Allegheny power's integrated solution
Reengineering the corporation
Prior to 1996, Allegheny Power operated as three separate companies – The Potomac Edison
Company, Monongahela Power Company and West Penn Power Company.
A reengineering of company functions was completed that year in order to improve our
competitive position in the energy industry. The new company needed to be lean enough to
remain competitive, customer-focused and technologically advanced.
In 1996, the three operating subsidiaries - The Potomac Edison Company, Monongahela Power
Company, and West Penn Power Company - began doing business under the name Allegheny
Power.
The reengineering brought about a change in the way Allegheny Power does business.
Allegheny was forced to answer the questions – Why are we in business? What is our purpose?
What do we need to do to survive in the changing utility industry? The answers to these
questions led to a significant change for Allegheny – managing by process.
Managing by process meant that it was time for Allegheny Power to look at the main reason they
were in business – to serve the customer and keep the lights on. Three major operational
processes were defined as Ensure Reliable Service, Respond to Service Request and Restore
Service. Once these processes were defined, the next step was to design the process and define
the appropriate technologies that would make these processes work as efficiently as possible.
Corporate functions were consolidated and a new customer service center in Fairmont, W.Va.,
was established to handle all customer service issues and requests. A new job title was created –
Lines Engineering Designer (LED). This employee would be responsible for meeting the
customer, designing the job and working as a team with a Lines Manager and the line crews to
provide service to the customer.
During the reengineering process, Allegheny Power determined that implementing integrated
technologies would help to operate more efficiently and provide an increased level of customer
service. The three main technologies identified were an Automated Mapping/Facilities
Management System (AM/FM), an Outage Management System (OMS) and a Work
Management System (WMS). Teams were created in June of 1996 to implement these
technologies. Since reorganization had already taken place, it was crucial that these technologies
be implemented as quickly as possible – the time frame established was 18 months.
Allegheny Power Before Reengineering
Before the reengineering in 1996, the three operating companies performed their work by
function – a task oriented approach. Customer Service Representatives met with customers and
initiated contracts. Engineering Technicians designed the jobs but had little contact with the
customer. Line crews built the jobs as specified. There was little teamwork between the
departments. An approval process needed to be followed before work could be passed from one
department to the next. Little responsibility was given to the employee. This type of
environment increased the amount of time necessary to get electric service to the customer.
Very little technology was used in the three operating companies. West Penn Power and
Monongahela Power used paper maps that were manually updated by mapping clerks after the
job was built in the field. Potomac Edison had a similar process but used an AutoCAD mapping
system. In all three companies, the mapping clerks were sometimes used to help the Engineering
Technicians design jobs, which lead to mapping backlogs and out-of-date maps.
When outages occurred, customers called the local Service Center to report outages and
representatives at the centers would manually group the trouble calls according to geography.
This manual process was used to determine the approximate location of the source of trouble and
line crews were notified by radio of the location. Service Center personnel would call the
customer back after service was restored to verify that the lights were back on.
For new service requests, customers likewise called the local Service Center for new service
requests. Engineering Technicians used a mainframe-based cost-estimating tool for their designs
and there was no Work Management System. Work initiation and tracking was done using a
paper system.
