Pacific Gas and Electric Company
SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) serves Northern California for gas and electric power, and with 25,000 employees, is one of the largest utilities in the United States. PG&E generates power through fossil (coal and gas) and non-fossil (hydro and geysers) plants, but the system also includes the two Diablo Canyon nuclear power plants located in San Luis Obispo, Calif., about 250 miles from San Francisco. PG&E has used AutoVue since 1995 in its nuclear and non-nuclear engineering divisions.
"Now with the engineering division split in two locations, paper became a bit of a problem," says Nilesh Patel, a manager with the major projects group in San Francisco. Manual access and markup of drawings is impossible with the engineering division split into two distant locations.
PG&E has about 180,000 drawings at the Diablo Canyon facility and almost one million drawings related to the other plants are in San Francisco. The company uses the Saros document management system and the drawings, which are scanned as TIFF format raster drawings, reside on a Hewlett Packard UNIX computer.
By integrating the document and workflow management systems with the CAD packages used in the engineering division, PG&E's objective was to provide a process to accomplish revisions for key drawings within 24 hours following completion of plant modifications. To achieve the objective, PG&E identified four functional issues: locating a drawing; creating or modifying the drawing; routing the drawing through the change process; and identifying all affected drawings.
To address the viewing and markup needs, PG&E evaluated four systems, including AutoVue. Initially, another system was selected because it supported MicroStation, the CAD package used by PG&E. "But it didn't work very well for our needs," Patel noted. "We needed to integrate workflow management into the system and the other viewing and markup application turned out to be a disappointment."
Patel indicated the initial viewing and markup application selected was designed specifically for MicroStation, and when the nuclear engineering division went on-line they discovered the system was not user friendly with AutoCAD file formats.
"AutoVue automatically recognizes the file format and that's the feature we like," Patel stated. "We do get some vendor documents that are not MicroStation and are in a TIFF format." And the number of vendors is sufficient that automatic file recognition is a required feature for PG&E.
Patel emphasizes the first system had different markup applications for vector and raster files. "We were dealing with two packages even though it looked like one. With AutoVue it doesn't matter if it's vector or raster, you're using the same package."
AutoVue has better integration capabilities, according to Patel. "We found it easy to work with AutoVue. We are demanding much more than what the general packages are capable of doing."
"One of the features we were looking for was support for hybrid files from raster editing packages. AutoVue works well with our hybrid files," says Patel. "It has a lot more file formats than the first package selected."
"For viewing, printing and markup we use AutoVue." With PG&E's acquisition of 1,000 seats of AutoVue, Patel anticipates at least that many people will have access to it. "Over a period of time that might increase."
"It's quite user friendly." PG&E's implementation of an integrated document and workflow management system is still in "Beta" testing but Patel is impressed with AutoVue. And he is delighted with the support provided by Cimmetry Systems Inc. "We call them and they are responsive," he explains about Cimmetry's quick response to PG&E's requirements. PG&E has unique fonts and Cimmetry was willing and able to accommodate them.
AutoVue's accurate portrayal of drawings has impressed Patel and he likes the speed of AutoVue. "Once the drawing is there and you do the refresh, it's fast. When you zoom in and out, it's fast. It's a good feature."
About 40 PG&E staff experienced with viewing and markup applications have completed training with AutoVue and their feedback has been very positive. "They liked the product."
Whenever there is a design change, for example a pump replacement at a power plant, the drawings will be accessed electronically by using AutoVue and the engineer will markup all the required changes. The file will then be transmitted to the drafting department for the drawing to be updated.
"This way it remains electronic, there's no paper, and we have a record to fall back on if something goes wrong; there is an evidence trail so to speak," said Patel.
"Once you issue a drawing it's never going to be the same," he added. "The first time it goes to the field there will be some changes." Construction staff will make changes and then send it back to engineering for evaluation. "That's where AutoVue will be used."
Both engineering and construction staff will markup the drawing and submit it for approval, then send it back to the drafting department for it to be updated.
"There are so many places you can give a lot of tolerances for construction and it's required by law to have final "as-built" approval," cites Patel. "As-builts" are markups or sketches that describe the physical state of the plant and provide details within the limits of the specified design. On control room drawings, "as-builts" need to be distributed to the control room immediately.
When construction staff are finished with a drawing they will provide "as-builts" using AutoVue. It will be sent back to drafting for revisions and then issued as an updated drawing. Patel notes that in the past the process would have been done manually with paper, now it will be done electronically.
"Once you reduce paper there is a definite savings in cost and paper production," Patel said. Prior to the integrated solution, distribution of drawings amounted to dozens of copies.
And Patel notes accuracy as a related cost. "There is an issue of whether it was the latest draft." Of course this is a sensitive issue with a nuclear power generation plant.
"Efficiency is improved because you are not pushing paper anymore," Patel indicated. And workflow follow-up informs the right person as to the progress of a project.
"We've eliminated multiple logs," Patel said. "Before everybody maintained different logs. Now there is only a single workflow log and you know exactly where a drawing is at any given time."
Consequently, the number of hand-offs between staff has been reduced, which results in cost savings. "Every time you hand off a drawing it costs money because people spend time with it, even though there was no value added." Patel emphasizes that prior to implementing the integrated system there were up to 32 hand-offs of a drawing; now it's down to eight.
"We wanted to come out with an enterprise wide efficient system," says Patel referring to PG&E's objectives. "We are very confident we have that now."