Smart Work Scheduling in Water Utilities

South Staffs and Cambridge Water was using IBM Maximo version 7.1 and an in-built system to manage its maintenance and overall asset management. As part of a major upgrade project, they were looking to merge all maintenance routines into one central enterprise asset management (EAM) system, while updating systems and processes to ensure continued support and compliance, in line with company policy and industry guidelines.

Working with IBM Business Partner BPD Zenith, South Staffs Water upgraded to IBM Maximo EAM 7.6.1.1. to connect its workforce with a mobile solution that would help improve data management and could take advantage of the latest techniques to help reduce resource costs and increase performance/completed job output.

By opting for a managed approach leveraging BPD’s MaxiCloud Solution, SSC Water had extended flexibility and support, and access to BPD’s range of MaxiCloud enhancement tools, integrations, add-ons, and IoT solutions. This would ensure both time-to-value, licensing and implementation costs would be fully optimized, to accelerate and increase ROI.

hi, did you enable Anywhere map capabilities (GIS assets on the map)?	Yes, GIS is enabled on Anywhere and the maps are heavily utilised by field staff. Various attributes from ESRI can be seen on the maps and jobs can be accurately created by capturing the location of the mobile device.
Can it take weather into consideration?	It is capable of integrating with a weather feed
Is Optimisation Engine costly?	It requires its own DB and VM to run, these will depend on the volume of work orders and staff
do you have for each engineer a personal Calendar in Maximo defined?	Scheduler makes use of calendars and shifts. There is also the ability to change individual availability
are you tie in PTW (permits) into the work to be done?	A custom application has been built in Maximo to enable the creation of permits. This links in to work orders and the ESRI to accurately record the location of work.
How far do you look ahead we use year plan 360 days ->90 days to approx 3 weeks Preventive and Corrective	Windows for scheduling can be defined as required. Graphical scheduler looks at planning by resource availability current day+5 days to x weeks, and Graphical Assignment by individual resource looks at the current day to current day+5
How far do you look ahead we use year plan 360 days ->90 days to approx 3 weeks Preventive and Corrective	+5 is in use at SSC but can be changed
what are the pitfalls to look at when start usage of scheduler	Quality of data
Is there a list of topics to look at what is required to get a proper schedule, like calendar, Wo's location recourses etc...	calendars, shifts, crafts, locations, labour, work zones
What platforms have you installed Anywhere on? Do SSC technicians use a variety of devices or does one size fit all (technicians may use a iPhone, repair teams may use a Toughbook as an example)	SSC only use iPads for their mobile deployment.
Are you using a mobile mapping system integrated with Anywhere? (Mobile GIS for example)	SSC are using Maximo spatial with ESRI for their GIS. It is also possible to make use of Google and Bing maps
Are you using a mobile mapping system integrated with Anywhere? (Mobile GIS for example)	Yes, GIS is enabled on Anywhere and the maps are heavily utilised by field staff. Various attributes from ESRI can be seen on the maps and jobs can be accurately created by capturing the location of the mobile device. Yes, GIS is enabled on Anywhere and the maps are heavily utilised by field staff. Various attributes from ESRI can be seen on the maps and jobs can be accurately created by capturing the location of the device.
Did SSC schedule technicians' work before? How much business/behavioural change was involved?	Manual scheduling was done previously for the day, and engineers planned their own day subject to appointments
Are SSC scheduling engineers/technicians or repair teams as well?	Repair teams will be added into scheduling in a later phase
Did you experience performance issues when accessing the SchedulerPlus application?	Data sensitive, but the latest release include better error handling. Can take time to run on the current SSC release but improves in the latest release
Do you use VPN on mobile devices for anywhere? And are layers (GIS) you are showing on devices secured with username and password?	A VPN is not used on the iPads for Anywhere. The layers are secured via a username and password via Spatial.
Will it schedule numerous tasks to a team of Engineers?	Yes

Smart Work Scheduling in Water Utilities

Transforming Work Management for South Staffs & Cambs Water

CONTENTS

Hosted by Roger Kennedy (BPD Zenith)

(Click to stream the recording)

Q&A - Your questions answered!

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Response Time -20%

Optimisation and SLA adherence have reduced response times to attend investigative jobs by 20%

Jobs Dispatched +20%

Around 20% increase in Jobs dispatched to Customer Network Technicians (First line field response)

Cancelled WO's -26%

Optimization is increasing the accuracy of the work dispatched – a 26% reduction in cancelled work orders

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