How To Manage Documents For Utilities

Transcription

1 Utilities today face challenges that are more complex than ever before, from the pressures of organizational and infrastructure growth, to increasing government regulation, to the loss of essential tribal knowledge as longtime staff retire. With these challenges, accessing and managing that critical information becomes increasingly important but the volume of digital data often becomes overwhelming. By sharing the perspectives of experienced engineers and managers at investor-owned, public, and cooperative utilities, this whitepaper demonstrates how engineering drawing and document management systems (EDMS) can bring order from digital data chaos while supporting organizations business objectives and long-term success. Robust Document Management Helps Utilities Keep Pace in a Challenging Market istockphoto.com/scaramushe Sponsored by by Heather Livingston From the editors of

2 2 Synergis Software Engineering drawing and document management systems (EDMS) deliver data organization, knowledge capture, and regulation compliance benefits that are critical to the success of today s growing, changing utility companies. Over the past few decades, utility companies have grown and changed rapidly. As the world demands ever-greater quantities of essential resources such as gas, oil, and water, the companies that deliver those products struggle to keep up with challenges of aging infrastructure, rising costs of materials and labor, and reduced municipal funding. Additionally, today s utilities are expected to deliver more services, to do so faster and more safely, and to provide high-quality customer service while simultaneously limiting costs to maintain a solid bottom line. Thirty years ago, utilities managed just fine using data management processes that by and large were based on manual labor and analog tools. Today, like companies in nearly every market, utilities are responding to business challenges with technology with one highly effective solution being automated, digital data management. Software solutions known as engineering document management systems (EDMS) deliver increased productivity and efficiency in daily operations, support business strategy, and help utilities thrive in a challenging environment. Benefits of EDMS EDMS is much more than file management. Its wide-ranging capabilities help utilities respond to the business challenges they face in today s growing, changing market. File management and search. As utilities transition away from reliance on 2D paper-based technical drawings to scanned drawings, 3D models, and geospatial information, they must find a way to manage an overwhelming number of digital files. Many turn to Microsoft Windows Explorer, a familiar and free solution. Before long, however, they realize the job is too complex for this file management and navigation tool, and they find themselves facing problems such as search limitations, huge numbers of duplicate files, accidental overwriting and deletion of files, and the potential for intellectual property to be stolen by a disgruntled employee. In contrast, an EDMS such as Synergis Adept offers advanced search that is as easy to use as it is powerful. Todd Cummings, Vice President of Research & Development at Synergis Software, explains that Adept enables searches by project number, substation, work order, date range, author, current or last owner, file status, description, and even by text string in a document. To locate attribute or property information, he says, Adept extracts data contained in Microsoft Office, Autodesk, [MicroStation ], or SolidWorks files, so users can quickly search for relevant information. When users can find the information they need quickly, productivity benefits tremendously, and that translates to faster project turnaround and staff that spends time doing value-added work rather than chasing documents. Preservation of tribal knowledge. Technology also is helping to capture and preserve the institutional knowledge of employees heading into retirement. Utilities must capture not only their technical expertise, but also their knowledge of where documents are located and how they are organized. But it s not enough to simply capture institutional knowledge about where

3 files are stored in Microsoft Word documents, for example. Although this effort is a step in the right direction and records the information for posterity, future employees will still need to take the time to read through the explanation of where files are stored. With EDMS in place, a utility can capture and preserve that institutional knowledge in a way that is available to employees now and into the future. Adept is far superior to a Microsoft Word based system for a variety of reasons: EDMS is much more than file management. Its wide-ranging capabilities help utilities respond to the business challenges they face in today s growing, changing market. There s no need to rely on human memory to recall the history of a document or where it is stored; Adept provides that information. Adept stores document properties and key words so users can locate files based on key word or phrase Synergis Software 3 within any type of document stored in the system. Automated workflow in Adept eliminates the need for staff to transfer knowledge about the review and approval process for any given product or project. Information is centralized that is, not stored on a personal hard drive or file share. Users who have the necessary permissions can access information any time. Adept displays project files and advanced search features that make it simple to locate needed information. An audit trail is automatically maintained to reflect the time, user, type of change, and other details of every document update.

4 4 Synergis Software Data security and regulation compliance. Without a centralized system for organizing tens or even hundreds of thousands of files, drawings can be inadvertently deleted or shared with unauthorized users. Adept EDMS virtually eliminates these scenarios. Adept prohibits users from deleting the current version of a file. A user checks out a copy of an original document to work on it in his or her personal work space while the original automatically serves as a backup version. Other users in the organization can see that the document is checked out and can view but not change the file contents. Once a user is done editing, he or she checks in the document, and the EDMS system creates what becomes the latest version of the truth. Adept further supports document security by allowing an administrator to grant specific file access rights to individuals or groups based on the information privileges that are appropriate. No one can see a file or access its contents without permission. Inadequately protected data management systems also can lead to noncompliance with governmental regulations and security mandates. The U.S. government recognizes utility infrastructures as high-priority security assets and targets and believes that protecting infrastructure data is critical to the security of the supply of water, gas, and electricity. New mandates and security measures require that utilities maintain an accurate document trail throughout the life cycle of infrastructure projects. Adept maintains audit trails that companies can use to achieve and maintain compliance with federal, industry, or internal standards. The audit trail tracks every action taken on a document and every user who has worked on that document throughout the drawing life cycle. In a typical audit, companies must demonstrate that they can instantly find a document and see its status at any given time including when or if a document was edited and by whom; and if and when it was checked in, viewed, or became Adept associates a Library Card with each document to track everything from basic project details to user-written memos. Users can easily view and track current and older versions of any file stored in Adept.

5 Synergis Software 5 part of a work flow or was included in a transmittal. Adept facilitates these and many other regulation requirements. Version control. In the days of paper records, it wasn t practical to redraw a design every time a change was made, so the number of design iterations was naturally limited. In today s digital world, by contrast, the ease of updating a file can lead to countless versions of the same design, greatly increasing the risk that outdated information will be accessed and used. Companies that use to share multiple iterations of design documents with project partners are at particular risk of mistakes related to file versioning. Ensuring that the drawing in use is the correct and most up-to-date version is crucial for utilities. In the energy market, there have been instances where using the wrong version of a project document has led to power outages. Those events have been relatively few and minor thus far, but the potential for a massive outage exists. Adept obviates this possibility by maintaining only one current version of any given document and by ensuring that only one user at a time can make changes. Adept makes it virtually impossible to create more than one current version of the truth. When it comes to CAD, where reference files are heavily used, Adept s version control capabilities go even deeper. Adept automatically manages and tracks complex file relationships between AutoCAD xrefs; Micro- Station References; and Inventor and SolidWorks parts, assemblies, and drawings. When users revise files that have these parent/child relationships, Adept continues to track the relationships and maintains links among the correct versions. Users can configure Adept so a parent file will always reference the latest version of a child or keep it fixed on the original version when appropriate. An effective EDMS provides an easy, logical way to access all information related to every project, current and past. It simplifies how a utility finds, manages, shares, and controls engineering and business documents. Success Stories Adept EDMS is addressing real-world challenges in organizations around the world. Following is a look at how four very different utility companies across the United States are using Adept. With adept, Hoosier has flattened file organization from nearly 7,600 unique file paths to just 10. istockphoto.com/tebnad Case Study 1 Hoosier Energy Bloomington, Indiana For Hoosier Energy, searchability and version control of engineering and design documents were key drivers in the utility s decision to implement a document-management system, says Bernie Voges, substation design engineer. Hoosier Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative, provides wholesale electric power and services to its 18 membership distribution coops in Indiana and Illinois. Under the utility s previous Windows Explorer based system, it was difficult and time-consuming to search through the massive amounts of drawings and engineering data. Someone could have one version or two different versions of the same drawing out there that got released, Voges recalls, which led to confusion as well as wasted time and money and delayed projects. Todd Cummings of Synergis explains that drawings managed by Adept can follow customized workflow parameters while ensuring that multiple versions of a document are not checked out simultaneously. Voges says that because Hoosier s previous method of file management involved both physical and digital folders, there was a significant amount of intelligence lost or misplaced in the

6 6 Synergis Software We need to take full advantage of tools like document management to make our personnel more efficient. various folder names and structures complicated by the fact that more than 30% of its 200,000 drawings were duplicates, as discovered during an audit early in the Adept implementation. Voges notes with pride that, in cleaning up and simplifying Hoosier s document management with Adept, the utility has greatly flattened the file organization, moving from nearly 7,600 unique file paths to just 10. [The file reorganization] showed just how comfortable we had become not only [with] the organized chaos of our drawing organization, but also the limitations of it, Voges recalls. The advantage to a flat document organization is that by utilizing a database, queries could then be conducted to build any sort of file tree that the user wanted all on the fly, without having to go through the pains of reorganizing and moving all the files. The engineers for our power plants could organize their drawings one way, while the engineers for our transmission group could organize it another way. For our company, this was seen as a huge benefit. Hoosier s prior confusion over which file was the correct version caused difficulties with staff and contractors alike, Voges says. Some comical things have gone on, too, where you would have two different versions of the same document go out, and one istockphoto.com/gomezdavid contractor would pull out a piece of conduit, then another would go and put it in, he says with a laugh. Then, another contractor comes in the next day and pulls it back out. Voges acknowledges more seriously that some mistakes due to lack of version clarity have the potential to cause significant trouble. A lot of our relaying work is very meticulous, so everything has to be absolutely right. One errant wire could cause a contact to have an open and close, which could then dump out an entire substation. Hoosier Energy s Adept implementation is not complete, but the staff is looking forward to the day when its document-management database will be a single, centralized source that guarantees users always have the latest version of a given file. With Adept, they can easily find the latest revisions, assign and control access to documents, view document status, control relationships between documents, and manage project workflows. Case Study 2 Turlock Irrigation District Turlock, California Generating over 505 megawatts of electricity, Turlock Irrigation District (TID) serves electricity to a population of approximately 220,000 in California s Central Valley. TID generates nearly 40% of the energy for its customers at the Don Pedro Dam and Powerhouse. A substantial amount of energy is generated at other Districtowned facilities, including clean small hydroelectric power plants on irrigation canals and three natural gas-fired turbine generating plants. The engineering and construction documentation to maintain and support these facilities is massive. Just ask Ed Jobe, Engineering Document Management Administrator and a 20 year veteran at TID. Jobe is responsible for the systems that develop, track, find, retrieve, and secure all the utility s documents throughout the district. Document control and management is critical to the District s success, says Jobe. TID has operators that spend all day, every day doing CAD. It s extremely difficult to hire new personnel, so we need to take full advantage of tools like document management to make our personnel more efficient. TID chose Adept EDMS over competing products for a number of reasons. For one, the user interface was practical and easy to use, Jobe says. When you re using software all day, a few seconds here and there adds up to a big savings throughout the day. TID also valued the experience that Synergis Software has with converting legacy data from other systems to

7 Synergis Software 7 Adept. The Adept team has done this type of migration many times before, so it was fairly straight forward. They were easy to work with and delivered exactly what they promised, on time. Many TID employees need access to documents, including supervisors, construction crews, and maintenance crews. For example, if a piece of equipment needs maintenance, a drawing of that equipment needs to be sent to the contractor or vendor. Now TID can use Adept to ensure that the latest copy of that drawing gets out in the field. Adept delivers drawings to many different people in TID. If someone needs information, I simply submit a request to Information Systems, and they install and train that person in as little as an hour s time, Jobe explains. I can continue doing my work without interruption. It s a huge time saver. Adept also is helping TID meet the requirements of several regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), and California ISO. For example, FERC requires that all drawing revisions be maintained for 50 years after a license expires. Data retention and security are a must. Not only are documents secure against everyday events like accidental deletion, but it is easy to administer rights in Adept, such as who gets to view or print the documents, says Jobe. In addition to these requirements, as a public utility, we have a commitment to keep rates low. This places a burden on us to get our work done with minimal staff at a time when California s economy is expanding. This means we have more work to do with less people to get it done. We have to be as efficient as possible. Case Study 3 Water and Power Utility The Midwest A Midwest public utility that provides electricity, water, steam, and chilled water to its customers is currently scanning several million archival documents to make them more accessible to its engineering departments as well as field crews. Adding urgency to the project, the utility is planning to move to a new, smaller facility, so it s trying to become as paperless as is feasible. The big push is to eliminate the three million paper documents and get them into a searchable database, explains a senior project engineer. We actually have buildings approaching 100 years old that we still have drawings for. The Adept system integrates with numerous CAD programs and imports the file types seamlessly. istockphoto.com/timthetoolman

8 8 Synergis Software He says it s rare for an employee to have to refer to documents from the early 20th century, but it does happen. Our engineers frequently access drawings of buried underground utilities that were installed 50, 70, 80 years ago. In many cases, that information is invaluable if they can get their hands on it, he says. The Adept EDMS system is making that massive data upload possible. When the utility began the work of updating its paper files to digital, it had an all-encompassing data management solution that managers hoped would meet the needs of everyone in the organization. But it didn t take that long to realize that the original Out of 60,000 records, with just a few filters you are down to five records. It s that easy. Searching is very fast. system wasn t robust enough, particularly for the engineering departments. Trying to meet the needs of everyone ultimately meant that the program met the needs of only a few. As an example, the previous document management solution couldn t keep track of an AutoCAD relationship to its xref files. The Adept system integrates with numerous CAD programs and imports the file types seamlessly for simple yet highly functional file viewing, control, and relationship management. Todd Cummings of Synergis explains, Adept automatically manages and tracks these complex CAD file relationships. The system learns about the parent/child relationship of these istockphoto.com/oneword documents and ensures that the relationship remains intact as the files are checked out, revised, checked in, routed through workflows, copied, and renamed. One of the key reasons the utility invested in its EDMS program was because the organization was losing so-called tribal knowledge as many experienced staff retired. New employees have no idea which documents exist in the warehouse or where to begin looking. Having the Adept database as the virtual warehouse for all design and infrastructure documents will help both new and future employees discover and benefit from the richness of that legacy data because it s so easy for users to access and peruse digital data. Case Study 4 South Carolina Electric & Gas Company columbia, South Carolina South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) is a subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, an energy-based member of the Fortune 500. Of primary concern for SCE&G when selecting an EDMS were document-security requirements set forth by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Energy Regulation Commission. The nation s energy infrastructure is considered by Homeland Security to be a critical resource and, as such, energy utilities are expected to keep internal and external documents secure. SCE&G also is in the process of scanning its legacy drawings. We do not want any paper at all, unless it is just for a backup, states Tom Hood of the company s Power Delivery Materials, Equipment, and Standards Department, adding that it will only take a couple of years for the utility to realize that vision. One reason that SCE&G is keen to have fully digitized project documents is the ease of searching and retrieving those documents electronically. Initially skeptical about being able to find necessary documents easily, utility staff now are confirmed converts, Hood says. Out of those 60,000 records, with just a few filters you are down to five records or something like that. It s that easy. Searching is very fast. In addition to Adept s ease of searching, Hood appreciates the ability to have libraries to control data access. It makes it simple for users in certain areas. And he appreciates that the files are stored in a secure server rather than taking up valuable physical space. I have no idea where this physical server is. It does not matter to me. Adept pulls [files] out for me.

9 Synergis Software 9 drawings, capture tribal knowledge of longtime employees, keep documents secure as required by government agencies, and get important information into the hands of those who need it. A robust EDMS enables increased productivity and efficiency in daily operations a huge boon to the bottom line for any organization. Simple access to current and past project information ultimately leads to significant reductions in overall operations time and costs. istockphoto.com/brians101 Heather Livingston is a contributing editor for Cadalyst, a leading publication covering CAD and related technologies. As a freelance writer based in Massachusetts, she specializes in design, sustainability, and architectural technology. note: Synergis Software, Synergis Adept, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Autodesk, Auto- CAD, MicroStation, SolidWorks, and all other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. The purchasing process at SCE&G also relies on Adept because most purchases must specify a corresponding drawing name or specification. Adept allows users to order parts and equipment based on drawing specifications and send the order directly to the purchasing department saving numerous hours of work over the course of a year. As far as benefiting us as a business, [our EDMS platform is] about saving time and about keeping control of our documents, Hood concludes. Conclusion The companies profiled here, and many others, have realized efficiencies by adopting Adept EDMS from Synergis Software. The system s ability to provide a simple yet logical way to access current and past project information ultimately led to significant reductions in overall operations time and costs. It helped the utilities gain control over their documents so that versions were clearly identified and files were located where expected, and, therefore, readily available. As evidenced by the success of these four very different utilities, an effective EDMS can help utility companies of all sizes and types better manage their drawings, waste less time searching for Synergis s o f t w a r e Synergis Software 200 Kelly Road Quakertown, PA USA