Frictionless in the Field Part 2: Connected Work for the Office Workers

The following article is part two in a three-part series about connected work. In part one, we explored a scenario from the perspective of the field worker. Here we look at the same event from the office. In part three, we will explore the viewpoint of an executive.

Denise is looking at her monitors when the status bar changes to red and the notification sounds. A methane sensor, fixed to a compressor station along her company’s pipeline, is reporting a leak.

From her experience, she knows that it’s likely that it’s the compressor itself that has an issue. Thanks to the in-situ sensor, she can pinpoint the vicinity of the leak and assign a crew to investigate.

As luck would have it, her real-time dashboard tells her that Graydon, an experienced pipeline technician, is located a mere 16 miles away, at one of the company’s satellite offices (a work trailer). She notifies Graydon of the leak using the SensorHub mobile app and moments later he is en route to the site.

Just in time info for the team members who need it

While Graydon heads toward the location, indicated by a pin on his mobile app, Denise updates the status of the leak event. She has already ensured that Graydon has the qualifications and tools necessary to learn more about the fugitive emission and is ready to mobilize a larger repair crew if need be, pending Graydon’s report.

Part of the routine for a leak event like this is to provide the technician with everything they need to complete the job. Denise makes sure that Graydon has access to the compressor’s schematics, repair manuals, and service history. Should he venture outside of the data service range, the info will be available to him offline via his mobile app.

The leak location is near enough to a cell service tower that Denise can see Graydon “check-in” when his truck reaches the compressor site. She waits for his update, but even before it comes, the sensor status changes back to green. The sensor is no longer detecting rogue methane emissions. Sure enough, moments later, her terminal alerts her to Graydon’s response — that a loose valve was the culprit, and it has already been repaired.

After the event, Denise completes a report, which is simply a matter of adding a few notes — all of the data from the event has been recorded and can be accessed for analysis. She knows that these seemingly routine events will be recorded by the software and used to better predict the failure rates and maintenance schedules of the company’s compressors.

Connectivity and visibility of field workers, from anywhere

In the scenario above, Denise was able to quickly manage the issue, mobilize the technician, provide him with the background info he needed, as well as stay abreast of his progress while he was in transit.

While that is happening, her dashboard continues to display data from a myriad of sensors, crew members, equipment, and outside sources like weather forecasts.

As we noted in part one, this scenario would certainly be more riveting if it played out more like an action movie, but Denise was prepared. The company has a well-established workflow for fugitive emissions alerts. When one happens, their systems make a record of the data and seek to make better predictions about how to best handle future events.

In fact, the SensorUp Connected Worker Platform that Denise is using had given her all of the information she needed in order to make the decision of to assign and where to send them.

The platform helped to diagnose the problem and offer Denise the information necessary to make decisions. It’s much easier for her to make those decisions, confidently, with visibility into the field operations and access to relevant data.