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Workflow Design

WORKFLOW DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT: A CRITICAL INGREDIENT FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT OF NEW BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Tony Cotter, BE(Elec)

Presented at GDS 94
GDS Australian National User Group Conference
Brisbane
25 - 27 May 1994

ABSTRACT

The demand for higher public accountability and profitability of Government owned and private sector business enterprises such as the utility and telecommunication agencies, has forced these organisations to make substantial changes to the way they view their roles and conduct their business.

One of the most significant cultural changes which these organisations have made has been to set and achieve publicly guaranteed standards of service provision. In many cases this has demanded a complete revision of long established corporate attitudes and work practices.

One solution being adopted by many of these organisations is to use spatial systems technology such as AM/FM/GIS as enabling mechanisms for 'cradle-to-grave' design and management of their external plant and facilities. Among the many benefits of this technology is its high adaptability and its capability for efficiently modelling and integrating improved workflow patterns throughout the organisation. It can also be utilised as the mechanism for 'driving' the introduction of new work practices.

This paper describes how a workflow management system, integrated into a corporate information strategy which includes GIS technology can help a business enterprise achieve its service guarantees, and hence its business objectives.

THE BUSINESS OF SERVICE PROVISION IN UTILITIES

Business enterprises such as electric power, water and gas utilities and telecommunications have entered the 90's to discover a new business environment based on competition (ie. multiple agencies offering the same service), and de-regulation (ie. being able to offer a broader variety of services with less regulatory restraint than before). Despite the onset of de-regulation the business environment is also marked by stricter public accountability, particularly in the areas of consumer rights and safety, plus in the present times extremely tight economic constraints.

Formerly government owned enterprises, as well as traditionally private sector operations, have business objectives based on the not unusual premise of making a profit. These objectives devolve into maintenance and growth of their customer base, limitation of capital expenditure and growth of customer revenue. On the cost side of their profit equation there is extreme pressure to reduce operating costs and to increase the productivity of their workforce. Due to the geographical dispersion of their enterprises, and significant automation of engineering and office based processes, increasing the productivity of the workforce is primarily about extracting maximum benefit from the field based portions of that workforce.

A suitable business approach capable of satisfying the business objectives in the current environment is to establish one's enterprise with the hallmark of a quality service provider. This philosophy revolves around the enterprise focusing absolutely on the customer with the two primary attributes sought by those customers for service delivery being a guarantee of responsiveness and an acceptable pricing structure. The nature of the services being purchased by these customers, being deliverables such as energy and communications, is that they are now assessed by the customer as being lifestyle essentials for which people are not prepared to wait, whether it be new connection or fault repair. The business pressure on the enterprise is to have sufficient infrastructure in place to permit "no wait" service and to streamline the work processes associated with service provision. Re-engineering of older style work practices is required to achieve these business goals, especially in the area of management of the field based workforce.

The point in time at which the enterprise provides service to a particular customer is generally at the customers' own initiative, whether it be an application for a new connection, an enquiry to upgrade an existing facility, or a report of a faulty service. Sometimes, of course the customer initiative is stimulated by marketing pressure from the utility itself in the form of "upsell" and "specials". Each of these initiatives triggers a different workflow ie. a different sequence of work processes is set in train many of which overlap in functionality.

INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT

The common theme of all utility businesses is that they have to deliver a product, be it energy or communications across a network to the eventual customer. Regulatory authorities dictate that the operation of the delivery media ie. the networks, be conducted within safe operating margins primarily from the perspective of human safety. Continuity of service dictates a level of contingency reserve whether this be by provision of spinning but unloaded generation in the case of electric companies, or by means of spatial and topological diversity in the case of transmission and distribution authorities. To satisfy the requirements of short term job planning associated with small scale work orders, the guarantee of responsiveness dictates that there is just enough spare capacity in the supply system and network to get by. In order to stay well ahead of the capacity provisioning problem network managers have to be able to predict reinforcement needs two to five years into the future. This involves the judicious location of network facilities, assets and connectivity matched to demand forecasts derived from demographic and consumption statistics.

WORKFLOW EXAMPLES

WORKFLOW FOR NEW CONNECTIONS

Processing of a customer order for a new connection is typically initiated by a telephone call to office based staff. Order processing is quickly followed by resource scheduling, delivery of materials to site and dispatch of the field workforce. Workforce management typically involves aggregating work orders into daily lists of achievable work for each dispatchable unit. A certain level of information about the network itself is normally required by the workforce on site. The information required typically relates to the customer, address, point of connection and network topology in the near spatial vicinity. The onsite work activities are followed by closeout of the work order, commissioning of the new facilities and in some cases operator switching action. Final activities in this workflow are the initiation of the billing cycle and update of customer and network records if any discrepancies were discovered in the field.

WORKFLOW FOR FAULT REPAIR

Fault repair processes are normally initiated by customer notification resulting in the fault being logged to a management system. The fault management system will typically analyse the fault backlog for multiple notifications of the same occurrence or indeed multiple symptoms at different locations traceable to a single point of failure. A fault dispatcher sends repair personnel to the most appropriate network location or customer premises consistent with his analysis of the situation. Again, similar to the new connection workflow, the dispatch system aggregates work orders into daily work lists to maximise workforce efficiency. Work order close out consists of return of faulty system to service, initiation of billing if appropriate to the circumstances and update of customer, network and fault history records.

WORKFLOW FOR PLANNING

In the context of utility organisations, planning is the function which seeks to look 2 to 5 years into the future to provide enough capacity margin so that the shorter term work order can be processed without reaching capacity limits. Long term planning requires the generation of a simpler operational model from the level of detail typically associated with an AM/FM system. Using demographic predictions and statistical information related to consumption, the growth of demand can be forecast. Operating limits can be applied to the planning model to analyse capacity margins in order to ensure just enough buffer for small scale extensions without resorting to highly skilled design and engineering personnel at those later stages. Planning engineers need to apply "what if" scenarios in order to be able to test the outcomes of comparative economic decisions. The output of the planning workflow is a level of information capable of scoping and estimating future projects.

WORKFLOW FOR OPERATING

Operating a service delivery network consists of a day to day and minute to minute re-configuration of the system topology and readjustment of the system operating conditions to satisfy fluctuating demand. This workflow requires continuous measurement of the state of the network and near real time visualisation of a representation of the network and its operational parameters. Operations personnel are responsible for isolating and releasing network assets for access for the purposes of construction and repair. Of paramount importance is that they are able to protect personnel and enterprise assets by monitoring safe access to hazardous areas by means of work permit and written and oral instruction. In the time frame of the current operating day and the next day, operations staff also schedule economic delivery of the enterprise's service by judicious configuration of the network and securing of sources of supply under the best possible price structure.

WORKFLOW DESIGN

From the different workflow diagrams described for the processes examined, it is clear that many of the common functional blocks which relate to physical real world entities and their modelling representation, repeat through the series. On the other hand, the connections between the functional blocks exhibit great variety, indicating that, in order to match information flows to the workflows surrounding service provision, application integration can be even more difficult than data integration. Also the enabling mechanisms for flow of information have to be capable of even more flexibility than the data modelling mechanisms to allow workflows to be re-aligned with quickly changing organisation structures.

Another clear conclusion is that the workflow is not a "once through" model but a "closed loop" one which has no identifiable beginning or end. This is consistent with the observed problem of "service back-logging" in a utility whenever any one of the workflow paths is impeded or under-resourced.

Recent advances in technology, sometimes seemingly quite insignificant when considered in isolation, can have far reaching influences on organisational workflows. For example, the current availability of a hand-held portable computing device with pen-pad input, ruggedised to survive outdoor field conditions; has the potential to remove a number of office-based edit and update functions completely. The functions are not merely transplanted but are actually deleted because of the removal of the paper component of field documentation, together with the inherent double handling of paper mark-ups.

Re-engineering on this scale has obvious beneficial impacts on the cost side of the service provision equation. The enabler is world class information technology applied in a quality way, with maximum flexibility built into the systems integration methodologies. The emphasis in the past on database structures and modelling as the focal point of information strategies for meeting the business objectives of the utilities is now seen as being capable of satisfaction by technologies in the marketplace. The new emphasis must be on designing highly flexible information flow management wherein the custodians of the disparate pieces of data have very selfish reasons for maintaining such data - doing so makes their lives better and not doing so creates a worse personal outcome in their work environment.