Review on Mobile Workforce Management System for Electricity Supply Industries

Abstract

Mobile Workforce Management System (MWMS) is seen to be used to a great extent by many electricity utilities around the world. MWMS is particularly useful for these utilities as more than two-thirds of their workforce are mobile and would need a centralized control system to function efficiently. This paper presents an overview of the electricity utilities that implement and use MWMS. The discussions include background of the projects, project descriptions, and benefits of the projects. We present a table that summarizes all our findings and provide the discussion on the trend of the applications, hardware, functions covered and potential future applications. A few discussions on how to improve the existing systems, particularly incorporation of Knowledge Management (KM) is also presented in this paper. It is a hope that our findings can provide some basic ideas for other researchers to go further in MWMS research area, particularly in its adoption to Electricity Supply Industry (ESI).

Full text

Review on Mobile Workforce Management System
for Electricity Supply Industries
Faridah Hani Mohamed Salleh
Department of Software Engineering,
University of Tenaga Nasional,
KM 7, Jalan Kajang-Puchong, 43009,
Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
faridahh@uniten.edu.my
Zaihisma Che Cob, Mohana Shanmugam, Siti Salbiah
Mohamed Shariff
Department of Information System,
University of Tenaga Nasional,
KM 7, Jalan Kajang-Puchong, 43009,
Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
{Zaihisma, Mohana, SitiSalbiah}@uniten.edu.my
Abstract— Mobile Workforce Management System (MWMS) is
seen to be used to a great extent by many electricity utilities
around the world. MWMS is particularly useful for these utilities
as more than two-thirds of their workforce are mobile and would
need a centralized control system to function efficiently. This
paper presents an overview of the electricity utilities that
implement and use MWMS. The discussions include background
of the projects, project descriptions, and benefits of the projects.
We present a table that summarizes all our findings and provide
the discussion on the trend of the applications, hardware,
functions covered and potential future applications. A few
discussions on how to improve the existing systems, particularly
incorporation of Knowledge Management (KM) is also presented
in this paper. It is a hope that our findings can provide some
basic ideas for other researchers to go further in MWMS
research area, particularly in its adoption to Electricity Supply
Industry (ESI).
Keywords: Mobile application, electricity supply industry
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity industry plays an important role in a nation’s
economic growth [1]. As such, a stable, uninterrupted, cost
effective and efficient electricity supply contributes to the
growth of a nation. However, the sophistication and complexity
of the electricity network infrastructure have made
maintenance and asset management cumbersome and costly.
Thus, a highly-productive mobile workforce is deemed as one
of the mechanisms that can be exploited by the electricity
companies to ensure that they can deliver continuous services
that meet the customer requirements and standards. There are a
number of MWMS available nowadays. The applications
differ from one to another ranging from public transport [2],
road services [3], sales force, construction sites, home care
service, medical service and taxi coordination [4].
Corporations today are facing increased requirements and
challenges to enable and empower their mobile workforce.
Gartner’s prediction in 2009 that the number of mobile
application tools and platforms in use by enterprises will
increase 30% by 2011 shows that organizations are very
serious in keeping up with the state-of-the-art business
technology applications, specifically for mobile workers to stay
ahead of their competitors and provide the best customer
service experience to their clients [5]. Confronted by increased
costs, competitive pressures, an aging workforce and today’s
economic challenges, many companies are looking for
opportunities to reduce their costs, and improve service levels.
Integrating a mobile and wireless solution that automates
manual processes empowers employees with the information
they need to improve job performance.
For electricity providers, the nature of the product delivery
demands a high level of service response time. Mobile
workforce management solutions combined with utility
mapping capabilities is needed for organization to realize
shorter resolution times for improved outage management. As
for the typical utility company, two-thirds of total employees
are field-based. This makes the automation of field personnel
and the extension of critical business applications to remote
users a key opportunity for productivity improvement and cost
reduction.
II. RELATED WOR KS
Numerous researches have been conducted in the area of
MWMS for electricity supply industries. As reported in [11]
the adoption of mobile solutions is notably high in electricity
services. This section describes several applications developed
for electricity companies. For each research studies, we begin
with background introduction, then explain the project
descriptions, and finally present the benefits of the projects.
EPRICSG presents results of examining applications of
wireless technologies that may present business potential for
energy companies [7]. EPRICSG is a subsidiary of the EPRI
(Electric Power Research Institute). Several utilities were
interviewed in an attempt to quantify Automated Field-Force
Management (AFFM) experiences. They reported that Boston
Edison Company had started utilized real-time wireless data
communications with a Global Positioning System (GPS) for
an automated customer service dispatching and communication
system since late 1995 [7]. Boston Edison Company is a
regulated public utility that provides electricity to the Boston
area. Its activities include the generation, purchase,
transmission, distribution, and sale of electric power [8]. The
system had improved response time to customers’ service calls
and requests for billing information. Another company reported
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by EPRICSG used MWMS since 1996 was PECO Energy [7].
PECO Energy is an electricity provider serving customers in
the City of Philadelphia and surrounding counties such as
Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and York [9]. Their
MWMS centralized all field support functions and combined
many job functions such as schedule maintenance and longer-
term project work. The system had enabled PECO to schedule
20% of all service appointments to within an hour of the time
requested by customers.
Different from MWMS applications discussed before,
Public Service Electric & Gas focused more on task scheduling
[7]. The system matches each field workers’ location and skill
level with pending work orders and expected time required to
complete the work and automatically makes assignments.
Barnes et al. described the application of MWMS in DELTA
Utility Services, a company based in New Zealand [10].
DELTA manages distributed assets in the ESI and had started
using MWMS since year 2000. Their (electricity) network
designers used the mobile application to access their assets
information from any location. The mobile application had
improved accuracy and timeliness of information.
Another project by Brodt and Verburg reported that Nuon
used MWMS mainly for handling cases like power failures
[11]. Nuon is a national distributor of gas and electricity in The
Netherlands that handled large number of remote workers.
Response times to power outages are regulated by European
Law. The mobile solution was developed to obtain these target
response time.
Southern California Edison [12] started to implement
MWMS in 2007. Due to the size and nature of the work at
hand, there are many timing and resource dependencies
between different field crews that need to work in sync for
tasks to be completed effectively. There are two modules;
ClickSchedule and ClickAnalyze. ClickSchedule used
automated workflows that alert and warn planners, equipment
managers, material managers, schedulers and coordinators if
there are any issues that need to be addressed prior to releasing
the work to the field resources. It will then automatically and
sequentially schedules the necessary field crews. If a team in
this cycle is no longer available it will automatically reschedule
the job and reapportion the remaining crews to new tasks.
ClickAnalyze is mainly for business intelligence reporting.
Using operational and historical data collected in
ClickAnalyze, senior executives will be able to accurately
understand the impact of projects on field resources.
EDF Energy, the largest electricity producer in UK also
utilizing the benefits of MWMS since 2001. EDF Energy
provides power to a quarter of the UK’s population via their
electricity distribution networks in London, the South East and
the East of England. The company mobile workforce solution
was developed to improve scheduling efficiencies around
meter-reading. The functionalities were then expanded to
include managing a sales force of several hundred door-to-door
field people. The system is able to automate scheduling by
considering numerous variables such as resource availability,
skill, location, equipment, as well as real-time events in the
field like unscheduled emergencies or jobs that take longer than
expected [13]. The most recent project conducted by Tenaga
Nasional Berhad (TNB). Expected to start using MFFA (an
acronym for Mobile Field Force Automation) this year [14],
the development team is currently conducting user training at 3
states branches in Malaysia. TNB is the largest electricity
utility in Malaysia with core businesses rest in the generation,
transmission and distribution of electricity. The system is
divided into 3 modules; Job Management, SMS and GIS
module. The system is integrated where it allows for
communication between customer call center, distributed
network information system and supply management center.
Table 1 summarizes the input, strengths and weaknesses of the
existing tools. Table 1 contains the following columns:
Source: indicates the literature reference where the research
was originally proposed.
Description of Application: refers to the functions supported
by the developed mobile system.
Hardware: states the type of mobile device.
Specific Benefits: states the benefits of the application to
company.
TABLE I REVIEWS OF PAST AND EXISTING MOBILE APPLICATIONS
Source Description of Application Hardware Specific Benefits
EPRICSG [2] Boston Edison Company
•Utilizes real-time wireless data
communications with a Global
•Positioning System (GPS)
•Locates service vehicles automatically so
that available field workers closest to
emergency calls could be identified
•Handles customer appointment requests
•Able to send and receive information to and
from the home office while at the customer’s
residence
Pen-based, hand-held
computers •Improved customer service
•Accurate, real-time data access
•Scalable: can be used for additional field
applications with no additional fixed costs
•Reduced operating expense
•Reduced non-payments of bills
•Lowered number of recurring orders
•Reduced errors
•Eliminated many paper forms

TABLE I (CONT). REVIEWS OF PAST AND EXISTING MOBILE APPLICATIONS
Source Description of Application Hardware Specific Benefits
EPRICSG [2] PECO Energy
•Matches available staff skills with service
required
- •Increased service calls attended by field workers
EPRICSG [2] Public Service Electric & Gas
•Connects field workers with dispatchers
•Matches field worker’s location and skill
level with pending work orders and expected
time required to complete the work
•Assigns tasks automatically
-
•Improved customer service
•Lowered number of recurring orders
•Eliminated many paper forms
Barnes S.J. [5] Delta Utility Services
•Allows remote access to its geographical
information system (GIS)
•Records and tracks the presence and technical
specifications of assets
Laptop, with a mobile
data card •Rich GIS data checked on site
•Work integration of remote staff
•Accurate, real-time data access
•Reduced data entry
•Enhanced paperless security
•Improved customer service
Brodt and
Verburg [6]
Nuon NL
•Enables members of the response team to
operate from home
•Uses smart allocation system to distribute and
allocate various assignments
•Enables field service engineer to locate the
right power switch automatically by checking
power grid layouts or installation schemes
PDA and Tablet-PC
with GPS and GPRS
•Reduced response time
•Increased safety of employees when solving
power failures
•Decreased time to build problem history
ClickSoftware
[7]
Southern California Edison
•Alerts and warns planners, equipment
managers, material managers, schedulers and
construction and coordinators if any issues
arise prior to releasing work to field resources
•Schedules the field crews, reschedule the job
if a team is no longer available and
reapportion the remaining crews to new tasks
-•Optimized scheduling
•Utilized field crews more effectively
•Better control of excessive overtime
•Reduced errors
•Reduced costs
•Improved customer service
EDF Energy[8] EDF Energy, UK
•Allows workers to update Energy South’s
work management system over the phone.
•Assesses the characteristics of job and
optimizes the schedule by considering field
workers skills, part availability, location,
drive-time, workload, and service level
agreement
-•Improved matching of expertise with task.
•Optimized scheduling
•Increased customer satisfaction
Tenaga
Nasional
Berhad [14]
Tenaga Nasional Berhad
•Dispatch job to the field crew
•Allows communication (exchange job status,
details) between workers using SMS
•View network asset details
•Search for road, building, substation
PDA
•Expected benefits of MFFA:
•Increase production activity
•Improved customer service
•Accurate, real-time data access

III. DISCUSSION
From comparison of different research projects, we came to
the following findings. Most of the utility (electricity)
companies used MWMS to achieve the following objectives
[7], [10], [11], [14], [15], [13]:
• Improved customer satisfaction,
• Reduced operating expense,
• Reduced non-payments of bills,
• Lowered number of recurring orders,
• Reduced order processing time,
• Reduced errors,
• Eliminated many paper forms,
• Improved collaboration and knowledge transfer,
• Improved productivity of workers,
• Continuous communications with field workers,
centralized support staff, utility management, and first
responders in emergency situations,
• Increased employee safety and
• Reduced overtime cost.
Despite of the similarities found in the objectives of
MWMS, a special method in handling emergency calls is
identified. For example, Boston Edison Company that divided
the workload assignments for each field workers with 75% of
the time allocated to base-line work (scheduled appointments)
and 25% of the time reserved for emergency (high priority)
calls [7]. From Table 1, it can be seen that companies reported
in [7] had started using MWMS since 90’s. This proved that
MWMS had been adopted a long time ago where the rapid
development is seen in term of supported functions and type of
technology. Technology in this case refers to hardware and
type of network. The recent development of MWMS has
started to use technology like SMS, GPRS and GPS. Another
trend that can be seen is in term of variety of systems that have
been integrated together with the main MWMS application. If
the earlier MWMS incorporated customer-related data like
scheduled maintenance and complaints, the newer MWMS is
started to expand the coverage up to substations or assets info
like the location, distance and others.
The used hardware is often a PDA, handheld or PocketPC,
whereas the use of notebooks or Tablet PCs for mobile
workforces seems to be rather unusual. However, the
conclusion is made based to the research projects that explicitly
mentioned the type of mobile device used for their application.
Some projects did not provide detail discussion and left
hardware discussion remained unclear. Despite the lack of
explanation on hardware used in MWMS, the choice of
hardware used in MWMS must be seriously considered. The
modern generation of smart phone offers possibilities that are
comparable to computers such as notebooks, and they are much
smaller and have much longer battery power supply.
Despite of large usage of MWMS amongst electricity
supply industries, there are some limitations that may hinder
adoption of MWMS. Fui et al. presented interesting discussion
of interview results with major public utility company [16].
The survey collected information on issues, concerns, and
values of mobile applications. While responses on values or
benefits of mobile application to the company were almost
similar to what have been discussed before, security, cost and
employee acceptance issues were mentioned in most interviews
[16]. Security concern with regards to incident such as the theft
or loss of mobile devices, which are easily misplaced or stolen,
could be one of the hinder factors for MWMS adoption. The
mobile devices used in MWMS likely contain sensitive or
confidential data that can be accessed by unauthorized persons.
The company can consider incorporating a few security options
like powerful encryption, restricted access, password
protection, and customized default settings to solve security
concern. As for the cost, the company will have to bear the
costs associates to mobile devices, pay service fees for wireless
access, and train employees. Limitation that regards to
employee acceptance can be alleviated by providing adequate
training and conduct a thorough usability test to ensure the
system is easy to use.
There are few ideas and suggestions that can be
implemented to extend the current works in MWMS.
Strengthening security aspects of MWMS is one of them and
very crucial to ensure reliability of the system. While many
existing systems integrate with other databases like staff and
fault databases, integrating MWMS with claim system can save
cost where pursuing illegitimate claims can be avoided and at
the same time faults repair can be minimized.
The existing MWMS emphasizes more on functional
aspects of the system without paying much attention on the
management of mobile workers’ knowledge. Thus, Knowledge
Management (KM) is suggested to be incorporated into
MWMS. Detail discussion is presented in next section.
IV. INCORPORATING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) INTO
MWMS
KM can be incorporated into MWMS to capture knowledge
on faults. The idea of KM is not new as it has been in
discussion for many years. Many knowledge management
activities occur in working places and in our daily activities.
However, the application of IT tools to facilitate the creation,
storage, transfer and application of previously uncodifiable
organizational knowledge is a new initiative in organizations
[17]. One of the KM techniques that possible to be used in
MWMS is case-based reasoning (CBR). CBR is based on a
verified set of past successful cases and considered as one of
the most successful applied Artificial Intelligence (AI)
technologies of recent years. It is based on the premises that
new problems are often similar to previously encountered
problems and, therefore, that past solutions may be of use in
the current situation.
Started in 1977 by Schank and Abelson, many researchers
have been conducted in this area such as in [18], [19] and [20].
CBR had been successfully applied in many applications
around the world. Aamodt and Plaza [21] have described CBR
typically as a cyclical process comprising the four REs:
• RETRIEVE the most similar case(s),
• REUSE the case(s) to attempt to solve the problem,
• REVISE the proposed solution if necessary, and
• RETAIN the new solution as a part of a new case.

Instead of relying solely on general knowledge of a
problem domain, or making associations along generalized
relationships between problem descriptors and conclusions,
CBR is able to utilize the specific knowledge of previously
experienced, concrete problem situations (cases). A new
problem is solved by finding a similar past case, and reusing it
in the new problem situation [21].
The role of knowledge based in MWMS is to support two
main functions; knowledge acquisition and service
automation. The knowledge acquisition refers to the
acquirement of the knowledge and experience of mobile
workers in solving faults. The use of KM allows reuse of
established solutions, support the tactical and strategic needs
of ESI and able to foster knowledge sharing and the creation
of new knowledge [22].
V. CONCLUSION
This paper has shown that MWMS application is
widespread among electricity utilities. Some of the reasons for
this are the need to increase service standards, reduction in
hardware costs and also the proliferation of data networks
provided by communication companies. MWMS application
ranges from receiving emergency calls, asset location search
to dispatching of maintenance work. It was seen that this
system will have a central server in the utility head quarters
which can dispatch work or information to the utility’s mobile
workforce all over the service area. On the field, utility
workers are often equipped with handheld devices which are
multipurpose, incorporating GPS, data logger, Internet access
and thus becoming a tool that is increasingly indispensable.
From the reviews, we found that MWMS helps organizations
to become more customer focused and can contribute towards
improving service standards. Some further research in this
area could be in strengthening security aspects of MWMS and
integration with other existing systems. KM that incorporates
into MWMS will enable technical team to perceive solutions
for problems that have been solved before. This will expedite
decision making process that leads to spending more time in
attending other problems.
As a future work, research that includes performance
evaluation and comparison with other implementations is
needed to show advantages or uniqueness of existing MWMS.
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