The Arnsberg Public Utility Company ensure maintenance of the drinking water supply, even in emergencies, thanks to the robust F110 Getac tablets.
/ Challenge / (Summary)
For a mobile, fast and always available display of the Arnsberg drinking water supply network, a robust, high-performance device with a long battery life that can be used at any time was essential. After all, when on-call and/or in emergency service situations, it is crucial that information about the pipeline network can be provided at short notice and on site, in any weather conditions, dust or humidity, day or night.
/ Solution / (Summary)
The robust hardware from Getac and GIS software gave the technicians on the construction site the certainty that the necessary information can be retrieved at any time, even in difficult conditions. In this way, facts could be assessed on-site and decisions could be made promptly.
/ Advantages / (Summary)
A decisive factor in the selection of the devices was the certainty that information about the supply network could be provided on-site in almost any situation. The high performance, as well as the robust features and the reliability of the Getac F110 facilitated and sped up the work process by 50 percent. The particularly long battery life also ensured smooth use throughout the entire working day.
/ Challenge /
Stadtwerke Arnsberg is responsible for the maintenance and renewal of the drinking water supply in the Arnsberg area and ensuring a safe and high-quality infrastructure with its work. Fifteen districts are connected to the modern supply and disposal network with a total of 450 kilometres of pipes, guaranteeing a secure water supply to approximately 18,500 houses.
12 teams of technicians and 12 service vehicles are continuously on duty. The public utility company is not only responsible for the water supply, but also for house connections, hydrants, gate and shut-off valves. The decisive factor to use Getac was therefore the reliability and being able to display the respective pipe information on the devices. Correct dimensioning is important so to find this quickly, even in Winter when there are snowy conditions was extremely valuable. Five years ago, the field service switched from paper to mobile devices, but the conventional tablets at that time proved to be insufficiently robust and had a correspondingly high failure rate. The decision in favour of the Getac F110 was made with the help of competent advice from the IT and consulting company Mettenmeier after a thorough examination of comparable competitor devices.
/ Solution /
Rapid response in the event of failures, onsite deployment and a display of the supply network that is accessible at all times are top priorities for Stadtwerke Arnsberg. The specialists in the field depend on being safely navigated to the site in the event of a malfunction (burst pipe) in the pipe network and then with thanks to a detailed network display on site, being able to divert or reroute the supply network accordingly. The work processes and documentation have become almost error-free thanks to mobile working with the Getac F110 tablets.
Both the large display and the fast and good graphic representation with the Windows-based, offline-usable GIS software solution, facilitate the work on-site enormously. An example of the resulting process flow is provided by Phillip Hegener, site manager for water supply at Stadtwerke Arnsberg: "Especially in the water supply network, it is important that these are correctly dimensioned, for which we have so-called dimension chains and we can find them without any problems even in winter when there is snow on them. For a mobile, fast and readily available representation of the supply network, especially during on call duty, a robust device with a long battery life that can be used at any time is necessary."
Hegener continues: "Particularly in outdoor use on construction sites, no matter what the weather, the F110 excels over other tablets because it defies all stresses and strains. This is enormously important in case of pipe bursts or other dangerous situations where time is very short."
The robust computer solution makes the entire supply network available digitally. A team of field workers consists of two fitters who share a tablet. The equipment also includes special office docking stations for secure data exchange.
Data is entered using a pen, yet gloves are also used from time to time. The integrated camera supports the documentation when difficult pipe runs, damage and measurements need to be shown.
The tablets are only brought into the building for data updates. An update is carried out monthly via the fixed installation. The Getac F110 tablets have now been in successful use for five years, and so far there have been no problems or failures. The procedure and the handling are so successful that additional programme extensions are planned.
/ Advantages /
The robust Getac computer solution with the GIS software enables Stadtwerke Arnsberg to achieve significant increases in digitalisation and overall process efficiency - over 50 per cent both in the field and in the office.
Created for mobile use in the field, the Getac F110 tablet combines leading hardware technology, high reliability and ease of use; with the software and matching accessories, Stadtwerke Arnsberg now has an allround reliable, fail-safe and robust solution.
For five years, the tablets have reliably withstood outdoor conditions such as shocks, falls, cold and heat, and are used without interruption for the entire working day due to their particularly long battery life.
Stadtwerke Arnsberg made a conscious decision to invest in high-quality equipment. Fail-safety and no hidden and additional maintenance and follow-up costs are a more than positive result. "The reliability of the Getac F110 simplifies and speeds up many work processes. The fitters rely on the access to the plans of the supply network at any time. The error rate has been greatly reduced as a result" says Maurice Löhr, Water Engineer at Stadtwerke Arnsberg.
