Computers have been enabling companies to streamline their field operations for more than 20 years, but for utility companies, the challenge has been finding the right applications and balance of work for field personnel.

Southern Co. (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.) has faced this last frontier head-on by equipping field personnel with laptops and other new technologies, and by implementing a common platform called Automated Resource Management System (ARMS) for field accessibility across its five operating companies: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. ARMS is a customized version of Mobile Data Solutions Inc.'s (MDSI; Richmond, BC, Canada) Advantex software.

Automated Resource Management System

Southern Co. began automating its field operations seven years ago when MDSI developed ARMS to manage workforce scheduling. Beginning with an interface to its customer information system (CIS), orders are automatically sent to the ARMS server. The ARMS application then sorts the orders for the appropriate dispatch center and decides which work group should handle it. ARMS automatically assigns the work orders to the appropriate field person, gives that work assignment recommendation to the dispatcher and allows the dispatcher to choose the appropriate field person, if desired. Using a wireless connection, the order is almost instantly downloaded on the field person's laptop. When completion information is entered in the field it is automatically sent back to the CIS. Current information about order status and crews along with global position satellite (GPS) technology gives dispatch, supervisory and field personnel real-time information on assigned jobs, scheduling data and other equipment and material.

Everyone is on the Same Page

Up until the late 1990s, field dispatchers at Southern Co. spent their hectic days communicating with crews via radio regarding job assignments, requests to notify customers and other information not detailed on the field service technician's work sheets. A portion of the field technician's work day was spent driving to the service center, shuffling job tickets, and routing their schedule for the day. Crews carried stacks of tattered map books with them to locate addresses, transformers, building access information and structure locations. Looking back, this seems like the Stone Ages for field operations personnel who today use ARMS for their daily work assignments. Even more old-fashioned is the thought of driving to the service center to pick up and deliver work orders each day, because field technicians today access work orders and mapping information from their wireless-enabled laptop computers anytime, anywhere.

On a typical day, calls for changes, repairs or connects and disconnects come in steadily throughout the day to one of Southern's dispatchers located regionally throughout its five companies. Dispatch can enter new orders and add, remove or change existing orders for any given crew using the ARMS program. Supervisors can view the same information in real-time on their laptops and update dispatchers on the availability of equipment and workers. ARMS automatically calculates a suggested crew routing, taking into account the available workforce, materials and equipment.

The Day Begins in the Truck

Many crews start their day from home, in most cases, logging on to a Panasonic Toughbook. Southern has been using Panasonic Toughbooks since 1999, and currently has Toughbook models CF27 through CF29 in the field. The technician views the “Job Summary” menu on the laptop, clicks the “Accept” button and proceeds to the first job location. When he arrives at that job site he clicks on “At Job.” Once the job is completed, the technician closes out the work order by entering job information, including equipment and materials used to complete the job, and clicking “Send.” He then goes to the next job using the same procedure.

Every time a field technician completes a job, ARMS is automatically updated, allowing dispatchers and others on the company-wide system to view it in real time. Imbedded GPS also tracks the exact location of the job and crew, which is captured and mapped. Additionally, the CIS is automatically updated so if a customer should call to check on the status of a request, the customer service representative can pass on that status in real time.

Not only is ARMS monitoring and synchronizing each new entry, in the background, the system provides time stamps of logon times, accept times, arrival times and completions times with data captured and stored in a historical database. Managers and supervisors can use this data to study travel times and average completion times, enabling better scheduling and forecasting. Data also can be pulled by order type, crew type, work group or the individual technician, making ARMS a great tool for performance management, resource planning and manpower requirements.

Start Small

New technologies are notorious for not always doing what they promise to do. With more than 26,000 employees and 6800 vehicles in the field, the magnitude of making a decision regarding new technologies has a significant impact. To ensure that selection of new solutions for field operations are in the best interest of the company, Southern has adopted a start small and make sure it's scaleable strategy. New products and technologies must meet the acid test: Can the new solution be implemented anywhere in the company complementing work procedures already in place? With five sister companies, some procedures and nomenclature are company specific, but for ARMS and the deployment of laptops, the incremental strategy has worked very well. To ensure standards are consistent, a new products team oversees both technology reviews and field deployment activity. New solutions such as software programs must not only communicate with field operation and dispatch, they also must be accessible from the CIS and the larger IT community of inside personnel affected by field activity.

Case in point, laptops and other technologies were first introduced with pilots in 1997. Laptops, wireless modems and GPS receivers were installed in 25 trucks in Pensacola, Florida, and 75 trucks in Birmingham, Alabama. The focus of the pilot was to determine the business benefit and cost savings of having that technology in the trucks. All orders were manually input into the ARMS system and manually completed in the CIS. To prove the usefulness of the laptops in the field, mapping information (single line, transformer location and underground maps) were also manually loaded on the laptop. Once procedures were refined and bugs were worked out, the program was expanded to other service technicians and more recently to the metering group. Once Southern decided to implement ARMS system-wide, technicians built an interface with the CIS, allowing orders to automatically go to ARMS and then be automatically completed in CIS. Production rollout began in 1999. Today, Southern has more than 1300 vehicles equipped with ARMS.

Scheduling Streamlined

One of the significant benefits of a common information platform and GPS is being able to know the status of crews' workload throughout the day and to be able to communicate with them in detail regarding changes and additional information. Prior to laptops and wireless access, when a crew was finished for the day, it typically checked in on the radio and returned to the yard. In some cases, another crew working only a few miles away may have bit off more than it could chew for the day and could have used an extra hand. In another scenario, a job may have gone uncompleted because the crew was lacking the necessary materials or a piece of equipment to complete the job. With more than 1300 crews in the field, these incompletes can add up fast.

Today, Southern Co. field crews report via ARMS, allowing dispatchers and supervisors immediate access to completion information, exact location of the crew and updates on any delays in completing the jobs. Quite often, a foreman will update crews by midday, adding or reassigning jobs, so that at the end of the day, the available workforce and resources have been more fully utilized.

Theft Pinpointed

An incident that occurred during the preparation of this report demonstrates how the new technologies are working. Around mid-morning on a Wednesday in late April, a Montgomery, Alabama-based dispatch supervisor called to request assistance in locating a truck that had been stolen a few minutes earlier. Dispatch in Pensacola entered the resource number of the stolen truck into the ARMS application. ARMS allows dispatchers, supervisors and managers to view the location of the company's 1300-plus vehicles equipped with GPS technology. The truck in question showed up on the mapping screen several miles from where it had been stolen. Using ARMS and GPS, the dispatcher was able to direct police to the vehicle's location, assist the police in staying with the vehicle when a chase ensued, and the eventual successful recovery of the truck and apprehension of the thief.

Conclusion

The challenge of maintaining a power grid for more than four million customers across four states is monumental. Southern Co.'s use of laptops and ARMS software are giving field technicians and dispatchers a new set of tools to schedule, communicate and manage the daily task of responding to customer and system needs.

Bruce Townsend is the lead analyst for the Automated Resource Management System. Located in Pensacola, Florida, he has held positions in Gulf Power Co.'s distribution department and Southern Company Services' IT department. Townsend managed the Pensacola portion of the ARMS pilot and transferred to Southern Company Services to lead the system-wide rollout of ARMS across Southern Co.
LBTOWNSE@southernco.com

Ken Widener is an IT analyst for mobile technologies at Southern Co. He oversees the hardware portion of the ARMS system, from laptops, GPS and wireless modems to vehicle mounting hardware. Located in Augusta, Georgia, Widener has worked in Georgia Power Co.'s power-delivery department and Southern Company Services' IT department.
JKWIDENE@southernco.com