ABB
Annual Users’ Group Meeting
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August 27 – 31, 2006
Crew Dispatch
Martin Bass
Crew Dispatch Topics
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Review existing functionality (2006 Release 3)
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Voice radio dispatch
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Mobile crew integration
Functionality under development
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Mobile crew integration
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Dispatch
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Scheduling
Existing Crew Dispatch Functionality
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Crew must be manually identified by dispatcher, either
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From OMI Crews - Status list
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From OMI Available Crews list
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From netCADOPS Available Crews list
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Drag Outage and Drop Onto Crew to Assign
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Left click outage on outage
status dialog
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Drag outage and drop onto
crew status dialog
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‘Fast Assign’ is done
automatically
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But list contains many crews
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Crew Status Dialog Filter by Operation Center
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Can Filter crew status dialog by Work Operation Center of crew
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Operation center determined by Ormap login of user
How Crews Are Tied to Login
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Login determines sub area
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Crew tied to operations center
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See sub area diagram
See operations center diagram
Sub Area Hierarchy – Set at Ormap Login
Highest Level Sub Area
e.g Entire Area
Child Sub Area 1
e.g. South
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Grandchild Sub Area 1
e.g. South East
Child Sub Area 2
e.g. North East
Grandchild Sub Area 2
e.g. South West
Child Sub Area 3
e.g. North West
Feeder/Substation/Operations Center
 Crew has Home Operations Center
 Crew has Work Operations Center
Region 1
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District 1
Operations Center 1
District 2
Operations Center 2
Crew 1 Work Op Center
Substation 1
Substation 2
Substation 3
Feeder 1 Feeder 2
Feeder 3 Feeder 4
Feeder 5 Feeder 6
District 3
Crew 1
Home Op Center
Crew 2
Home Op Center
Operation Center Can Have a Sub Area
Highest Level Sub Area
e.g Entire Area
Child Sub Area 1
e.g. South
Grandchild Sub Area 1
e.g. South East
Child Sub Area 2
e.g. North East
Grandchild Sub Area 2
e.g. South West
Region 1
District 1
North West Op Center
District 2
South West Op Center
Crew 1 Work Op Center
Substation 1
Substation 2
Substation 3
Feeder 1 Feeder 2
Feeder 3 Feeder 4
Feeder 5 Feeder 6
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Child Sub Area 3
e.g. North West
District 3
Crew 1
Home Op Center
Crew 2
Home Op Center
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Crew Status Dialog Set Operation Center
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Work operation center can be set in netCADOPS
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Work operation center can be changed in OMI
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Crew Status Dialog Filter Logged Off Crews
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Toggle to filter logged off crews
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Requires login status from MDT
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Only MDT-equipped crews will be filtered
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Filtering non-MDT Crews
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Possible to change crew availability by suspend/resume from
Ormap or OMI Status – Crews dialog
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However, currently Status – Crews dialog not filtered by
suspend/resume
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Could potentially handle non MDT-equipped crews to filter out
suspended crews due to logoff suspend reason
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Crews – Status Filter by Crew ID
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Filter box in Crews – Status list allows list to be filtered by
characters entered
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Can set up crew IDs to reflect operation centers
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Crew Status Dispatch - Summary
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Size of list can be reduced by logging into reduced area
in Ormap
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Not helpful if user always logs into every AOR
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Filtering by logoff status can be useful with MDT
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Can set up crew IDs to help with filtering this list
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List can also be sorted by criteria such as:
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Backlog
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Feeder/Substation
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Dispatch From OMI Available Crews
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Second method of dispatch is via OMI Available Crews
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Dialog is populated dynamically
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Shows distance of each crew from proposed assignment
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Dispatcher can filter by crew ID
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Dispatcher can sort by distance or any one column
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OMI Available Crews - Summary
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Useful if used with distance calculation
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Size of list can only be reduced by filtering by crew ID
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Otherwise, shows all crews
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Only one sort order
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Dispatch From netCADOPS Available Crews
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netCADOPS
Available Crews
List filters out
suspended crews
automatically
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User can filter list
by work operations
center
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Dispatch From netCADOPS Available Crews
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User can also filter
list by any other
criteria, such as
Crew Type
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Multiple filter
criteria are
supported
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netCADOPS Available Crews - Summary
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No distance calculation currently
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Size of list can be reduced by multiple filtering criteria
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List automatically excludes suspended crews
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Possible Enhancements
Crew Dispatch
Possible Enhancements
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Automatically filter OMI Available Crews list to remove
suspended crews
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Should it show crews on a break (non-logoff suspend reason)?
Yes
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netCADOPS does not make this distinction currently
Based on suggestions from Focus Group:
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Automatically filter OMI and netCADOPS available crews list by
proposed assignment
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Same filtering could not be applied to Status – Crews, unless an
assignment is first selected
But do we need two Crews windows?
Possible Enhancements, continued
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Available Crews Filtering
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What criteria to use?
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Operations Center
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Other (crew region, crew department?)
Backup geographical area needed out of hours
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Combination of several geographical areas to widen coverage
Backup Op Centers
North
Northwest
Northeast
Southwest
Southeast
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South
Available Crews Filtering
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Could add filtering radio buttons (in order of increasing
list size):
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Filter to show op center crews for assignment (default)
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Filter to show op center and backup op center crews
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Do not filter by op center
Button to initiate callout if list is still empty (planned for
Release 4)
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Overview of Mobile
Integration done at PG&E and
CPS
Crew Dispatch
Outage Assignments
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Send outage assignments directly to Mobile Data Terminal (MDT)
from NM DMS
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Outages and non-customer calls dispatched to a specific crew in
NM DMS, via OMI Crew Status dialog
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Can also dispatch from available crews or netCADOPS
Crew list is maintained in two places – Advantex and NM DMS
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Could be maintained in Advantex only, and use Crew API to
synchronize systems
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Order is sent to Advantex via MQ-Series queue
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Order is created in Advantex and sent to MDT
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Outage order includes the first five trouble reports:
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Phone number, meter number and customer name
Assignment Status
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Receive assignment status updates from MDT:
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MDT Queued (PG&E only)
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WAITRESP
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REJECTED
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DEASSIGNED
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ASSIGNED
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ENROUTE
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ARRIVED
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COMPLETE
Outage Rollup
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Update assignments automatically to MDT as outage
engine rolls outages up
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If two outages are combined
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One order modify is sent to MDT with new location
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One order cancel is sent to MDT
If outage rolls down and splits
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One order modify is sent to MDT with new location of one of the
outages
Outage Verify and Complete
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Verify outages from MDT
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User can verify an outage from the MDT directly
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Verify operates device in NM DMS
Complete outages from MDT
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User can enter completion information from MDT, including
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Estimated restoration time
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Cause codes
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Equipment codes
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Outage can be restored from MDT
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Restore operates device in NM DMS, including removing line cuts
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Partial restores not supported
Trouble Call and Non-Cust Call Completion
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New functionality added to trouble reports and noncustomer calls
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Ability to add cause codes and equipment codes to trouble
reports
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Ability to add cause codes and equipment codes to noncustomer calls
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Cause/equipment codes can be entered from MDT for
these calls
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Cause/equipment codes can also be entered from OMI
detail dialogs
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Order Completion and Referrals
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MDT user can complete assignment without restoring
outage
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MDT user can create a referral for follow-up work
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MDT user can also reject an assignment and create a
referral
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Login Status
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Display/update crew login status in NM DMS, as entered
from MDT
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Status – Crews dialog shows:
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MDT Enabled – yes/no
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MDT Login Status
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MDT Login Date
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MDT In Range – yes/no (PG&E only)
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MDT In Range Date (PG&E only)
MDT Login Status
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Status received from MDT
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Sign On
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MDT_LOGIN status field updated to Y
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MDT_LOGIN_DATE changed to specified time.
Sign Off or Forced Logoff
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MDT_LOGIN status field updated to N
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MDT_LOGIN_DATE set to NULL.
Available
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Unavailable
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If suspended, crew status reverts to correct value (Unavailable in MDS).
Crew status is unavailable. All orders sent to these crews will be NACKED
Create Order from MDT
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MDT user can create
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Customer Call, if customer exists. If trouble report exists for
customer, trouble report will be updated
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Non-customer Call
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Functionality Under
Development
Crew Dispatch
Crew Scheduling R&D
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Goal:
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Approach:
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Provide scheduling and supporting data structures to manage
outages and service work
Develop key components that can be used either standalone or
integrated with third party scheduling tools
Benefits:
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More efficient utilization of crews
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Faster assignment of crews to outages and service work
Crew Scheduling R&D
Orders
Appointments
Resources
Scheduler
Schedule
Auto
Dispatch
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Manual
Dispatch
Crew Assignments
Constraints
Scheduling – Building on Existing Functions
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Orders:
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Outages
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Non-customer calls
Appointments:
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Resources:
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Crews
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Vehicles
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Equipment
Constraints:
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Service calls (aka referrals)
Crew rosters (new)
Scheduler
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Scheduler accepts the following inputs:
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Short term orders
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Appointments
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Resources
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Constraints
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Scheduler allocates orders and appointments to resources (crews),
based on constraints, such as shifts, skill sets, etc.
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Output from the scheduler is a schedule
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Scheduler does not actually send the assignments to the crews
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Schedule can be several days or even weeks into the future
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Assignments only sent to crew on day that work is scheduled to
begin
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Crew Scheduling – Schedule
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The schedule is the output from the scheduling
algorithm
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The schedule is a list of orders and appointments that
are allocated to resources
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Crew assignments
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Proposed dates and times
Crew Scheduling - Dispatch
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Manual crew dispatch:
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Dispatcher manually selects an item from schedule
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Dispatcher sends work to the crew, either via voice radio or by
electronic means
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Non-scheduled orders may also be directly sent to the crew by
the dispatcher.
Automatic crew dispatch:
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Items are automatically selected from the schedule and sent to
the crew electronically
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Non-scheduled orders may also be sent directly to the crew by
the auto-dispatch module
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Crew Rosters
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Shifts
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Overtime
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Crew assembly
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Crew callout
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Moving employees between crews
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Employee Rosters
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Maintain employee roster in NM DMS
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Could rely on MDT (or other) system for rosters
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Either link directly as needed
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Or update periodically
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Employee Rosters in NM DMS
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For each employee, need a calendar
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Need start time/date, end time/date for each work period
(which may not be a day)
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Tradeoff between flexibility and manageability
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Assign employee to a shift for a period of time, with
ability to override
Example Shifts
Shift
Day
Start Time
End Time
Day
Mon-Fri
8:00 am
5:00 pm
Night 1
Mon-Thurs
5:00 pm
6:00 am
Night 2
Fri-Sun
5:00 pm
6:00 am
 Shifts will also honor holidays, in separate
holiday schedule
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Does this give you the flexiblity needed?
 For example, do shifts work 4 days on, 4
days off?
Example of Employee Roster
Employee
Shift
Type
Start
End
Martin
Day
Working
January 1,
2006
December
31, 2006
Nonworking
August 11,
2006, 5:00
pm
August 20,
2006, 8:00
am
Working
January 1,
2006
January 4,
2006
NonWorking
January 5,
2006
January 7,
2006
Working
January 8,
2006
January 11,
2006
Martin
Rafael
Night 1
Rafael
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Rafael
Night 1
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Use of Employee Rosters for Manual Dispatch
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NM DMS could update Status – Crews and Available
Crews with employee roster, based on time
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Could also use roster from external system to do same
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If crew leader shift time has expired, available crews
could filter out crew for new assignments
Other Issues
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Do rosters need to be integrated into ETR system, or
should they be maintained separately?
Mobile Crew Map Presentation Project
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Goal:
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Approach:
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Use partners wherever possible to provide functionality
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Expand upon initial work done for PG&E and CPS projects
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Use APIs and middleware to allow different vendor functions to be
plugged in
Benefits:
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Provide fully integrated OMS and Mobile Workforce Management
System, with tabular and geographical mobile data user interface
Provide more information to field crews to improve their productivity
Mobile Data Integration Approach
Outage Management
API
Mobile Dispatch
Store and Forward
Wireless WAN
Store and Forward
Mobile Adapter
Tabular User Interface
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API
Mobile Map User Interface
Mobile Data R&D Project Scope
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Provide capability to view assignment information on geographic
display on mobile laptop
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MDT user can see their assignments in geographic view
Force outage upstream/downstream from MDT
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Outage assignment form will show upstream protective device.
Downstream devices can change dynamically and may not show
these?
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Add button to force outage upstream/downstream from MDT
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Order modify will be sent back to MDT
Show location of other crews on mobile laptop
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MDT user will zoom into area of interest and press button
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Current position of crews will be sent from server to MDT for display
Mobile Data R&D Project Scope
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Show current switch status and tags on mobile laptop
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MDT user will zoom into area of interest and press button
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Server will send list of tags and switches in abnormal state for
display on geographical viewer
Allow entry of damage assessment on mobile laptop
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User will select location of damage using GPS
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User enters damage information into tabular MDT display:
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Damage type (pole down, transformer replacement, etc)
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Quantity damaged
Similar entry forms will be provided in NM DMS