The company has connected all the solar plants, via SCADA, and has implemented central monitoring systems for predictive analysis
Gurgaon-based ACME Group is known for Telecom Power and Solar Power in the country. ACME Tele-power is managing telecom tower sites in India and Africa. For which, it has 15000 field technicians across the country, who are managing the telecom tower across the country.There were many open tickets pending long overdue. These tickets were not closed during SLA. Open ticket was huge and company was paying huge penalty to the customers. Open ticket was due to timely attendance. None of the technicians was coming on time.
Submission of bill to the customer was around after 120 days, because field technicians were not sending the report on time. There was a huge financial loss on this concern. The company was facing tough challenge in Root Cause Analysis (RCA), because all data was manual and non-authentic. So maintaining the telecom site was an expensive proposition.
IT team at ACME developed a mobile application for all field technicians, and the company has distributed around tabs among technicians. To optimize the budget, ACME has opted the option of BYOD, 50% each cost is being borne by company and technicians. All technicians are paying some amount on monthly basis.
“The project implementation brought a sea-change across the organization, such as real time data, track of technicians etc. There was a huge impact on productivity and financial benefits. About 5% service admin cost has been reduced because online monitoring of field technicians activity and travel; 3% profitability increased because billing cycle reduced from 120 days to 0 days; process improvement directly affect late attending call i.e penalty reduction and SLA improved. Also, because of BYOD policy project cost was reduced by 50%,” told Manoj Kumar, Group CIO, ACME.
He also said that this project started a new culture of digital workspace in ACME across the globe. “The company has around 10-12 apps for its employees working in various segments,” Kumar added.
SCADA Automation at ACME
The CIO also told that ACME is leveraging benefits of IoT in a huge way. The company has connected all the solar plants, via SCADA, and has implemented central monitoring systems for predictive analysis. ACME has placed sensor devices at all its 40 solar plants to gather and analyze real-time data.
As explained by a research firm Intense Research, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is a computer-based system used to gather and analyze real-time data. A SCADA system usually consists of remote terminal units, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), telemetry and human machine interface. The information from sensors or manual inputs is sent to PLCs, which is further processed by computers using SCADA. Real-time data is analyzed and displayed in a logical and organized fashion to reduce waste and improve efficiency in the manufacturing processes.
The primary function of SCADA systems is to monitor and control remote equipment. It is used across diverse industries such as telecommunications, transportation, oil and gas refining, water and waste control. Increase in infrastructure investments in emerging countries and the demand for SCADA in oil and gas industry are driving the market for SCADA. According to the Intense research, rising demand for monitoring, visualization and controlling equipment from remote station is also adding to the market. The growing trend of automation among industries is creating opportunities for the SCADA market.
