Workforce Management for Gas UtilitiesThe gas industry is quite complex. Everyday tasks range from simple meter reading to long-term infrastructure work and unexpected emergencies such as gas leaks that need to be addressed within minutes. Other tasks include the maintenance of both pipelines with sometimes complex access and LNG storage tanks, as well as varied customer types from homeowners to municipalities with contracted minimum service guarantees. When it comes to crew management, a single absence can create havoc for dispatchers, who must locate additional, appropriate resources if deadlines are to be met.
“Several people were concerned about not getting paper orders. Within one week, most of them were closing out their tickets with no problem. Now the original skeptical employees would not want to go back to the old way.” – Energy South | There are many significant challenges today: - An increasing demand for gas in the energy market in Europe, for the residence market gas is considered as a cheaper option for heating compared to electricity, in the electricity generation market gas is considered as green energy compared to oil or coal combustion. At the same time European countries produce only 55% of their gas consumption and are highly dependent on gas import from politically unstable courtiers e.g. Russia (world’s biggest natural gas producer), Algeria, Libya and Egypt
- In the US there is consistent reduction of gas consumption in the residential market due to price increase and new constructions which are “non-gas friendly”
- Gas exploration becomes more complex since the new gas sources are located in deep water (+3,000 m) or in politically unstable countries (e.g., Iran and Russia)
- Aging LNG (liquid natural gas) storage tanks tend to be 60 years old on average
As a result, a number of critical factors in field workforce management must be considered on a daily basis - ensuring that enough workers, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time, and that crews are properly equipped and staffed to meet assigned workloads. Failure to do so can have a significant impact on costs, revenues, service levels and regulatory compliance.
“In addition to increasing the number of maintenance visits we complete each day, ClickSchedule helped make it possible to outsource our entire field-service dispatch function. This represents a tremendous cost-savings for the company.” – Gaz Met Plus | For example, without enough field resources to accomplish specific tasks, utilities have to do whatever it takes to increase worker capacity - through subcontractors, overtime, or a combination of both. And if jobs aren't intelligently scheduled on a daily, weekly, and long-term basis, engineer efficiency drops, and costs rise. What's needed is a mobile workforce optimization solution that: - Takes into account the special requirements and demands - whether it's constructing a pipeline in the network, replacing a meter, fixing a gas leak or maintaining a piece of equipment in a storage plant
- Allows for more efficient use of crews and contractors
- Creates a single, centralized schedule that provides for variances across the company
- Provides excellent performance in emergency situations, with dynamic schedule adjustments based on priority shifts
That solution is now available.
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