The emergence of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology has created some exciting ways to monitor and improve operations. Your GIS and Cityworks platforms can receive a constant stream of information from the field via sensors and telematic devices—giving you information about operations that you never had before. A simple yet effective form of this technology is to capture crew or vehicle locations in the field and automatically feed the locations into your Cityworks operations map. This allows you to see the locations of your crews on the ground in relation to the locations of the GIS assets and work to be done. You can see who is closest to an emergency work order, and use this information for dispatch. Now this can be done using LiGO®, Cityworks, and the Esri GeoEvent processor tool, as shown. But the ability to track field operations can go much further. For this Cityworks application, LiGO is bringing certain key data into the Cityworks operational map: vehicle type, driver ID, direction, speed, and status.
Think of the vehicle as a mobile entity from which all sorts of data can be collected and reported. Managers manage by measuring events and exceptions. Two common measurements of events in LiGO are whether or not a crew visited a location (asset or job) and how much time the crew spent at that location. Additionally, you can set triggers to report on exceptions to defined business rules such as harsh driving (cornering, braking, and acceleration); idling; speeding; after-hours usage of vehicles; etc.
Condition changes of assets can be captured and measured. You can capture linear data from LiGO and change the condition of a roadway feature, for example from “unswept” to “swept”.You can automatically create and close work order data for ad hoc or transient work—like graffiti abatement—using stops in the service area as a way to record number and duration of the work.You can track location and statistics about where sweepers, boom trucks, etc., are doing work—you can record and transmit data, such as brush up/down, plow up/down, etc., to GIS and Cityworks tables and populate work orders with this information.
Customers are coming up with innovative ways to use sensors on or near vehicles to populate their mission-critical business systems, like Cityworks and Esri GIS—adding even more value to these systems. The ability to utilize Verizon’s network and M2M data plans (which are bundled with LiGO) keeps the communication costs down and the channels open with your field workers. LiGO allows operations managers to be more aware of the status of their operations, and better equipped to handle emergencies as they occur.
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