Case Study
OGE switches from in-house mobile development to MOBILE X
OGE, based in Essen (E.ON Gastransport GmbH until the end of August 2010), is one of Europe’s largest long-distance pipeline network operators, with a pipeline network of approximately 12,000 kilometers. Around 2,000 employees ensure safe, environmentally friendly, and customer-oriented gas transport.
In addition to the complete process from planning to construction of gas pipelines, core activities include the operation of the pipeline system with servicing and maintenance, as well as the management and marketing of transport capacities. More than 500 field service technicians from OGE work nationwide in network construction and maintenance.
Approximately 60,000 orders per year arise from planned maintenance, fault rectification, or network construction. These include, for example, the inspection, functional testing, and maintenance of high-pressure gas pipelines, gas pressure regulating and metering stations, and compressor stations.
An on-call service is available around the clock for faults and emergencies, coordinated by the central reporting office for 24/7 fault management.
Migration to a contemporary, mobile solution
To access information about their orders from SAP PM on the go and to create and transmit their feedback to the back office, technicians used an in-house development based on Visual Basic and Access until 2014, which communicated with SAP PM via iDocs. After the discontinuation of Windows XP, there was no longer any possibility to further develop this application or to ensure compatibility with Windows 7.
As early as 2010, OGE began searching for a new solution that would be offline-capable and offer at least the functionality of the old mobile solution. The choice ultimately fell on MOBILE X from Solvares Field Service. Decisive factors were the support for CATS for time reporting, the application design, and the Dynamic Forms extension.
In February 2014, the migration to MOBILE X began with a pilot. From June to October 2014, the gradual roll-out of MIA (Mobile Maintenance of Assets) – the internal project name – to all technicians took place. After four hours of training, the technicians were already able to work with the new solution.
The motivation of the colleagues was also enhanced by the fact that they can use the system from different computers or quickly and easily install a new version if, for example, a device fails, without losing any data.
Regional Scheduling of Orders
The approximately 80 Planners at OGE are distributed across 50 branches throughout Western Germany. Orders are assigned to the respective technicians by region. This is also due to the fact that in the event of a gas leak, a technician must be on site within 30 minutes.
Each week, technicians receive a list generated from SAP PM with planned maintenance and servicing orders in MOBILE X from the Planners. Each technician thus has a backlog of up to 100 orders on their HP Elite Book, which they can schedule themselves. Faults are coordinated by the central reporting office and forwarded to the responsible technician on site.
Thanks to the offline capability of the mobile solution, technicians always have access to all relevant order information, even in areas without network coverage, and can record data which is then automatically transferred to SAP PM during the next synchronisation.
Reporting of Working Hours
Technicians also report their working hours via MOBILE X. This data is then transmitted to SAP CATS, the cross-application time sheet. They can also provide feedback for colleagues. For example, if three technicians perform a functional test on a high-pressure gas pipeline, one of them enters the times for himself and his two colleagues.
To avoid errors in posting to SAP, the data is checked in advance according to predefined rules. In case of irregularities, the responsible person is informed by email and the data is then corrected in CATS.
Technicians can also document and post the consumption of material from the vehicle stock via MOBILE X. This includes both larger material already planned in the order and unplanned material they need on site. Reordering of material is done automatically in MM when certain minimum quantities are undershot.
What You Can Take away from this for your Service
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