SAMMAMISH PLATEAU WATER
SPW uses InfraMarker RFID Web Widget for ArcGIS Online to enhance the efficiency of inspection of their water sampling facilities.
Evaluation of InfraMarker RFID to Improve Accuracy in Asset Management
Many times, field crews have difficulty identifying which asset their work order identifies as requiring inspection or maintenance. This is especially difficult when many assets are grouped closely together at a location.
Sammamish Plateau Water® (SPW) is located 15 miles east of Seattle, Washington and provides clean, reliable drinking water to more than 64,000 residents and sewer service to more than 48,000 people.
Since 2017, Sammamish has been using the ESRI® platform to manage its assets. The staff is continually looking at ways to optimize operations and planning. A persistent issue that all water utilities face is simple verification of asset identity.
SPW decided to test RFID marking on field assets by using the InfraMarker RFID solution in a small pilot project. They selected an asset where the existing process and the RFID-enhanced process could be compared simultaneously and would render results quickly. Sammamish Water Plateau gathers data from 77 water sampling facilities that allow drinking water to be analyzed for bacteria, chlorine levels, pH, inorganic and organic pollutants and other water quality indicators. Each month, inspectors take water samples from each station and analyze it using mobile testing stations. The sample data is recorded at each location using Esri’s Collector®.
THE CHALLENGE
To test RFID verification, SPW added InfraMarker RFID tags to each sampling station and recorded the specific ID through a web app that pulls data from ArcGIS and displays the appropriate forms to collect the test data associated with that sampling station’s RFID tag, mirroring the process used by Collector.
THE SOLUTION
RFID offers a quick way for a field technician to quickly verify the identity of any asset simply by reading the RFID tag. Once the tag is read, the correct forms are displayed for each specific asset, eliminating identification errors and permanently associating asset data in ArcGIS® with the correct asset.
Radio Frequency Identification has been used for decades to identify and track everything from parts on the manufacturing floor to library books to cars passing through toll booths.
RFID’s characteristics that include providing a unique ID for each chip, durability, affordability and versatility are the key to precise asset management.
Berntsen International, a company known for marking the infrastructure of the world, incorporated RFID into a range of marking products as well as widgets that connect RFID data to ArcGIS – a solution aptly named InfraMarker.
Berntsen’s software team used Esri’s Web AppBuilder® to create a web widget that writes and reads the RFID tag data and associates it with records in ArcGIS.
“I was impressed with the setup and install process. It took less than two hours to get up and running.”
— Brett Angel, Database Administrator, Sammamish Water Plateau
“This is great! Now, we can be confident the sample data we collect is for the correct Sample Station.”
— John Anderson, Water Superintendent, Sammamish Water Plateau
THE RESULTS
Proof of Concept – Testing RFID in a small sample to determine feasibility of large-scale deployment of the solution within SPW’s asset management environment.
This small tested demonstrated —
InfraMarker RFID eliminates the misidentification of assets
The InfraMarker web widget is easy to use for reading and writing of asset sampling data
InfraMarker extends the power of ArcGIS to the field without adding additional burden to field staff – the simple point, click, select, fill in makes data gathering more streamlined
LOOKING AHEAD
SPW plans to use the winning combination of InfraMarker and ArcGIS for their other assets as well – from pumps to sampling stations, any asset can be precisely marked with InfraMarker, then immediately connected to ArcGIS – saving time and reducing errors without burdening field staff.