. Should the employee be wirelessly connected this update/add could happen
within moments of the event. Calculations within applications are handled with ease
due to Pendragon Forms powerful scripting language. For example, the flushing
application required calculation of the water used based on a reading and time.
