THE TELCO WORK ORDER PROCESS: GIS

The ultimate goal of a telco should be to build an enterprise-wide GIS solution or series of databases that can be accessed by every employee in the company if necessary. This GIS is a system that relates facilities data: distribution and feeder cables, aerial and buried facilities, etc. with the surrounding geography: roads, schools, rights-of-way, etc. This seamless, spatial database is capable of generating facilities maps and providing connectivity for engineering functions such as cable throw and loop make-up, while at the same time enabling other departments to complete demographic studies or create three dimensional cellular propagation drawings. One company, one set of geographic data.

Many large telephone companies have implemented AM/FM and GIS projects in the past ten years but few have been totally successful. Even those who claimed some success still drafted work prints manually and then entered them manually into the computer system as a part of the as-built process. The one thing these companies had in common was the way in which the system was initially designed -- from the top down.

The inclusion of the OSP engineers in a GIS project is very important, and their acceptance and use of the system is critical to its success. The engineers, along with a number of other key people, should be involved in the design and implementation processes from the beginning.

Incorporating a work print generation system into the GIS from the beginning could have made the difference between success and failure. Work prints are the first step to building and maintaining CPR databases. Construction crews cannot place facilities in the field without a work print. Permits and rights-of-way cannot be acquired without a work print. Facility maps cannot be updated with out a work print which shows any changes or additions that may have occurred.

If the OSP engineer has the tools to do his job properly, more than 70% of the data required for a five-year conversion project could be taken directly from the engineer's daily routine. This would also apply to the ongoing maintenance of the databases; they would be automatically updated as the engineer completed each project.

Telco engineers know that they have to spend hours, sometimes days, redrawing all of the landbase and existing facilities in a specific geographic area before they can even begin drawing new placements and rearrangements for a work print. This seems to be a fact of life in all telephone companies -- from Cooperatives and Independents to the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCS).

Since drafting tasks seem to consume the majority of an engineer's time, it can be concluded that by minimizing this function, a lot of time will be saved. And, by implementing a GIS, many of the common "complaints" made of the engineer would disappear -- illegible printing, spelling, the scales used, the pencil lead, and sometimes even the engineer's overall ability to do the job.

A GIS system can be an excellent aid to an engineer when doing field work. A hard copy of an area can be generated for field notes by querying the GIS for landbase and/or facilities in that area. By doing this, an engineer can reduce time required in the field and improve the quality and accuracy of his notes at the same time.

Once the GIS is implemented, work print generation is a natural way to continue to build and maintain the GIS.

1. Query the landbase and existing facilities Using the existing GIS databases, the landbase and existing facilities in the area of the project are queried. Countless hours of re-drafting will be saved by using the database to generate the landbase and facilities for a particular project. In doing so, there are no map boundaries, multiple maps with different scales, maps stored in different files; all data reside in a seamless database.
2. Draw a line (polygon) around the geographic area of the project and assign a work order number to that line This closed polygon "fences" all landbases and facilities included in the project. Regardless of the total number of work print sheets in the project, this "fence" will define the entire project. The project number, engineer, service date and other pertinent information is entered into the database and linked to the polygon. Thus, queries can be made using any of this information once it is entered.
3. Determine the scale and sheet sizes The engineer determines the overall scale of the project and the size of the paper to be used (i.e. 1":100' on a "D" size sheet).
4. Divide the project into separate work print sheets Using the sheet size determined in Step 3, work print sheets are placed, one at a time, over the entire project. The job and sheet numbers are entered into the database.
5. Save this drawing to a file If a "key map" for the project is desired, the map should be saved now. This key map shows the entire scope of the project as well as each work print sheet as it is laid out along the project.
6. View the first work print sheet Each work print sheet is viewed and worked on individually.
7. Add new facilities and annotate existing ones New facilities are placed and re-arrangements are made on the work print sheet. The titleblock on the sheet is also completed during this step. Streets, roads, buildings, cable callouts, other utilities and additional data can be annotated directly from the database. This continuous connectivity across all work print sheets and the seamless database enables the software to calculate a loop makeup and perform cable throws.
8. Tabulate the work sheet Quantity totals for facilities can be placed anywhere on the sheet or saved to a file for later use. Tabulation by sheet, project or other criteria is a time-saving option. Pricing and material take-offs can be generated from the database.
9. Plot the work print At this point, the file can be plotted for hard copy or saved if you anticipate further revisions to the sheet. Saving is not necessary because the file can be re-created at anytime by querying it from the database again.
10. Proceed through all project sheets The process is repeated, one sheet at a time, until each work print comprising the project is completed.
11. Insert the project into the database Since the landbase and existing facilities were queried from the database at the beginning of the project, they need not be reinserted into the database. Only those facilities and landbase items that have been added or modified are entered into the database at this time as Pre-Post.
12. Make any necessary construction changes or revisions Once the work prints are issued and as construction progresses, changes and revisions can be made to the project to reflect any changes made in the field. All changes are made to the database, so reports for pricing, material takeoffs and CPRs can be updated easily.
13. Post to As-Built status When the project is done, it is posted to an "as-built" status. This process transforms facilities from "proposed" to "existing." All previous revisions are automatically recorded.

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