A GIS is “a computer-based system for managing and analyzing information with a geographic (i.e., spatial) reference.” More specifically, a GIS is a collection of hardware, software, data, and procedures that operate in concert to capture, manage, analyze, maintain, and display information that has spatial reference to the real world. If information can be tied to a map, it has a spatial reference. More than 85 percent of a typical organization’s information needed to support its business is spatially-related.
A GIS is not simply a computer system for making maps, although it can create maps as required. Rather, it is a sophisticated management, query, and analysis tool that allows users to identify the spatial relationships among related features presented on a map in order to make more informed decisions. Organizations that implement enterprise GIS programs consider it to be a core technology that increasingly defines their information management strategy and practices.
For the purpose of this paper, we will define GIS based on its application to the utility industry: a GIS is a software system responsible for managing the location and attribute information for utility infrastructure assets.
Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)
A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) contains multiple components or modules, each designed to help users perform their work processes in a more effective manner. For example, the following are four common CMMS components:
• Work Order Management – The basic tool for work management, including work initialization, planning, scheduling, performance, and work closeout.
• Inventory Control – Interacts with Work Order Management to ensure parts and tool availability. Minimizes the cost of warehousing consumable supplies and specialty products.
• Reporting – Provides information to managers and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) staff allowing for better asset management.
• Purchasing Processing – Enables efficient service and supply acquisition and applies uniform practices to the management of outside vendors and contractors.
As is the case with GIS, there are many definitions being used in the industry for Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). Unlike GIS, there are also variety of acronyms for similar classes of technology which further complicates matters, including:
• CMMS – Computerized Maintenance Management System
• WMS – Work Management System
• EAMS – Enterprise Asset Management System
For the purpose of this paper, each of these terms will be interchangeable and defined as a class of software systems responsible for managing the work performed on and condition information for utility infrastructure assets.
Integration Approaches
By definition CMMS and GIS have many similarities. Most importantly, both systems are responsible for managing specific information regarding utility infrastructure assets. Historically, utilities have implemented these systems separately because they were intended for very different purposes. A CMMS is implemented to assist the organization to better manage its assets and manage work more efficiently. A GIS is implemented to support modeling and create hard copy map books for use in the field. More recently, the industry has realized it can get more out of each of these two systems if they are integrated. Integrating GIS and CMMS also breaks down the information silos and information duplication/redundancy created by operating each system independently.
Driven by user demand, CMMS vendors are starting to provide interfaces to GIS packages, such as ESRI. Using open standards, such as SOA and web-based architectures, integration is fairly straight-forward.
There are three basic approaches to GIS and CMMS integration:
1. GIS Centric – Develop CMMS functionality into the GIS platform. (e.g. Azteca uses this approach for its Cityworks product)
2. Service-Oriented Architecture – Develop a stand-alone web-based application that consumes services from both CMMS and GIS.
3. GIS Embedded into CMMS – Extend the CMMS framework to consume GIS mapping services.
This paper explores a case study at the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (HBWS), which used an embedded approach to integrate GIS and CMMS technology.
Honolulu Board of Water Supply
The Honolulu Board of Water Supply is a semi-autonomous agency of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii. Its primary function is to provide municipal water supply to meet the domestic needs and fire protection requirements for the Island of Oahu. With 715 employees, the department services a million residents and is among the 10 largest water utilities in the United States. HBWS treats approximately 50 MGD of water, from 170 water sources and 110 reservoirs, per year; maintains 1,900 miles of pipeline, and has 155,000 metered connections.
The Board is responsible for providing a safe, reliable water distribution system for residents at the most affordable cost possible.
HBWS GIS
HBWS has a mature GIS based on ESRI ArcGIS 9.1 technology. The water system geodatabase is stored in a Microsoft SQL/Server database environment using ArcSDE 9.1. HBWS publishes GIS data to the entire organization using an enterprise viewer (based on ArcIMS) that is known as HONU (Honolulu On-Line Utilities). HBWS field crews have access to GIS information using MANO (Mobile Asset Notebook), a mobile GIS application based on MapObjects’ Java Edition. HBWS has a team of editors who actively maintain the GIS database using ArcGIS Desktop 9.1. Crews create redlines of changes occurring in the field using the MANO application and submit these redlines to the GIS editors daily.
HBWS CMMS
HBWS is currently implementing a new CMMS based on Maximo 5.2 from MRO Software – an IBM Company. MAXIMO is an enterprise work and asset management system (Figure 1) that includes six key modules or systems for managing and maintaining an organization’s assets.
-> Figure 1: Maximo includes six key modules for managing and maintaining an organization’s assets.
Integration Approach
The integration of GIS and CMMS requires organizations to define both their business and technical requirements. Business requirements define what the integration must provide and how it will be maintained. The users must determine which assets will be managed by the systems and what data elements will be managed by each system. For example, it may be determined that the GIS will manage the location and the CMMS will manage all attributes. In this case, the question becomes how does the spatial data get into GIS and how does the attribute data get into CMMS? The business processes and rules need to be defined for the flow of information. Once the business requirements are fully defined, technical requirements can be created. Technical requirements include software packages that will be used, database platforms, operating systems, server architecture, and integration approach.
Web Controls
HBWS selected MRO Maximo as its CMMS and ESRI ArcGIS for its GIS. Both ESRI and MRO provide a web-based, service-oriented architecture for their products. Based on industry standards, the integration of these technologies was fairly straightforward. Web map controls from ESRI were embedded into MRO Maximo’s web-architected framework. Java J2EE was used as the integration platform. ESRI ArcIMS was used as the map engine delivering spatial data from GIS to the Maximo screens. Figure 2 is a screenshot showing the GIS map embedded into the Maximo work order application module screen.
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-> Figure 2: Screen shot of GIS map embedded into the Maximo work order application module screen.
Database Synchronization
Database synchronization is the most critical component in integrating a GIS and a CMMS. Synchronization is often overlooked because users focus on the interface integration. However, without data synchronization the integrated system will fail as soon as the first update is made to either the GIS or the CMMS database. Developing a fully functional system requires the identification of all business processes affecting data in each of the systems. New processes need to be defined so the data is managed and synchronized across both systems. The organization must determine if the synchronization will be one-way or two-way. The approach selected depends on how the organization is set up for data maintenance. HBWS chose to implement a one-way interface between their GIS and CMMS. Data is always entered into GIS first, and then pushed to CMMS. This allows for tight control over the quality of asset information entering the systems. Since data comes into the organization via as-builts, it makes sense to enter this information into the GIS to create the assets and assign unique Ids.
The data is pushed to the CMMS nightly to create location and asset records. Updates come in from field crews and their redline drawings are sent to the GIS group. The data is then updated in the GIS and pushed to the CMMS during the nightly synchronization process. Figure 3 is a data flow diagram for a hydrant asset showing how the GIS database schema was extended to support asset attribution for MAXIMO.
-> Figure 3: Data flow diagram for a hydrant asset showing how the GIS database schema was extended to support asset attribution for Maximo.
Data Maintenance Workflow
Data maintenance is critical to the management and operation of an integrated GIS/CMMS environment. Without well-defined, well-understood data maintenance processes and procedures, the system will fail. As soon as data is out of date or stale, end users will no longer use the system to support their jobs. They will go back to relying on old techniques to obtain data needed to perform their job. Data maintenance is much more than implementing an application to allow users to enter data. It must include new business processes incorporated into the asset maintenance and operations practices. This has to involve the people responsible for maintenance and operation of the utility’s infrastructure assets. There must be a process for capturing the asset condition information and work performance in the field by the O&M staff. They need an efficient way to communicate this critical information back to the office where the databases are maintained.
HBWS rolled out new field processes to capture asset condition and work performance. They use mobile GIS and CMMS technologies to provide the information they need – where they need it most – in the field. The mobile applications also contain functionality that allows field workers to communicate asset condition and changes, which occur as a result of work performed, back to the office. The mobile GIS application interfaces to their mobile work management system so work orders may be seen on the map. In addition, the mobile GIS application’s redlining functionality allows crews to mark up the GIS map to communicate changes back to the office. These redlines are submitted automatically to the GIS data editors to make modifications to the database. Figure 4 illustrates the flow of data between the office and field.
-> Figure 4: Work flow diagram showing the flow of data between the office and field.
Benefits of Integration
There are many benefits resulting from integrating GIS and CMMS technologies. HBWS has observed the following benefits during the integration process.
Reduce Potential for Work Order Duplication
Utility organizations routinely receive complaint calls from customers regarding level of service, such as poor water pressure, rusty water, or an odor or taste issue. In addition, the utility may receive calls to report a problem such as a leaking hydrant, a main break, or flooding. The call taker logs the call and creates a service request or work order to address the problem. In the case where many customers call in to report the same problem, there is great potential for multiple work orders to be created for the same problem. For example, a hydrant may be leaking at the corner of 4th and Elm. As people drive past, they call the local water utility to report the problem, resulting in many calls for the same problem. Without an easy, efficient way to screen existing work orders, the probability that duplicate work orders will be created is high.
The integrated CMMS/GIS with an embedded map has reduced that potential at HBWS because it allows call takers to quickly and easily see existing work order locations on a map. In this case, when a caller reports a leaking hydrant, the call taker can zoom into the hydrant location on the GIS map and view existing work orders in the area. A map tip, displayed by moving the cursor over the work order, reports details and status of the work order. The call taker can quickly screen existing work orders to see if any of them apply to the problem call, in which case the call is attached to the existing work order. If there is no work order for the problem, then the call taker can create a new work order to address it.
More Efficient Work Planning and Scheduling
Preventative Maintenance (PM) work is often planned and scheduled weeks or months ahead of time. The Planner/Scheduler is responsible for creating work packages for field crews to perform preventative maintenance on the organization’s critical assets based on a variety of factors, including asset management indicators such as age, condition, and criticality rating. A CMMS has specific modules and functionality that focuses on asset management. The addition of the spatial component (by integration with GIS) enables the Planner/Scheduler to plan work more efficiently by taking into account the location of active PM work orders. By locating the PM work using GPS, both the PM and Emergency work orders can be handled by a crew working in closest proximity to the problem.
Increase Accuracy of Asset Work History
A major goal of work and asset management is to better understand the condition and work being performed on specific assets and equipment. Therefore work orders must be attached to specific assets and include a description of the work performed, the condition, labor time to make the repair, materials used, and the cost. Over time, an asset accumulates work history. The problem asset may not be known to the system until crews investigate the problem in the field. A work order may be created against an address or street location, but later moved to the actual problem asset worked on. If there is not an easy and efficient way to move or reattach work orders from one location or asset to another, the utility will fail to capture an asset’s work history.
HBWS recognized the impact of this issue and has given field crews an integrated mobile work manager and mobile GIS application with the capability to easily move work orders from one asset location to another by using the map display. For example, a work order may initially be created against a service premise location, based on a customer complaint of water running down the street. When crews arrive on site, they may determine the problem to be a broken hydrant lateral. They fix the problem and then move the work order from the service premise to the actual hydrant lateral that was repaired.
Reduce Asset Data Redundancy and Duplication
HBWS has been able to reduce asset data redundancy and duplication by streamlining the infrastructure asset data maintenance process across the GIS and CMMS applications. Infrastructure asset information is common to both the GIS and CMMS environments. A combination of maintenance processes and database synchronization components between CMMS and GIS has resulted in a single asset repository. This reduces the tendency to duplicate or replicate asset data across discorporate application databases.
Skip Heise
Program Manager – EMA, Inc.
sheise@ema-inc.com
Ellen Hirayama
GIS Manager – Honolulu Board of Water Supply
ehirayama@hbws.org