Mobile Crews in a Smartphone: How Digital Inspections for DTEK Optimized the Process of Eliminating Accidents and Comply Planned Works

Today, the response time of mobile teams is a crucial factor in the rapid restoration of damaged networks and equipment. If specialists can minimise the time taken to rectify faults or carry out scheduled maintenance, this will speed up the restoration of light and heat to Ukrainian homes. It was with this initiative in mind that DTEK, the largest energy holding company, approached MODUS X: to implement a solution that would ensure seamless automation and optimisation of mobile teams’ operations.

MODUS X proposed digitising the operational activities of mobile teams by creating a universal application – a comprehensive solution that integrates mobile and web applications with SAP ERP and SharePoint, including the SAP Connector for secure data transfer. This solution enables the automation of planning, work tracking and the write-off of materials, thereby improving efficiency and reducing the time taken to resolve faults on the electricity grid.

Challenges and prerequisites:

The need to develop a mobile app arose from the requirement to optimise and automate the processes of planning, managing repair teams and ensuring effective coordination between them. When travelling to sites to carry out work, the teams faced a lack of a clear mechanism for task allocation and spent a great deal of time on paperwork and filling in paper forms, which led to significant operational complications and delays in restoring damaged sections of the electricity network.

DTEK sought to ensure transparency in the process of work on the power grids, to digitise operations, to optimise resources and to minimise the time from the moment a fault occurred until it was rectified.

Solution: a digital mobile inspector

The solution implemented by MODUS X for DTEK covers the process of communication and coordination between various departments from the moment a power grid fault occurs until it is rectified, digitising all paper-based operational processes. The process can be divided into five key stages:

• When a network fault is detected, an equipment monitoring center specialist registers the incident in the system
• The request is forwarded to the Operational Planning and Reporting Department, which estimates the repair time based on current maintenance programs and emergency work schedules
• Based on the request, the Operations and Dispatch Center registers the emergency outage and coordinates the switching or shutdown of equipment
• The repair crew receives the task through a mobile application and submits requests for the resources required to resolve the issue
• Once the fault has been resolved, the responsible employee confirms the successful completion of the work

The solution, which is integrated with the client’s systems (SAP ERP, SharePoint), enables users to plan and assign tasks, track the progress of work, record the use of materials, and optimise routes.

“The digital solution integrates with the company’s enterprise systems, enabling real-time monitoring of incident resolution and efficient resource planning,” said Oleksii Vygodskyi, Head of Enterprise Applications and Technologies at MODUS X.

Generally speaking, a digital product consists of the following components:

• A web application for creating work orders and planning maintenance and repair activities
• A mobile application for automating task assignment and recording work results
• SAP Connector for end-to-end integration with SAP systems and other applications, ensuring reliable data transfer in the SAP ERP native format and access to SAP reports
• SAP ERP for data exchange between the mobile application and the company’s enterprise systems

Using SAP MRS for short-term planning and mobile devices to record work increases productivity and ensures transparency in the execution of tasks.

Results and achievements:

The implementation of this solution has enabled DTEK to optimise the process of repairing faults on the electricity networks, reduce the time taken for repair work and emergency response, significantly cut down on paperwork, ensure transparency regarding the work carried out, and improve overall customer satisfaction by reducing the duration of power cuts.

“Thanks to the new IT solution, our staff can resolve faults on average 15 per cent faster. There is no longer any need for paper work orders or approvals. Repair teams do not need to make an extra call to the dispatcher. All they need to do is mark the start of work in the mobile app and confirm that the work has been completed,” comments Denys Bondar, CEO of DTEK Kyiv Power Grids.

The development of a mobile app for DTEK has made it possible to optimise and automate the process of resolving faults on electricity networks. However, the DTEK energy holding company is not resting on its laurels and, together with MODUS X, is confidently continuing on the path towards the digital transformation of the company’s operational processes.