The San Francisco office of a large multinational engineering company used the QNOPY platform for the condition assessment of the country’s largest and oldest wastewater treatment plant. This included inspecting and ranking the structural and mechanical components of primary clarifiers, distribution structures, and pump rooms. QNOPY platform provided the tools to carry out the field inspections as well as compile the findings in a final report.
Project Setup & Challenges
A total of 10 clarifiers, 10 pump rooms and 2 large distribution structures were examined for their mechanical and structural integrity. Each asset had 14 mechanical components and 7 structural components to be assessed. Each component needed to be ranked using a proprietary ranking system. Along with the ranking, the condition had to be captured through multiple photos and a brief description of the asset condition. The component ratings were compiled in a final report and a final score for each asset was calculated.
Challenges:
- Clarifiers can only be shut down for two weeks
- Photos taken have to tagged to a specific asset in the field
- Due to the short timeframe multiple teams were used to complete the inspections. Avoiding and duplication as well as omission was critical
- Daily review of all the data recorded was required to assess whether further inspections were warranted for any asset components
Solution Overview
QNOPY worked with the project managers and engineers to configure the mobile application to record data in the field. The mobile forms were customized for different types of assets such as clarifiers, pump rooms, and distribution systems. The asset components were further classified into mechanical or structural categories. Below are the key features:
- Developed unique forms for each asset type and category
- Created custom photo log that included the notes, annotations and ranking
- Trained the field staff and added features to the mobile app based on their feedback
- Developed a custom export format to match with the client’s asset registry
- Developed a dashboard to show completion status of each asset
Results & Benefits
- Field inspections were completed 40% faster than planned
- Zero data lost and no duplication of data in the field
- Hundreds of photos were taken by 3 teams and each photo was accurately tagged to the right asset
- Project Manager had a live view of the data collection to check against the plan
- Zero time spent on compiling the photo logs in the office
- A final asset registry spreadsheet was generated with 30% less time than planned
- Cloud storage made the data accessible at all times for the entire project team
- Field inspectors marked potential issues on the photos using drawing tool
- Project folder feature in the mobile app eliminated the need for everyone to carry large set of drawings
- Happy client as project was completed under budget
By: Animesh Irkulla
Date: October 10, 2017