Stanwell and Tarong power stations are now set to simplify and improve how they perform work, following the approval of FSM Fieldworker software to be used on digital devices. Stanwell’s Operational Excellence team facilitated successful proof-of-concept trials earlier this year, with a significant amount of collaboration across our sites and positive feedback from all involved.
The Operations team will now be able to digitally complete maintenance inspections and capture all data at the point of work, replacing traditional paper-based forms. Importantly, this information will also include photos that will be stored directly within Stanwell’s existing work management system, Ellipse.
FSM Fieldworker will also enable teams to capture equipment condition where attention is required, using GPS-tagged photographs and real time information. This will negate the need for writing long descriptions of the problem on paper, before manually transferring the information through to desktop systems. The improved quality of information will provide more clarity to the work scoping process, enabling work to be planned and scheduled more accurately.
Stanwell Power Station Mechanical Fitter, Andrew Selmanovic, said that showing, rather than telling worked better when it came to field work.
“Adding photos is a real benefit — with maintenance work, it’s much easier to show what’s wrong than to try describing it to someone who isn’t there with you,” he said.
“During inspections, I currently write issues into my black book, but sometimes we may miss small, potentially important details. It will also be good to finally see trend data from all of our inspections.”
This will be the first application on digital devices that begins Stanwell’s journey toward simplifying processes, improving data quality, and significantly reducing administrative effort required.
System configuration work will begin in November 2021 to enable a planned deployment of the devices.
Business Services, Strategy and Risk Manager, Rhonda Rowe, said that during the trials she saw a reduction in the amount of paperwork her team dealt with — literally.
“With the ability to record data directly to our systems, there was much less double-handling of data and risk of errors when transposing” she said.
“We also needed to print and file much less paperwork!
“This all freed our teams up for more important, interesting work — our maintenance teams gained time to work on backlogged and priority works, and our administrative team were able to work on more projects and research, taking the more mundane tasks off their plates.”
Tarong Power Station Mechanical Fitter, Mick Bleakley, said the new system would increase his tool time and let him do his job more thoroughly.
“Being able to put work requests in right from the field was so much easier,” he said.
“This is something we’ve always had a need for, but it needed a coordinated approach. Once this is up and running, it’s going to transform the way we do our daily jobs.”
Stanwell Power Station Production Manager, Peter Woodall, said he was very encouraged by the results of the trials on site with the Stanwell water team and is looking forward to the next steps.
“Combining the benefits of technology and mobility with traditional plant inspection and monitoring methods is clearly the way forward,” he said.
“Following a number of teams trialling mobility options earlier this year, the potential time savings, reduced double handling of data, and increased tool time were obvious. The trial involved a few different devices and configurations, which allowed us to identify the best option for our users.
“We’re now looking forward to the next phase where our water team on site will be using the devices regularly as part of their day-to-day workload.”
The mobile devices will be deployed across both sites, starting early 2022.
This improvement is one of a range of developments Stanwell’s Operational Excellence team has implemented in recent months, including a recent upgrade to Stanwell’s data visualisation and real-time communication capabilities.