Part C: Case study of connection process at Abu Dhabi Distribution Company
Abstract

The construction projects and the demand on vital projects for water and power connections were increasing rapidly from the year 2008 until today’s date. Moreover, the whole world have face the global economic recession and it has affected a lot of companies and even some countries and put them on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. After that, the recovery of a lot of those who got their projects crippled due to the recession was almost done, and they got on the right track again. In order to start making use of their investments, they require getting their projects delivered to start benefiting from it as soon as possible. That being said, any delay in the process of delivering the power and water connections will relentlessly affect the reputation of the company provides it as well as will lead to unhappy customers. This is one of the reasons why Six-Sigma is becoming a part of the companies’ culture. Six-Sigma implementation would help us by statistical methods to measure the process in of a company’s procedure. Moreover, several additional points can be scored when we apply this framework such as the employees’ empowerment, leadership involvement and the satisfaction of the customers. This research attempts to study six sigma aspects in Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) to improve the process of power connection procedures by using quality tools like Pareto chart, Control chart and fish bone diagram. Using of those tools prioritized the causes and controls it. Moreover, those quality tools showed up if the process is in control or not, Capable or not and Centered or not. In addition to that it is identify and isolate the major causes from minor causes.

Introduction and background about ADWEA

During the period from, UAE independent day on 1971 till 1998, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has experienced a mega infrastructure development, including various utility services such as telecommunication, water and electricity, sewerage, etc. Considering the subject of the paper we are discussing, and in the view of the importance of both water and electricity during this development period, the aim was to produce and deliver this source of life by any mean, considering but not giving that importance to effectiveness and efficient methods to produce and deliver water and power. The whole cycle, starting from generation, transmission, distribution and supply was performed by the Water and Electricity Department of Abu Dhabi (WED), In order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this cycle, starting from raw materials till supplying necessary needs of both electricity and water to end users the Government of Abu-Dhabi, according to Abu Dhabi Law No.2, March 1998 has decided to establish what is called Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)

ADWEA is an organization fully owned by Abu Dhabi government. It was established in order to replace the former Water and Electricity Department (WED). ADWEA is taking care of all related businesses of water and electricity sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADWEA is responsible for providing water and electricity for more than 1.4 million people, around 40% of the total population of United Arab Emirates, covering an area that is forming more that 85% of the total area of UAE.
ADWEA owns a group of companies, working in the field of water and electricity, in which their affairs are being managed under its umbrella. The following list shows ADEWA subsidiaries: * Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (ADWEC) * Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) * Al Ain Distribution Company (AADC) * Abu Dhabi Company for Servicing Remote Areas (RASCO) * Al Mirfa Power Company (AMPC) * Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company (TRANSCO)

Moreover, ADWEA is holding 60% equity of the following power and water producers: * Emirates CMS Power Company (ECPC) * Gulf Total Tractebel Power Company (GTTPC) (Tawelah Desalination plant) * Shuweihat CMS International Power Company (SCIPCO) (Shuweihat Desalination plant) * Arabian Power Company (APC) (Umm-Al Nar Desalination plant) * Taweelah Asia Power Company - TAPCO * Emirates Semcorp Water & Power Company – ESWPC * Fujerah Asia Power Company – FAPC * Shuweihat S2 *
As far as distribution is concerned, Distribution and supply of both water and electricity is considered as the final stage of power/water generation and transmission before reaching to end-users.
The distribution system depends on the networking that carries electricity and water from the transmission system and delivers it to consumers. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is having two Distribution companies:

* Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) * Al Ain Distribution Company (AADC)

Introduction and background about ADDC

The focus point of our discussion will remain on Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) commenced its business in November 1998. ADDC is responsible for distributing high quality water and electricity services to all customers in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADDC’s main business focus is the planning, design, construction, and operation of the Abu Dhabi water and electricity distribution network.
To manage the work effectively, ADDC has divided the Emirate of Abu Dhabi into three main regions as mentioned below.

* Central Region (Abu Dhabi Island and the surrounding islands) * Eastern Region (Mussafah, Baniyas,Shahama) * Western Region (MadinatZayed up to Sila)

ADDC’s clients are increasing day by day and it has arrived up to 250,540 service agreements for the supply of water and/or electricity, which is distributed to customers throughout three regions.

The core activities of ADDC consist of planning and execution of work for power distribution to the public as well as to the capital works projects. On the other hand, ADDC has direct contracts from the development authorities to distribute the new projects and take part in the mega developments of newly structured infrastructures in new zones such as a running project to complete the infrastructure of South Shamkha.

The Vision and Mission of ADDC

Vision:
ADDC becomes a leading water and electricity company, comparable with the best in the world.

Mission:
Plan, develop, maintain, and operate a reliable, secure, safe, and cost effective distribution system in Abu Dhabi.

Value:
Commitment to Customers, Ethical Behavior & Integrity, Commitment to Employees, Excellence, Teamwork & Trust, Corporate Social Responsibility.

Connection Process Case Study at ADDC

As per the powers conferred on Regulation & Supervision Bureau by Article (82) of Law No. (2) of 1998 concerning the regulation of water and electricity sector in Abu Dhabi Emirate, Regulation & Supervision Bureau has issued license to ADDC to distribute water and electricity as well as supply water and electricity to the premises. This report focuses mainly on the connection of power process and the major factors which cause delays as well as the plan of reductionthe of the time taken to deliver power connection from ADDC network up to the clients’ premises. We will use the DMAIC methodology and go through its process as shown below:

It was noticed via the data base for the connections application in the system of customer care and billing that there are application that took a lot of time affecting the key performance indicators and deviate from the connection target time which is 38 days from the connection request opening date, which is considered the third step in the power connection process as shown below:

In order to overcome the problems and obstacles, it is required to apply statistical tools and techniques in order to raise the key factors causing the delays, such as: * Pareto Chart * Control Chart * Fishbone Diagram
Pareto Chart

Pareto chart is both bar diagram as well as linear one that helps us to pinpoint the major problems and define how frequent are the problems. Moreover, looking for the huge number of applications of power connections, we have decided to go with the inferential approach in statistics by taking samples of the delayed connection and check the delay causes and see how frequent did these causes occur. Furthermore, the sample was chosen randomly from all of the regions in order to get an idea about the main reasons crippling the connections and lead to time gap between planned and actual time taken to connect a customer. By looking at the below Paerto chart, we will have a better vision about the problems we have. The total number of cases taken was 50 applications of the cable termination applications, the third application applied. The ideal planned time from day one up to connection is 38 days.

From the upper chart, it is noticeable that we could know that obtaining No Objection certificates by ADDC contractors play the major role in increasing the time taken to execute a work order, which is a document that being prepared by the design unit and handed over as well as supervised by the projects division staff during the execution phase. The second problem is survey conducted by the survey team prior to the issuance of the work order. The aim of this activity is to define the services propose route before endorsing the same as it is proposed or with changes from the Town Planning department in Abu Dhabi Municipality. The issue from the survey is that the proposals are not feasible to be executed as well as not providing accurate services quantities in a work order that leads to variation of the value of a work order in EmiratiDirham. The maximum allowable variance between the proposed and actual site works to be done is 20% only. The project Engineer shall not proceed with the execution of the work until receiving another work order as a supplementary in order to cover the works that need to be included. This step is to ensure that no works shall be done beyond the design and to ensure that site engineers will stick to the scope and the individual who issued it shall endorse any variations. These variations will lead to time loss and there is no standard duration until looking at the correspondences between both project engineer and design engineer closes the same circle. This will contribute negatively in the duration taken to finalize the connection, which will result in delayed delivery of service for the customer and reflects unenthusiastic picture of ADDC. All in all, these two major issues are the main problems that if were improved, it would contribute a lot to achieve our goal.

Measure

Control Chart:

Date | Observations | Sample Size | Percent | Mean | UCL +3s | LCL -3s | +2s | -2s | +1s | -1s | 07/01/12 | 8.00 | 50 | 16.00% | 10.00% | 0.23 | 0.00 | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.14 | 0.06 | 08/01/12 | 10.00 | 50 | 20.00% | 10.00% | 0.23 | 0.00 | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.14 | 0.06 | 09/01/12 | 10.00 | 50 | 20.00% | 10.00% | 0.23 | 0.00 | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.14 | 0.06 | 10/01/12 | 9.00 | 50 | 18.00% | 10.00% | 0.23 | 0.00 | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.14 | 0.06 | 11/01/12 | 13.00 | 50 | 26.00% | 10.00% | 0.23 | 0.00 | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.14 | 0.06 |

Analyze

First of all, we will represent the process of the cable termination application in the below diagram:
Fishbone Analysis:

Delay in powere connection

Management
Man
Method
Measurement
Material

Underestimate the time required for NOC

Surveyors

Clients

Contractors

Inaccurate Survey

Lengthy NOC procedure

Old Survey tools

Inventory Shortage

Improve

From the previous analysis we have highlighted the major reasons behind the delays in the cable termination application, which is one out of five main stages to get a power connection as per ADDC procedures. Now, we will review the areas and their current process as well as adding our suggestion in order to improve the overall process and to enhance the outcome as per the required time frame.

Obtaining NOC from Different Entities

We have requested a flow chart along with the time frame for each entity. We noticed that some entitiesrequire more than 10 entities to approve the works and issue the no objectioncertificates for the contractor to enable him to obtain the final approval. Giving the type of work such contracts’ scope is aiming for, such delays and extensive approvals are time consuming. Moreover after discussing the same flow chart with different contractors to confirm the accuracy of the mentioned information the feedback was the same. We even noticed that the time required for each single work order to be executed exceeds the two months, which is for sure does not serve the purpose of delivering services within 38 days.

What we propose is that a high level arrangement shall be done in order to ease the process in order to serve the clients in the best manner. In other words, stretching the time is not very necessary from the entities side. On the other hand, it might not be fair to pressure them to give no objection and end up by damaging their assets. The midpoint solution is to give a conditioned no objection certificate stating that if the contractor while execution found any utility service are crossing with his approved route. Any reported damage in the same service corridor shall be the responsibility of the contractor and he shall be held responsible for it. We believe elimination of the whole process and cut to the point is a rational solution that will be good for the whole process improvement and reduce the time.

Survey Errors

As a second main reason for the delays due to the process discussed earlier, it is apparently a manpower error more than being a process error. The repetition of the same errors over and over from the same team might lead us to one conclusion, which is lack of accountability of those individuals. Moreover, The same should be discussed with the leaders of those surveyors to pin point the problems and resolve them. Moreover, action shall be taken against the people who underestimate their role in representing the organization’s picture and the level of service it provides. At the end of the day, connection time is what the customers care about and reflects the company’s image more than the development of the infrastructure and mega developments even.

Inventory Shortage
Inventory availability helps the end users in the organization to execute the work. However, whenever there is shortage in it, it obstructs the progress of its projects. As for ADDC, after reviewing the process, we found out that the process of establishing the acquisition plan is not as it, we think, supposed to be. In other words, as per the process, there is the first stage when the client approaches ADDC to apply for a Load Demand Notification, preliminary survey shall be conducted in order to define the required materials for the connection. The same data can be entered in the billing system along with the expected completion date of the project. Since it’s a database, ADDC can develop a query to get the materials added for projects completion date expected to be in certain year or even month. This was they can estimate the required materials. The only drawback for this methodology is that the client or the developer of a certain project might add or reduce their load demand during the project. This can be overcame by adding a tolerance of +10-20% on the materials requested to avoid the shortage. The same procedure shall be done for the planning sections, which are responsible for the network modifications to send their requirements of materials to purchase it based on the design and scope of work of such contracts.
Control

Controlling the gains of the six-sigma implementation is as important as the other steps are important. Moreover, if we don’t control what we have improved, this will lead to time and effort loss for the team that was gathering the data, analyzing and improving the process. For our case study, we believe that in order to control the state we reach after improvement is to follow up the reports and performance of all concerned business units involved in the process. Moreover, a team that its members consists from all departments involved in the process in order get the feedback how everyone is performing, and if there are any issues that needs to be resolved either by the team or the higher management if required.

Another step is to give training courses for the employees who are involved in the process and try to embed the definition of six-sigma approach and its importance to serve the main purpose which is serving the clients of ADDC in the best timely manner and quality. Furthermore, implanting the strategy and the vision of ADDC higher management to be in the top of power and water service providers in the world.
Conclusion of the Case Study

Reduction of power connection timeis one of the vital points. Providing high level of services to the clients and meet their demands is the responsibility of ADDC andit is well aware of its importance as a commitment towards the customers. ADDC is making steady progress to achieve this goal. It has mainly 2 phases; Identification and Assessment of delay reasonsas well asprevention of delay. As in the beginning, ADDC is in the Assessment phase and simultaneously carrying out rectification activities wherever it’s in the fingertips of ADDC. Other factors such as different entities need more coordination and arrangements to reach a deal that suits everyone.