Steam System Discrepancy Report
Budget: $1,500 – $3,000 USD
REPORT OF PLANT DISCREPANCIES
Inveno Engineering has compiled a large database of static information in reference to industrial steam systems. This database of information is stored in multiple Excel spreadsheets. We will use the term “record” to designate all information relative to a specific plant non-compliance with respect to industry codes or accepted practices. Based on on-site inspections performed at various plants by our Field Engineers Inveno determines whether a plant is either “In Compliance” or “In Discrepancy” with respect to the individual issues contained in the “records”. These records contain information relating to the possible causes of a discrepancy, the consequences of allowing these discrepancies to go unresolved and recommendations for how the discrepancies can be remedied.
Inveno desires to have a front-end application which allows a user to create, print, analyze and historize concise and professional one-page reports that include all information required to remedy the situation. The idea is that these concise reports will be provided to the person assigned to implement the “fix” and correct the discrepancy. These reports, in addition to providing data to the user, must be able to accept input from the user in the form of person assigned to remedy the situation, the date of the assignment, forecasted completion date of the remedy, etc. This information should be appended to the existing “record” associated with the specific discrepancy. Inveno would allow certain “fields” in the Discrepancy Report, many of which are to be automatically populated by the Report Generation System, to be overwritten by the user. Specifically, the user may want the flexibility to override the Priority of the issue resolution which had been established by Inveno Engineering.
Some discrepancies that have been identified may be accompanied by a photo which depicts the discrepancy in real-time. These photos, taken by the Inveno Field Engineering team, should become part of the “record” of the specific issues.
Inveno would like these “records” to be searchable with dropdown menus for some of the search criteria. Search criteria may be the specific area of the plant in which the discrepancy was identified, discrepancies of a certain priority, etc. After selection of all pertinent criteria the system should support “one button” generation of the Discrepancy report.
In the near term Inveno would like to keep Microsoft Excel as the front-end of this application. This is due to the fact that many of its customers are familiar with Excel and comfortable in its use. The backend database does not need to remain in Excel, but in the short term this is desired if the technology can support the requirements. It should be noted that the system must allow for seamless addition of “new” information to the database records without necessitating a great deal of rework in the system. Inveno is discovering new “issues” at various times on projects and must be able to easily incorporate these “new” findings into the Report System.
Each record should support the addition of “temporary” fields for information to be easily added by the Inveno Field Engineers. These temporary fields would allow the Inveno Field Engineers to document items such as reminders to request additional input, items needing clarification from client personnel, etc.
Each record should support the addition of a field which indicates whether the discrepancy has been resolved, by whom it was resolved and the date on which it was resolved. This is to be accomplished by a live link between the one-page summary report and the underlying record. Each record should also provide for a “column” which indicates whether the Field Engineers has determined whether or not the issue is in Discrepancy.
Once created the one-page reports should be retrievable and a history of changes to the report should be logged. A history of the one-page reports should be kept and the user provided the capability to document what changes were made to the latest copy of the report (re-assignment to a different engineer, completion of the remediation, etc.)
PHASE 2: Summary reports should be accessible as well by the user. For example the user may want to know how many discrepancies in a certain area of the plant have been resolved in the past 3 months. As such the system must provide for 1) one-page concise reports generated in real-time by the user which provide detailed information about one specific discrepancy, and 2) summary reports providing a historical view of the work that has been performed in the past on such things as Priority 1 issues, condensate recovery systems, issues addressed by a certain engineer, etc.
Most of the static information contained in the records are only to be modified by Inveno personnel. Only certain fields in the records are to be changed by the user and only via the front-end application of the report. The user should never have access to the underlying database.
Discrepancies are characterized by the Plant Name, the Area of the specific plant, the equipment affected/assessed. Field Engineers are to label all photos with the information required to affix the photos to the individual records.
The system must support the ability to import files of “Discrepancy/Non-discrepancy” for specific areas of the plant and this information is to be added to the existing records. The rationale behind this requirement is that in the near future the Field Engineers may collect their field data with an iPad or equivalent. As such the System must support downloads of this information into the existing database.
The system must provide for a separate user interface for the Field Engineers in order to upload photos, upload files of “Discrepancy/Non-Discrepancy” as well as making any changes to the existing static database. There are no requirements on the technology used to implement this user interface.
In the interim, while waiting for a “report writer application” to be developed, Inveno may continue to use the multiple spreadsheet model for conveying information to the client. Should a specific issue be determined to NOT be in discrepancy Inveno Engineering would like this specific record to be “Hidden” from the user in order to provide for a cleaner looking report.
It is recommended that Inveno include in each record the source of the information that was used to determine whether a specific item is in “Discrepancy”. This would include direct inspection, discussion with client field personnel, documents provided by client team members, etc. Since some information may be obtained by large PID drawings the underlying database should support the inclusion of these drawings and allow for accessing of the drawing should an appropriate “reader” be installed on the user’s machine.
The system must be easily and seamlessly expandable to include additional issues or items as they naturally occur. The addition of some items to the underlying database should not be cause for errors in the system. For example, should Inveno Engineering decide that it would like to include links to industry standard documents in its database the existing design should support this seamlessly.
Some data included in the one-page discrepancy report should have the capability of being linked to the industry specification, ASME code language, etc. should the user want to read and interpret the specification for himself.
Plant personnel will most likely have little interest in learning a new protocol for generating reports from the system. As such every effort should be made to ensure that the process is intuitive and straightforward. Users today have become accustomed to using apps that utilize concepts such as drop-down menus, hot links, hovering information, etc. The instantiation of this proof of concept should be such that no training is required by the user to begin using the system.
Inveno Engineering has compiled a large database of static information in reference to industrial steam systems. This database of information is stored in multiple Excel spreadsheets. We will use the term “record” to designate all information relative to a specific plant non-compliance with respect to industry codes or accepted practices. Based on on-site inspections performed at various plants by our Field Engineers Inveno determines whether a plant is either “In Compliance” or “In Discrepancy” with respect to the individual issues contained in the “records”. These records contain information relating to the possible causes of a discrepancy, the consequences of allowing these discrepancies to go unresolved and recommendations for how the discrepancies can be remedied.
Inveno desires to have a front-end application which allows a user to create, print, analyze and historize concise and professional one-page reports that include all information required to remedy the situation. The idea is that these concise reports will be provided to the person assigned to implement the “fix” and correct the discrepancy. These reports, in addition to providing data to the user, must be able to accept input from the user in the form of person assigned to remedy the situation, the date of the assignment, forecasted completion date of the remedy, etc. This information should be appended to the existing “record” associated with the specific discrepancy. Inveno would allow certain “fields” in the Discrepancy Report, many of which are to be automatically populated by the Report Generation System, to be overwritten by the user. Specifically, the user may want the flexibility to override the Priority of the issue resolution which had been established by Inveno Engineering.
Some discrepancies that have been identified may be accompanied by a photo which depicts the discrepancy in real-time. These photos, taken by the Inveno Field Engineering team, should become part of the “record” of the specific issues.
Inveno would like these “records” to be searchable with dropdown menus for some of the search criteria. Search criteria may be the specific area of the plant in which the discrepancy was identified, discrepancies of a certain priority, etc. After selection of all pertinent criteria the system should support “one button” generation of the Discrepancy report.
In the near term Inveno would like to keep Microsoft Excel as the front-end of this application. This is due to the fact that many of its customers are familiar with Excel and comfortable in its use. The backend database does not need to remain in Excel, but in the short term this is desired if the technology can support the requirements. It should be noted that the system must allow for seamless addition of “new” information to the database records without necessitating a great deal of rework in the system. Inveno is discovering new “issues” at various times on projects and must be able to easily incorporate these “new” findings into the Report System.
Each record should support the addition of “temporary” fields for information to be easily added by the Inveno Field Engineers. These temporary fields would allow the Inveno Field Engineers to document items such as reminders to request additional input, items needing clarification from client personnel, etc.
Each record should support the addition of a field which indicates whether the discrepancy has been resolved, by whom it was resolved and the date on which it was resolved. This is to be accomplished by a live link between the one-page summary report and the underlying record. Each record should also provide for a “column” which indicates whether the Field Engineers has determined whether or not the issue is in Discrepancy.
Once created the one-page reports should be retrievable and a history of changes to the report should be logged. A history of the one-page reports should be kept and the user provided the capability to document what changes were made to the latest copy of the report (re-assignment to a different engineer, completion of the remediation, etc.)
PHASE 2: Summary reports should be accessible as well by the user. For example the user may want to know how many discrepancies in a certain area of the plant have been resolved in the past 3 months. As such the system must provide for 1) one-page concise reports generated in real-time by the user which provide detailed information about one specific discrepancy, and 2) summary reports providing a historical view of the work that has been performed in the past on such things as Priority 1 issues, condensate recovery systems, issues addressed by a certain engineer, etc.
Most of the static information contained in the records are only to be modified by Inveno personnel. Only certain fields in the records are to be changed by the user and only via the front-end application of the report. The user should never have access to the underlying database.
Discrepancies are characterized by the Plant Name, the Area of the specific plant, the equipment affected/assessed. Field Engineers are to label all photos with the information required to affix the photos to the individual records.
The system must support the ability to import files of “Discrepancy/Non-discrepancy” for specific areas of the plant and this information is to be added to the existing records. The rationale behind this requirement is that in the near future the Field Engineers may collect their field data with an iPad or equivalent. As such the System must support downloads of this information into the existing database.
The system must provide for a separate user interface for the Field Engineers in order to upload photos, upload files of “Discrepancy/Non-Discrepancy” as well as making any changes to the existing static database. There are no requirements on the technology used to implement this user interface.
In the interim, while waiting for a “report writer application” to be developed, Inveno may continue to use the multiple spreadsheet model for conveying information to the client. Should a specific issue be determined to NOT be in discrepancy Inveno Engineering would like this specific record to be “Hidden” from the user in order to provide for a cleaner looking report.
It is recommended that Inveno include in each record the source of the information that was used to determine whether a specific item is in “Discrepancy”. This would include direct inspection, discussion with client field personnel, documents provided by client team members, etc. Since some information may be obtained by large PID drawings the underlying database should support the inclusion of these drawings and allow for accessing of the drawing should an appropriate “reader” be installed on the user’s machine.
The system must be easily and seamlessly expandable to include additional issues or items as they naturally occur. The addition of some items to the underlying database should not be cause for errors in the system. For example, should Inveno Engineering decide that it would like to include links to industry standard documents in its database the existing design should support this seamlessly.
Some data included in the one-page discrepancy report should have the capability of being linked to the industry specification, ASME code language, etc. should the user want to read and interpret the specification for himself.
Plant personnel will most likely have little interest in learning a new protocol for generating reports from the system. As such every effort should be made to ensure that the process is intuitive and straightforward. Users today have become accustomed to using apps that utilize concepts such as drop-down menus, hot links, hovering information, etc. The instantiation of this proof of concept should be such that no training is required by the user to begin using the system.