Overview
Gosford city Council read 59,000 residential and commercial water meters biannually. Meters were read through a combination of a failing PDA meter reading system and paper. In September 2010 ITOnline's CASYS system was chosen as a replacement.
Gosford City Council required a system that best matched their existing processes, procedures, terminology and had to be interfaced to their current billing software.
The challenge was to:
Shoalhaven Water needed a system that would:
- Displace the existing meter reading system and process.
- Cater for the resistance to change of workplace practice.
- Match existing processes and terminologies where possible.
- Provide an improvement in performance.
- Provide a platform for future expansion.
The Solution
Because the Gosford region was deemed to have a 99% phone coverage, it was decided to start with the more cost effective phone based meter reading solution as opposed to PDAs, or a combination of PDAs and phones and re-asses the hardware options at the end of the first reading cycle. At the end of the cycle it was discovered that there were only a few properties that did not have coverage and the mobile phone solution was adequate for the task considering improvements to the process were evident in the first reading cycle.
Efficiency gains would be delivered by eliminating the need to travel to and from the office and therefore providing more time in the field and to provide an efficient field process that matched the meter reader's requirements. A high priority was the acceptance by the end user, for it is the end user who will provide the improvements in performance and reduce the resistance to change of work place practice.
A base system was created for Gosford through consultation with management. On implementation, Gosford's meter readers were consulted and modifications were made to the user interface to better cater for their needs. Further consultation with the meter readers was undertaken during and after the first meter reading cycle to fine tune their requirements.
The Results
Production since the implementation of the new system has improved from an average of 9,000 meters per month to 12,000 meters per month, an improvement of 30%. In addition, the following enhancements were added to the system to improve quality control and for the administrator to better manage the meter readers.
- A table was added to hold meter readings and consumptions to calculate high/low tolerances and reduce reading errors.
- Monitors were added to track daily, weekly and cycle progress.
- Reports were added to track meter reader's performance.
The Future
When required, the Gosford system is ready and capable of utilising the following modules:
- AMR - With the addition of the AMR module Gosford can add AMR devices to their hard to read maters, or commercial meters for an integrated AMR solution.
- Statistical Analysis - ITOnline's statistics module can provide Gosford with the tools to analyse their data for identifying; consumption trends, customer billing, water conservation and leak detection.
- Fleet Management - As meters age they typically run slow and therefore lose potential revenue. As the meters are read we can determine the loss of revenue from underperforming meters against the replacement cost of the meter to help the client make informed business decisions regarding their meter fleet.
Update
Since this case study Gosford City Council have reduced their meter reading cycle by six weeks, they have replaced their meter reading audit process with forced photos for high/low reading snd selecgted can't reads. Gosford have also introduced the meter maintenance module feeding jobs via meter reading using a set criteria.
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