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Disaster Management
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Field Applications at DTE Using the Pocket PC
B. The Pole Inspection Application
- The requirement
The Detroit Edison has about 1,000,000 poles on its system. Over forty years
ago, the company recognized the need to identify the ground line condition of
standing wood poles. It has collected pole inspection data since that time, and
over the years has developed a comprehensive set of inspection standards, both
for ground line condition and for pole tops. Each pole is required to be inspected
every five years.
- The old process
In the old process field patrollers would carry paper maps and write their
inspection results next to the pole symbol on the paper map. The completed maps
would be assembled and given to a data entry clerk to interpret and then enter the
results on an XLS spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was then converted to a flat text
file and e-mailed to the AM/FM/GIS group (GENISYS) for uploading.
- The motivation for change
Change usually requires both pushes and pulls. One push was that Detroit Edison
printed 30,000 circuit maps each year for use by contractors in the ground-line
decay and pole top inspection operations. Reducing or eliminating this number
would provide substantial savings. Also, the old process had one manual writing
step and another step to manually interpret the writing and enter this interpretation
into a spreadsheet. Automating these two processes, perhaps even eliminating
one, could reduce costs and improve the accuracy and quality of the AM/FM/GIS
data. There was also a pull: a pilot program completed in two Columbiaville
circuits totaling about 1400 poles had confirmed the usefulness of the Pocket PC.
- Developing the application
The pole inspection application today is really three applications in one. Based on
the success of the pilot program, Detroit Edison decided to deploy the ground line
condition and pole top inspections throughout the service territory. Development
was an iterative process that included end users and contractors. The developer
and end users met, discussed and reviewed the processes 2-3 times per week. The
contractor was called in as needed. Three people developed the application: two
Detroit Edison employees and a programmer from the vendor. In addition, the
contract supervisor worked with the developers to refine the process. The process
took slightly over nine months, during which one Detroit Edison developer
worked half time and another about 10%.
Once the ground line and pole top applications were in production, it became
apparent that the same individuals who were collecting this data could also collect
data about joint use. When a company requests to attach to a Detroit Edison pole,
Detroit Edison is required to respond promptly and either give permission or
inform the requestor that the additional attachment will require replacement or
reinforcing of the existing pole, a cost that is borne by the requestor. In order to
meet the stringent timeframe for responding, Detroit Edison added the third pole
application in July 2002. Once a request to attach to a pole is received, an
inspector visits the pole and fills out digital forms that describe the attachments.
Based on the results, an analysis determines whether the attachment can be made
without pole modifications or replacement, and the requestor is informed.
For those who are interested in technology specifics, the application was
developed to run on a Compaq iPAQ running the Pocket PC 2000 operating
system. It uses an off-the-shelf viewing product called PocketGTViewer from
Graphic Technologies, Inc. The inspection forms were built using Microsoft’s
eMbeddedVB.
- The new process
A Detroit Edison supervisor uses a web application to select the appropriate
circuit or circuits. (See Figure 1.) The extract files are created on the GIS server.
The extracted data will be in the GTX file format, which was invented by Graphic
Technologies, Inc. for optimizing performance and data compression on handheld
devices. Both graphic and attribute information, as well as display settings
and queries, are in this single file. Each is approximately one-half megabytes in
size for each circuit. The web application copies them to the supervisor’s
Figure 1: Process Flow Block Diagram for Pole Inspection
workstation. He then emails them to the contractor supervisor, who schedules the
inspection work and copies them to Pocket PC’s for the inspectors. Each extract
file has a 90 day expiration stamp, after which it can only be viewed by the
Detroit Edison supervisor with a passcode. Contractors may spend several days
inspecting a circuit. They only need to visit the office to receive new extract files
or to turn in their completed inspections.
Once the inspectors turn in their work, their supervisor collates it (in case multiple
inspectors worked on the same circuit) and emails the results to the Detroit Edison
supervisor. He, in turn, routes one copy to service center engineering so they can
decide which repairs need immediate attention and which can be contracted out.
He uses the web application to take the inspection results to the server, where
attribute-only changes are made to the GIS model with SQL, and changes
requiring graphics work are sent to a batch FRAMME process. Finally, the
supervisor archives the extract files with completed inspections onto CD’s for
permanent storage.
- User acceptance
Once the contractors (users) began to use the Pocket PC they eagerly accepted the
new procedure. The digitized data collection process made their job easier
because they didn’t have to write notes on paper in conditions not favorable to
writing. For the most part, they just picked from lists or selected buttons or
checked boxes. These same contractors had resisted using laptops. Since poles
are in water, farm fields, woods, bushes and other inconvenient places, the laptops
were too heavy and unwieldy.
Although the IT crowd was skeptical about the screen size for use outdoors in a
map oriented application, the actual users say it works fine. You can only inspect
one pole at a time during the inspection walk down, so the screen size is just right.
The Pocket PC has an intuitive gesture-based zoom in and zoom out. The screen
shows up well in daylight.
- Evaluation
Detroit Edison found that the contractors could work more efficiently. Their
fieldwork has been streamlined, and there is no need for end of the day paperwork
time. Work could be created, sent and returned digitally, with fewer errors
than with two manual steps. Data could be collected more accurately in the field.
Perhaps the most significant tangible benefit has been the elimination of the data
entry task. This labor savings alone has been greater than the expense of the
hardware, software, and vendor development.
One question at the start of the project was how will the iPAQ’s perform? The
short answer is “great”. The contractor initially bought 12 units in November
2001, and they are all still in service. DTE has not replaced any Pocket PCs.
DTE people are responsible for their Pocket PC’s, and none of them have been
stolen.
The users know each inspection is stamped with date and time, so the days of an
early quit are gone. There have been many refinements since the original
implementation. The GENISYS group has been making these refinements at the
request of field users. The number of people using the Pocket PC will increase as
new applications go into production
Management’s perception of the project is mixed. The IT department is not too
fond of the Pocket PC because of the fact that it runs a Microsoft operating
system, and the company standard for hand-held devices is the Palm brand.
However, the management of operations loves it because it has saved money and
improved quality. And the third party contractor loves it because he has a better
record of the work that is done. And the end users enjoy the convenience.
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