South Australia Power Networks (SAPN) is the sole electricity distributor for the state of South Australia. SAPN is responsible for building, maintaining and upgrading the poles, wires, and substations that stretch across the state, delivering power to 860,000 customers.
In 2017, SAPN trialled multiple drawing management systems in the field to address safety risks and improve operations. Prior to RedEye, a survey revealed 90% of SAPN staff could not easily find the latest drawing revisions and 33% of staff reported that it was taking over 10 minutes to find the right drawing. It was important for both SAPN and RedEye to engage field and engineering teams early. This short video shares more about SAPN’s award-winning strategy for innovation in change.
Award-Winning Adoption of Engineering Data and Drawing Management Software
After the trial, the SAPN field team unanimously recommended the RedEye system without reservation for its reliability and ease of use. RedEye satisfied the extensive security requirements expected for an essential service and the field use capabilities substantially improved access to latest information, which was critical for teams working remotely.
"Access to current state drawings for the SA Power Networks field operations, engineering and planning team is vital to reduce the risk of safety incidents or unplanned outages."
With a focus on change management for teams that are used to working with paper, RedEye’s QR code functionality means that field workers can easily update their changes on paper or scan and automatically send to the cloud, maintaining version control and creating more effective communications across the business.
At SAPN’s “Go Live” Launch Day, the various departments and teams came together to celebrate their success and share their perspective on how RedEye would improve the way they work.
SA Power Networks and RedEye Go Live
“The RedEye team are easy to do business with and its solution provides the best value for money implementation. We also indicate a return on investment in 2 to 4 years and would only grow with time.”
Through the implementation of RedEyeDMS, SAPN estimates a saving of 1,044 hours in productivity every year just from drawing management alone. After implementation, 91% of users could easily find the latest changes with RedEyeDMS compared with just 10% prior to implementation.
Field teams now use RedEye to markup drawings in real-time, uploading changes to the cloud, sending a notification to the team for approval. With the latest data and drawings available to all, workplace safety increased, and the state’s power supply is more consistent with reduced power outages and more efficient maintenance.
Energy generators, transmission services, distribution networks and retailers play an important role in supporting economic growth and enriching lifestyles across the country with power. RedEye supports power utilities to easily manage assets, delivering projects and maintaining network efficiency and safely.
Key Takeaways
- Staff buy-in to systems is important and drives sustainable change
- Allowing field access to engineering data significantly improves productivity
- Mobility and user-friendliness should be key considerations in adopting technology
Awards
- Digital Utility of the Year – Digital Utilities 2019
- Innovation in Change Award – ChangeConnect Awards 2017
- Australian Apprenticeships Employer Award – Australian Training Awards 2017
