I. INTRODUCTION
For the
operation in sewage plants exist a large number of
obligations, which have to be kept from the operator. To the obligations belong
under the documentation of the operating, legal requirements, the protection of
the employees, customer requirements, goals of the enterprise, safety
requirements etc. For the fulfilment of these obligations it is necessary that
the employees are informed about the points which are important for their work.
Employees
in a sewage plant have during their work contact with many substances and
components, from which different endangerments can proceed for them and the
environment. The task of the plant operator is to determine operating
instructions for the employees to avoid situations which can be result in
endangerments for the employees and the environment.
With the
current information technology it is no problem for the employees to retrieve
central provided information at any personal computer in the network of the plant.
Rather the availability of information leads to problems for the employees
because of the fast changing of information and the high number of available
sources over the internet. The challenge is therefore not to overload the
employees with information and to dam the information flood (Fig. 1). So it is
a goal to provide information to the employees fast and filtered by relevance
for their work.
Investigations
show that employees spend about 15 percent of their work time for the
information search. But not only the finding of information is a problem, also
the quality and the actuality are very important.
Therefore the main task for the structure of an information management in a
sewage plant follows the motto: “Make the right information available for the
right employee at the right place at the right time.”
II. SOLUTION
With the
methods developed by Fraunhofer UMSICHT (Fig. 2) all merged contents are united
to a plant specific organisation manual. The developed information system
contains two components: The information portal for the supply of the
information and the management tool for the administration. The information
portal provides all information for operating and is the front-end for the
employees. The management tool is only accessible to the administrators.
1. Navigation
Basic idea
with the development of the structure was the default that any information must
be attainable for the employee with only three mouse clicks. Therefore the
system is following the latin motto “Mille viae ducunt
hominem by saecula Romam” and offers four different ways for finding and
retrieving the necessary information:
1) Total
overview: If the employees need an overview, they can call
information about the contained tables with merged data for different topics,
e.g. an overview about all hazardous substances used for the waste water
treatment. The tables are available at any time via the title menu.
2)
Area-referred navigation: The area-referred
navigation is constituted of interactive images and drawings which can be used
by the employees for navigation among the different plant levels through the
particular workplaces. For each level they can retrieve the available
information. The representation adapts on each level to the existing
information.
3) Topic-referred
navigation: The topic-referred navigation gives the employees the
possibility to filter out the information by the topic they look for. In
combination with the image navigation the system shows where at the sewage
plant topic-referred information are available.
Figure 2. Portal structure
4) Full text search: With the
generation of the system all contained documents are indicated, therefore a
full text search can be accomplished over the whole system.
2. Connections between the information
An employee
is linked in the system with his workplace(s), also
exist a linkage of the employee with the hazardous substances and machines that
are used at the workplace. Also operating instructions, which belong to the
machines and hazardous substances, are applied to the workplace and in this way
to the employees who are linked to the workplace. So it is among others
possible to inform employees directly who are concerned by a changed
instruction. At the end the information are combined to a virtual manual for
the workplace in the system (Fig. 3).
All
information merged in the system upward to the next higher level of the
operating structure, until a virtual manual for the whole sewage plant is
formed. With the bottom-up method all available information are combined in the
necessary detail level with the operating structure. The used technology allows
to connect documents among each other by hyperlinks,
which also supports the information retrieval for the employees. In the same
way it is possible to connect external information to plant specific documents.
From the
linkage of the information in the plant with the operating structure results a
close information network, which makes the operating processes more transparent.
3. Schooling and maintenance
For the
planning of regular training courses and instructions for the employees the
system contains a task manager. Also the maintenance for the machines can be
planned with this tool. Tasks can be delegated directly to the responsible
employees. Accomplished training courses, instructions, maintenance and repair
measures can be logged for each employee respectively machine. In this way is a
history for all measures of an object (employee, machine) in the system
available.
