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The
Regional Municipality of York is one of six regional governments
in Ontario. York's Water and Wastewater branch is responsible for
the wholesale supply of drinking water to residents of the region's
nine municipalities and for the collection and treatment of wastewater.
The region has attracted new businesses and residents in recent
years with 15,000 to 20,000 more jobs added annually. During 2006,
York Region's population grew to a total estimated population of
950,674.
With
this growth, the Region of York's technology administrators knew
that its water work's modernization effort would become increasingly
vital. "As the population has grown rapidly over the years,
the demand for sufficient clean water has become larger," says
a Regional Municipality of York representative.
Prior
to its technology upgrade, the Region of York's field operators
recorded their field meter readings using pen and paper at various
hub sites. Afterwards, the operators input their data into an Excel
spreadsheet at their main offices. Each hub site has vast amounts
of data to be recorded and a wide range of forms for data input.
To
correct the problem, the Region decided to implement Xplore rugged
mobile computers to streamline the process to capture on-site data.
"Under our evaluation and testing, the Xplore computer earned
good feedback and comments from other users in York Region,"
said the York representative.
Once
implemented, the York Region's Water and Waste Water branch experienced
a number of process improvements, including: (1) a single point
of entry reduces work for reporting; (2) in-field analysis and trending
tools on the Xplore tablet; (3) automated error-checking and notifications
for erroneous data entry; and (4) compliance thresholds for water/wastewater
flow and chemical consumption are immediately visible for issue
tracking.
"All
the operators love the new systems as it really saves data capturing
time," said York's representative. "Instead of carrying
paper forms, operators just carry a handy tablet computer which
eliminates the chance to lose or mix data."
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