TBC - Creating and Managing Work Orders For RPS Earthworks

D_EarthworksWorkorders_600ppi Earthworks Work Orders Command

The Earthworks Work Orders command provides a direct connection into the RPS Earthworks system for the upload of Work Orders, Surveyed Surfaces, Images and Linework (Map Layer) information.

Note: Linework is coming soon

The command depends upon the RPS Settings Command configuration described in the RPS Settings command documentation to connect to the Earthworks Server and Login to the system.

Click Here for details.

The Earthworks Work Orders command dialog looks as follows

There are four tab groups within the Earthworks Work Orders command. Each tab provides a specific workflow as detailed below

Work Orders Tab:

The work orders tab provides the management tools to create Work Orders (tasks) that will be executed and managed by the RPS Earthworks System. TBC’s role in that process is to create and upload the surface models and work order boundaries for the tasks to be executed. The surfaces are for the start point (existing surface) and the design surface or surfaces required for the task being created.

Surveyed Surfaces Tab:

The surveyed surfaces tab provides the management tools to create and upload surveyed surfaces and boundaries to the RPS Earthworks System. The surveyed surfaces are used by the RPS Earthworks system to supplement the data being delivered from the GCS900 machines to provide progress, productivity and production information in real time. The surveyed surface represents a snapshot of the project surface at the date and time defined for the surveyed surface. The surveyed surface information will typically be derived from drone flight point clouds on a weekly or monthly basis.

For more information on Managing Surveyed Surfaces - Click Here

Images Tab:

The images tab provides the management tools to create and upload image data (PDF Pages, Aerial Imagery, Site Drawings etc.) in a georeferenced format at high resolution to the RPS Earthworks system for use as Map Layers to provide up to date visual context in the graphics windows of the RPS Earthworks System. The tools here allow you to create the images from imported image data, to create the map layers to hold the imagery and to upload the imagery to the map layers for the RPS Earthworks System.

For more information on Managing Images - Click Here

Linework Tab: (Coming Soon)

The linework tab provides the management tools to create and upload linework, text and other CAD type data in a georeferenced format to the RPS Earthworks system for use as Map Layers to provide visual context in the graphics windows of the RPS Earthworks System. The tools here allow you to create the linework on TBC layers and then upload those layers of information to the Map Layers for the RPS Earthworks system.

For more information on Managing Linework - Click Here


Work Orders Tab

There are three types of Work Orders currently supported by the RPS Earthworks system. They are as follows

  1. Backfill Work Orders
  2. Grading Work Orders
  3. Cut Fill Work Orders

Backfill Work Orders

A backfill work order is a backfill operation that starts at a Starting Surface and builds up an earthworks fill to a design surface. Once the design surface has been achieved, the work order changes to a capping surface model that sits on top of the design surface. The work order has a boundary that limits the area of all computations that are made by the RPS Earthworks system. The Work Order therefore has the following elements that are created by TBC.

  • Starting surface
  • Design surface
  • Capping surface
  • Work order boundary

Grading Work Orders

A grading work order is an operation where an existing surface is trimmed e.g. a haul road maintenance operation. The work order requires the existing surface and a design surface for the final grade. The work order has a boundary that limits the area of all computations that are made by the RPS Earthworks system. The Work Order therefore has the following elements that are created by TBC.

  • Starting surface
  • Design surface
  • Work order boundary

Cut Fill Work Orders

A Cut Fill work order is a bulk earthworks operation where an existing surface is excavated and filled to create the design surface. The work order requires the existing surface and a design surface for the final grade. The work order has a boundary that limits the area of all computations that are made by the RPS Earthworks system. The Work Order therefore has the following elements that are created by TBC.

  • Starting surface
  • Design surface
  • Work order boundary

Type Filter:

The work order type filter allows you to select one of the above types of work order as a filter on the list of all currently active work orders to minimize the work order list to just those that meet the filter criteria.

Status Filter:

Work Orders have a series of status that they pass through from the initial creation to final completion sign off and archive. The status of the work order is progressed to track the current status of all active tasks. The status sequence is defined as follows

  • In design
  • Not scheduled
  • Scheduled
  • In progress
  • Needs approval
  • Approved
  • Completed
  • Archived
  • Canceled

TBC is used at the earliest stages of a Work Order in that it is used in the In design phase only. TBC will import the digital design data and the existing / starting point surfaces and can be used to develop the designs and add the work order boundaries required for the task. TBC will create the work orders and populate the starting point data for the work order to be fully defined. The full definition of the work order is then carried out by the RPS Earthworks Manager system.

Once the design data has been populated into the RPS Earthworks system, the work order automatically moves to the Not scheduled status while it awaits the full work order definition (see RPS Earthworks documentation for more details).

Once the work order has been fully defined, meaning that the number of equipment assets have been defined along with their planned production rates and working shift patterns (number of hours and number of days per work week) and any tolerances have been assigned, the work order can move into the Scheduled phase - this means that the work order is ready to start work.

The work order moves into In Progress phase automatically when the first GCS900 machine TAG data file is received by the RPS Earthworks system that contains data that resides within the Work Order boundary after the work order has been scheduled. This also starts the production / productivity clocks that monitor the performance metrics of the work order.

When the work order is completed from a field operations perspective i.e. the design surface and or capping surface model has been built by the machines to the tolerances as defined by the work order parameters, the work order moves into the Needs Approval stage. In this phase, any additional survey work to verify the completion status, or on site checks and sign offs can be collated before moving the work order into the Approved stage.

Once the work order has been approved, it can be set to Completed by the manager responsible for the work activity. Once completed it can be set to Archived at any time when appropriate to remove it from the active work orders list in the RPS Earthworks dashboard.

If at any time a work order is aborted or rejected, it can be cancelled which removes it from the Work Orders dashboard.

Work Orders list:

The work orders list will populate with all of the active work orders that meet the type and status filter that have been applied to the work orders list. There is a third filter that is also applied based on the settings defined under RPS Settings for the Earthworks commands. The third optional setting allows you to filter the work orders list down to only those work orders that have been created from the current TBC project.

Create work order:

To create a new work order click the Create work order button. This will open the following pop up dialog that needs to be completed to define the work order.

image

Title:

Enter the Title for the Work Order, you can use this to e.g. match the design references e.g. Backfill - 860 - Move16.

Description:

Enter a description for the work order that maybe expands the Title information to provide a little more detail

Plan Reference:

Enter the mine job code or plan reference for the task being created

Work order type:

Select the work order type from the pull down list that offers Backfill, Grading or Cut Fill types.

Boundary

Select the boundary object in the TBC graphics that will be used to limit the work order computations. The command requires the selected object to be a TBC boundary object. The boundary object can be of any usage type. The create boundary command can be accessed from the command header area of the Earthworks Work Orders command. Here you can also convert other lines into boundaries as required. The boundary is used as an automatic filter for the TAG files and production computations being carried out by the RPS Earthworks system.

Recommendation
While it is tempting to create complex boundaries around the work order area, you want to keep the boundaries as small and as simple as necessary to capture all of the work that will be considered a part of the work order execution. Complex boundaries slow down the computations, simple rectangular boundaries if possible that maybe cover a little more area are better and faster from a computation perspective.

Starting surface:

Select the surface model from the surface list pull down that represents the initial state of the area of work to be completed. Because all of the Earthworks work orders are used to compute initial volumes for the task and are also used to track the changes in volume over time, the starting surface ideally covers the entire area of the boundary selected for the work order.

Note: we currently recommend that if you are using the same surface model with different boundary lines to create the starting surface for a Work Order that you create the starting surface as an additional surface in TBC that is unique for each Work Order. We will update either TBC or the Earthworks system to resolve this need shortly, but currently this is the recommendation.

Design surface:

Select the surface model from the surface list pull down that represents the target design surface for the work order being created. The entire design surface of interest to the work order should lie entirely within the boundary selected for the work order. The design surface needs to encompass the entire volume of the work order being created. In the example data that was provided, only the top surface of the backfills was provided, i.e. the front slope was not included in the design model, this would result in an incorrect volume estimate for the work order task, and would also mean that only the area directly below the design surface would be used in some of the work in progress to design surface computations - see diagrams below

Good situation

Incorrect situation

If the design surfaces do not include the front face of the backfill, or if they don’t include the tie slopes for the design surfaces, you can use TBC commands to compute those before uploading the surfaces into the work orders.

Design Style:

Select the design tolerance style that you want to apply to the design surface for the work order being created. Design tolerance styles are defined in the RPS Settings command accessible from the header row of the Work Orders command. The tolerances provide a High and a Low Tolerance for the backfill surface.

Capping surface:

Select the surface model from the surface list pull down that represents the target capping surface for the backfill type of work order being created. The entire capping surface of interest to the work order should lie entirely within the boundary selected for the work order. The capping surface needs to encompass the entire volume of the work order being created in the same way that was described above for the design surfaces.

Capping Style:

Select the capping tolerance style that you want to apply to the design surface for the work order being created. Capping tolerance styles are defined in the RPS Settings command accessible from the header row of the Work Orders command. The tolerances provide a high and low tolerance for the capping surface as well as the target thickness and the high and low tolerances for the material thickness checks for this part of the work order.

Upload surface information:

Once the work order content has been defined, click the upload surface information button to initiate the upload of the data to the RPS Earthworks system. Note that large surface models e.g. Starting Surface made from LAS point cloud data can take a while to upload to the RPS Earthworks system.

Note: All surfaces that re uploaded to the RPS Earthworks system are cropped automatically to the work order boundary prior to upload. The original surfaces are not affected by the cropping process.

Results:

As the surfaces and boundary data are uploaded to the RPS Earthworks system the progress and success / failure of the upload is captured in the Results area.

Command Tips:

The command tips provide hints to you as a user on how to use the command where tips are useful. The tips are supplemented by pressing the F1 key to access this help document and video.


Video Demonstration:

The following video shows you how to use the Images tab of the Earthworks Work Order command


Command Header toolbar:

In the header area of the command you will find quick access icons for other TBC commands that you may need while running the Earthworks Work Orders command. These include

  • RPS Settings
  • Earthworks Website
  • Create Surface
  • Add and Remove Surface Members
  • Create Boundary
  • Create Plotbox

Close:

Click close to close the command