A study on the impact of automating a manual meter reading process

Abstract

Managers strive to improve the performance of their organisation. As decision makers, they have an important role to play. The success or failure of an organisation depends on the capability of the management in building an effective and efficient operational system within the organisation. To achieve this, information is an irreplaceable asset. In the case of the Water 福利在线免费 Corporation this information includes such as that available in the form of meter reading data retrieved from service meters. After looking into the various options of automation, in the year 2003, the water 福利在线免费 finally launched an On-Site Meter Reading (OMR) pilot project. This system was introduced to address the long awaited need for a new meter reading and billing system. The traditional manual meter reading process was a very lengthy one. A major setback was that it involved repetitive human intervention thus increasing the chance of errors. Along with this, reports generated for account validation and resubmission purposes were abundant, thus taking up more time to finalise before invoicing. The introduction of automation through OMR gave a new dimension to the concept of the meter reading and the billing process. This study (by means of a questionnaire) investigated opinions of WSC employees on both the old and new system. These employees, from the corporation's various sections, are involved directly in the meter reading and billing process, along with others who deal with customer service. Hence, the Questionnaire was structured so as to have the participant's opinions on both the manual meter reading process and the OMR system. A limited amount of meter reading data was also obtained from the Water 福利在线免费 Corporation, Gozo Unit. Results obtained from the internal questionnaire showed that the managerial decision to opt for automation did in fact improve effectiveness as regards to customer service, while also improving overall efficiency within the WSC meter reading and billing operational system.