Wide coverage. High impact. Mobile workforce for optimized construction work

Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH is a subsidiary of Westfalen Weser Energie. As a regional and municipal grid operator, Westfalen Weser Netz organizes and guarantees the supply of around 700,000 people in a grid area of 6,400 km². One of the central tasks of the more than 1,000 employees is to ensure that the regional distribution grids are available to industry, commerce, agriculture and all households. This also includes around 44,000 photovoltaic systems and almost 60 percent renewable energy sources.

Network construction includes all sub-processes for the planning and conversion or new construction of systems and networks for the gas, electricity, heating and water sectors. Including the associated secondary technology. In other words, a range of tasks from working on high-voltage power lines to moving a street lamp.

The economic pressure on grid operators is not only increasing due to stricter regulations. Future requirements, such as e-mobility or smart grids, will also make increasing investment in grid expansion necessary. In addition, the average age of the network service workforce is comparatively high, which will exacerbate the future shortage of skilled workers.

In this environment, consistent digitalization is a key factor for future viability. However, in order to provide optimum process support, the corresponding IT must not only be available, but also intelligently configured and automated as far as possible. Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH has responded to this pressure to act: with a digitalization strategy that includes all fields and drivers of action, with modelling of cross-divisional synchronized processes and with automated mobile workforce management via the NEO Suite. All individually modified and harmonized with the existing SAP system solution without any friction losses.

Around 300 employees work for Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH in the area. For installation, faults, maintenance, etc. There is also a pool of external service providers. In total, this results in around 3,000 network construction measures per year, often involving cross-divisional orders. Westfalen Weser Netz uses E:PRO, an SAP add-on, for planning, commissioning and archiving the measures – as an integrating tool for all applications relating to energy-related construction.

Measures created as PM orders (SAP Plant Maintenance) are prepared in a user-friendly way as pre-assigned processes in the NEO Suite Mobile Workforce. This also includes the call-off of materials and services or reservations… all functions from the network construction report or costing are automatically “pulled in” here. In the same way, document management is synchronized with Mobile Workforce. Last but not least, this makes it easy for on-site fitters to become project managers who can schedule themselves.

With mobile workforce management via the NEO Suite, construction measures are commissioned using the “worklist defines employee assignment” mode. And always as “on schedule” as possible. To this end, the executors receive all relevant information, all communication channels and access to documents and their processing directly at their fingertips – all via the screen design of the mobile app. Employees have a free choice of end device: smartphone or tablet PC. In any case, the menu and data access have the same look and feel.

The NEO Suite provides Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH with a service and maintenance management system that intelligently links all the players involved in the process: from technicians to dispatchers.

In general, all NEO Suite components for a digital workforce solution are coordinated with each other on a user-specific basis – and can be integrated directly into existing SAP architectures without redundancies. In detail, this includes

• NEO Schedule: Resources on time in the right place
• NEO Mobile: digital assistance for technical teams