General

A key innovation feature of BlueWorx is configurable Inspections. Inspections as a process have always existed in maintenance operations. Their processing with SAP have generally involved: responses to paper based work order instructions; measurement document creation; and subsequent SAP master data updates. But prior to BlueWorx there was no fully integrated way to collect these as a single controlled event in SAP. 


For comprehensive insights we recommend looking for the Inspections Deep Dive videos in the following playlist: YouTube - BlueWorx Insight Series

Simple to Maintain and Use, Powerful Options

Maintaining Inspection in BlueWorx is simple:

  • An administrator (non technical functional business role) creates an Inspection and associate one or more Inspection Questions. They configure how the Inspection is linked to Work Orders and or specific Technical Objects. For example a Pole Inspection or a Vehicle Inspection
  • BlueWorx Users sees the Inspections in their Work Orders and, if configured, directly against technical objects (FL and Equip) in BlueWorx
  • The user processes the Inspection, answering the Questions. This may, based on their response, be prompted to enter additional data or create a Notification on the device
  • When finished they mark the Inspection as complete and Sync BlueWorx with SAP
  • SAP then takes the responses and performs the configured action. This can include updates to FL and Equipment details or classification values; Measurement Point creation or Notification creation; or do no SAP action - just record the response
  • The full details of the Inspection remain in SAP as an audit-able record of the Inspection event

Key Benefits

There are many benefits from using BlueWorx Inspections. Here's some key benefits:

  • Faster - The end to end BlueWorx inspection process is far faster than manually capturing results for later update in SAP. Faster for the Inspector and faster processing in SAP - means improved data currency
  • Accurate - The inspection is captured using SAP validated data and then updated directly in SAP using appropriate SAP transactions. There is no middle-ware or paper based intervention
  • Formal Record - The Inspection results are keep as a permanent record in SAP. These can be reviewed at a later date by users, including BlueWorx users, or analysed in SAP for patterns. Even if you later change a Question in configuration the historic record of what was asked, answered and transactionally processed in SAP is retained
  • Tight Integration - Paper based inspection have no update integration with SAP. Third party non SAP systems need integration and master data updates between them and SAP. That can lead to poor inspections, high errors and poor data accuracy
  • Minimal Training - At no point in the answering of the questions does the inspector need to be overly familiar with the underlying SAP objects that might be updated - like Measurement Points and Documents, Equipment records, Classification records. That makes training and execution far simpler

Use of Inspections for Servicing

While we've used the term 'Inspection' we and our customers have come to appreciate that this functionality can be used for more than just condition grading and measurement gathering. You can also use it for crucial steps in servicing using the inspection question responses to 'mark-off' completion of core steps. The advantages of this, as opposed to multiple operations or text include:

  • Can amend the 'inspection' very quickly compared to SAP changes
  • Can add multiple objects to an order and track individual progress to completion with minimum adjustments (Objects and Work). There is no requirements to add operations, PRT Measurement Points, etc
  • Have full visibility of the steps (they aren't buried in text) 
  • Have a permanent record of the results
  • Can trigger SAP updates based on the information gathered

Use of Inspection for Audits

From an audit perspective the BlueWorx inspection functionality provides the following key elements:

  • It's provide for a standardized list of questions that can be tailed by the customer to their needs
  • Responses don't have to link to or update Technical Objects
  • Responses can trigger, on device or when processing in SAP, Notifications that can then be used to remedy any issues that were found. You might, for example, have a specific Notification type for audit based issues
  • It can be configured for a specific Functional Location type
  • You can use Rules to change the visibility and compulsory nature of questions based on elements of what's being inspected
  • You can take photos to 'back-up' your responses
  • An Inspection response will log the GPS location of the device when answering a Question. This can add to the auditability but it can not logically be enforced (see point 3 below) and is dependent on:
    1. The config setting Core > GEO > Events > Log GPS Location is ON
    2. The device supports GPS location requests and user has enabled this for the app
    3. The device returns a reading when requested (may not due to no satellite signals)
  • While Inspections don't have to be initiated against a SAP Work Order, that's a great way to ensure they are executed systematically and periodically
  • The Inspection results are stored in SAP, not some paper based or third party system, including the full question details asked at the time of the responses
  • From SAP the results can be consolidated for reporting