Maintenance inspections
Plan
“The software is now close to completion and trials will begin on two sites in the south in early February”
Jason Scott, Principal Development Engineer, Stent
“We now eagerly await the first site trials of the software with its imminent implementation on-site. One aspect I will be particularly interested in is the durability of the hardware in the field”
Max Gwynn, Site Engineer, Stent
“The application works fine in the lab - itís going to be interesting to see how practical it is to use in the field. "The application works fine in the lab - it’s going to be interesting to see how practical it is to use in the field.”
Simon Thomas, Technical Director, Data Mobility
Background
Stent is one of the leading ground-engineering contractors in the UK. They design and construct foundations for all types of buildings, structures and civil engineering works. Their range of piling techniques include rotary bored, CFA, precast driven and retaining wall piling. In addition they carry out diaphragm walling and ground improvement utilising environmental techniques.
Problem
In the event of an onsite problem information is sent to the Stent/main designers via an NCR/RFI. The RFI/NCR form is a simple A4 sheet of paper containing hand written details.
If a camera is available at the time, photographic information may also be used. At each stage of the information supply chain, a copy of this sheet of paper is made and stored as a record. The quality of the information in these reports and the efficiency of the information trail can greatly influence the designers fluidity of response.
Proposed solution
An Orange M1000 running Data Capture software. The photographs, voice notes, formal notes, and sketches will be transferred using GPRS/WLAN to a central server where access will be provided to Stent, main contractors and main designers via an Internet browser.
Pilot
“We've only just scratched the surface of what we can do with these devices. The engineers like them and that's always half the battle”
Jason Scott, Principal Development Engineer, Stent
“When I saved things I struggled to find them again, it doesn't put them, in my mind, in the logical place, they seem to be stuffed randomly somewhere.”
Max Gwynn, Site Engineer, Stent
“It's so small I feel happier taking it around with me, the tablet is so big and when it rains you can't even hide it”
Huda Asad, Site Engineer, Stent
Pilot information
Two site engineers have been provided with an Orange M1000s PDA each, running Office Freedom. Office Freedom is the service provided by Orange that gives web-based access to corporate email. The M1000 then uses this service via GPRS (anyone with Office Freedom can also get their email via any internet enabled PC). The PDAs are based on the person and not on one site, therefore giving the engineers the chance to use them in multiple sites, and open up the system to different problems.
The main infrastructure difference is previously the engineers were using a mobile phone to dial into company server, now GPRS on the M1000s PDA is used.
Development
Data Mobility's computers were hacked whilst the proposed software was in development. When this issue was resolved, there was only 3-4 weeks left on the targeted project (Arsenal stadium). Limited time onsite and a smooth Arsenal project delivery reduced the potential for the proposed solution to be tested to the desired extent, leading to additional projects being sought. The solution was then targetted at a project on New street, London. The system was planned to go active on the 14th of February 2005.
Implementation Issues
The 14th Feb 2005 training day was missed. A new investor in Data Mobility required changes to be made to the software to protect Intellectual property rights. The software changes continued , missing 2-3 other set pilot implementation/software completion dates leading up to the end of March 2005.
Data Mobility retire from project
On the 31st of March 2005 Data Mobility went into receivership. Their Sales Director has since started with Enigma Knowledge Solutions, and wishes to continue his participation within COMIT.
Project continuation
From the outset of this demonstration project Stent has had several M1000 PDAs on loan from Orange with the intention of using the Data Mobility software on them. The project will be continued with these PDAs using the standard data capture software supplied with the M1000. Those devices have now being distributed to several engineers.
Pilot training
Not much training occurred, the PDAs where given out with the manual for reading. The system has been used around 6 times in the 2 week pilot stage to send pictures and text to internal designers for queries.
Internal changes
During the pilot period the engineers were a little nervous of using the system onsite and dropping it in the mud, but once the covers were on this changed.
Deployment
“I am especially encouraged by the savings that we have identified from the use of the M1000 for the mundane activity of accessing email. These savings alone justify our use of the device which allows us to explore its other, more intangible but potentially greater, benefits”
Jason Scott, Principal Development Engineer, Stent
“It would make it easier if we had a RFI template and you could paste your photograph and write text underneath. It could then be printed out as the RFI at the other end and used accordingly”
Max Gwynn, Site Engineer, Stent
“At the moment I have my notebook in one pocket, and my PDA in the other, I can see me only needing to carry the PDA soon”
Huda Asad, Site Engineer, Stent
Implementation
The engineers pointed out that one of the rather useful points was the word and excel programs. Piling schedules have been downloaded onto the PDA and used on site where as before paper schedules had to be used.
With there being no guarantee on the system being used continually after the demonstration project, the engineers have stated they do not want to rely 100% on the system at the moment in case it is withdrawn at the end of the project.
There was a situation on the London city centre site where concrete was splashed across buildings/cars opposite the site. The engineer was at head office at the time but if they were onsite the system would have been used effectively to instantly send pictures through to head office. It took the engineer with the system 1 - hours to get to site from head office. If she/head office had seen the problem straight away they could have started dealing with it right away.
Site issues
A frustrating issue for the engineers with the existing process is having to connect twice to download attachments, first time for the email, second for the attachment to the email. In addition, the time that the phone is downloading email phone is out of use.
There is no Adobe Acrobat reader installed, and since most information they were sent was in PDF form, this was a problem, though a PDA version is free to download from Adobe.
One of the engineers struggled with using the keyboard, but the other had experience using the graffiti function on her own PDA to send emails and found the process straight forward. Her reasoning was “It is something you can get used to”. Though at this point the keyboard and not the handwriting function has only been used.
When the email is set to the standard email synchronise settings it re-loads the email account twice daily. One of the engineers set their PDA to synchronise every 15 minutes throughout the day with the result she kept up to date onsite, but the battery life was severely restricted.
Solution
The Office Freedom service facilitates the use of email and the PDA camera to send pictures with a description of the problem. The process would be easier if a template for the data capture was created e.g., an example suggested by the engineers would be for an RFI electronic form where a picture could be pasted into a set area with prompts for different types of information for the designers. The complete template could be printed straight out as an RFI at its destination. One of the engineers is attempting to develop a template for the process.
A phone line onsite is a rare occurrence so syncing with a laptop with a phone is frustrating and difficult to do using infra red onsite. Using the PDA gives access to email accounts even when there are no land lines onsite, or site huts. The access to email when previously no access was possible has enabled access to communication/information that previously was delayed.
One significant benefit that has become apparent is the huge cost saving from the engineers not having to dial in over their mobile phones to get their email. Previously the engineer's mobile phone bill was typically between £200 to £400 per month. The saving from using the M1000 at stage is approximately £100 to £200 per month. At that rate the M1000 would pay for itself in less than 3 months.
Pre/post process differences
The changes from the paper based process are the result of the engineer being able to complete parts of the process at the location of problem, and not remotely in the office. Pictures were sent directly with the design request, giving the designers more visual information to confirm what was written in the report by the engineer.
There is also the difference in how the engineers send the information, previously by dial up through their mobile phone connected to a laptop, and currently with GPRS and the M1000s.
The ability to carry any word/excel file on the PDA onto site saved the engineer from having to return to the office to source information when it was needed onsite and give almost instant answers to many queries.
Evaluation
“I'm going to suggest to the board we pick 5 engineers who are going to be out on site, give them the devices, provide some training and do a more formal study of the cost benefits to the company in the longer term”
Jason Scott, Principal Development Engineer, Stent
“The more mobile communication, the better”
Max Gwynn, Site Engineer, Stent
“Exposure to using this system is great, now I'm quite dependent on it, so I will be very disappointed if they take it away from me”
Huda Asad, Site Engineer, Stent
Evaluation ROI
Stent thinks it has been a very useful experience, Jason Scott: 'We haven't got as much from it as we could have done if other things had worked out (Data Mobility with the data capture software), but it's been low cost both in time and money and it's been useful because we have seen measurable benefits.'
Stent think it will change the way that engineers work. Currently they only periodically check their emails because of the time it takes to connect. The M1000 is constantly connected and emails are automatically 'pushed' to the device. This saves engineers having to regularly dial-in to check their email which inevitably takes time away from other activities. Consequently the engineers involved in the project want to see PDAs for all engineers in Stent, along with some site-specific templates and software to make certain activities easier
Jason Scott: 'I want Huda to keep using the system because there are other benefits from these devices that the demonstration project has not looked at. The main benefit from the M1000 is remote access to email and this project gave us the opportunity to demonstrate how useful that is. It also showed that there is a direct cost benefit in our engineers having mobile email access, our phone bills would be substantially lower. At the moment they dial in over a mobile connection to access email. While this works it is time consuming and expensive. The M1000 offers a far more convenient and cost-effective solution.'
Project update
Max Gwynn hasn't used the system for the last 2 months because he has been rotated into the design office where he has no use for it. Huda Asad uses it every day, mostly for emails and documenting items onsite.
Several built in functions of the PDAs are now being used. Huda is using the calendar for meetings and this is synchronized automatically with the calendar on her laptop. In Huda's words 'It's very good because it's just there all the time'. She has her own personal PDA, company mobile phone and laptop. All these devices can talk to each other but she now has everything on one small piece of hardware that she doesn't have to interact with as much because it completes a lot of the necessary functions automatically.
Lessons
The training provided to the engineers was an issue. In this case there was none, the engineers were issued with the PDAs and asked to learn how to use them for themselves. Originally Data Mobility were going to provide the training, but when they left the project Stent were left in the situation where they had devices from Orange but no construction specific software solution for them. Stent had not used the M1000 before on site and as a result were not sure how to use them. It was a case of giving the PDAs to the engineers and letting them use their previous IT experience and the manual. The PDA's were already set up to use the Orange Office Freedom service (email via GPRS). It is a prime example of where an organisation tries to develop a solution, invests in resources but then runs into problems when a critical partner exits from the project due to unforeseen circumstances.
In that sense this project was a success from the benefits extracted from the resulting solution and the learning experience of dealing with small technology organisations.
Costs
The M1000s were provided on 3 month loan from Orange and then purchased by Stent at a reduced price of £300. At the time they were £500 brand new. The M1000 has now been superseded by the M2000 which has GPS. The M1000 is still available but now retails at a reduced price of approx £275.
The M1000 comes with GPRS connectivity on the device. The network contract (Office Freedom package) from Orange includes 10Mb of data per month - above which it's 50p per Mb. Over the space of a month Jason Scott made significant use of one of the M1000s and only used 6.3Mb - well within the limit. Any additional network costs are likely to result from downloading email attachments regularly, the requirement for which will depend on the user and circumsatnce. With the package there is also 400 minutes per month available talk time but the battery life on the M1000 was not long enough to allow the engineers to use the PDA as a phone. The office freedom service also allows an engineer to access their email from any internet enabled computer through the Orange Office Freedom website.
The system costs Stent approximately £10 per month per device. Currently engineer's mobile telephone bills can exceed £200 per month. How much that cost is due to accessing emails is something Stent are making a detailed investigation of right now.
Stent suspect that around £25 -£50 per month of a typical engineer's mobile telephone costs are from dialing in to access email. Therefore there is a potential saving of around £40 per month per engineer that uses the new system. With roughly 10 eligible engineers this suggests an anual saving of about £4,800.
As well as being expensive, the process of dialling up using a laptop & mobile phone means that engineers have to take time out of other activities. When the phone is connected to the laptop it is out of use as a phone. Typically dialling up with a laptop to access email takes 15-30 minutes every time, after which the engineer has to call back anyone who has contacted them during that period.
Therefore much of the benefits of the system come down to time savings. Stent gave an estimate of time saved using the M1000s instead of dialling up at 80 minutes a day per user. Bearing in mind this is an estimate, even half of that, 40 minutes per day, with the system deployed to Stent's 10 engineers working 260 days a year would save 1733 hours per year.
A specific example of the time saved by the M1000 is the following example from Huda. She was based on site in High Wycombe and had conducted tests on an in-situ pile. They needed the test results quickly to enable work on the second pile to begin. The sub contractor emailed Huda the results (she was driving at the time, stopped the car and checked the M1000) and she was instantly able to forward the results to the design department. By the time she got to site they had examined the results and given the go ahead to continue with the second pile. Using the previous process she would have had to have waited until she got to site and set up her laptop. Then waited for the email to synchronise to get the results email and then waited again to synchronise the email system so she could forward it to the designers. Then she would have had to waite while the designers examined the results and returned the verdict to her. In this specific example about 2 hours were saved on one day.
One option Stent have previsouly considered is the use of dedicated cards in the laptops for dialling in over a high speed mobile connection for email. However, this would still be an activity that requires an engineer to sit down and focus on, rather than doing something else. The M1000 can be carried in a pocket all the time and is updating all functions in real time in the background without any user interaction.
What next?
Jason Scott is going to recommend that this project is rolled out additional engineers for further detailed long term examination. There are all sorts of possible uses for the system, but one concrete justification of the business case is the remote access to email. The other hinted at benefits are obvious in a subjective form, but much harder to detail an accurate figure for.
As long as tangible benefits can be proven from using the system Stent will keep using it.