Streamlining Attachment Printing from Oracle eAM

The Company

Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc. supplies wholesale electricity to parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. Since implementing STR Software’s AventX for Oracle EBS in 2006, Minnkota’s purchasing department has enjoyed the benefit of automated document delivery via fax and email from Oracle EBS. Minnkota Power also streamlined its document management process within the maintenance department by adding STR Software’s AventX for Oracle eAM.

The Problem

To coordinate the maintenance of expensive operating equipment and electrical plants, Minnkota Power Cooperative leverages the Oracle EBS module, Enterprise Asset Management (eAM). Minnkota Power uses Oracle’s eAM module to create “work order packets” comprised of a work order report output and associated database attachments such as step-by-step instructions, diagrams, checklists, and spreadsheets.

Originally, creating work orders and extracting the corresponding database attachments was a completely manual task, causing a significant drain on productivity. Users created a work order by submitting a print request to Oracle’s Concurrent Manager that printed the order (or batch of orders) to a local printer. Next, each corresponding work order database attachment had to be opened in its native viewer (i.e., MS Word, Adobe Acrobat) and printed to a local printer. Finally, users collected the printed output and manually matched the attachments to the appropriate work order, creating a packet. At Minnkota Power, a dozen employees create 9,000 work order packets per year in this inefficient manner. Tim Sanger, Systems Programmer II, estimates that each packet took anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to produce – at least 4,500 man-hours per year.

The Solution

Eager to increase efficiencies and automate the work order printing process, Minnkota Power installed STR Software’s AventX for Oracle eAM. During the first use of the solution, a complete work order packet was printed easily: a single print request to Oracle’s Concurrent Manager automatically collated and printed the output to the desired printer. “The users are very happy to accomplish other tasks while the work order packets print,” said Sanger, “The best part is, we did not have to perform any user training – they just print as they did before, but now the output contains the attachments.”

The purchasing department is taking advantage of the latest product offering as well. Often, when sending faxes electronically, purchasing is required to print and store hard copies of purchase orders and their related database attachments (i.e., terms and conditions). Now, with a single request, purchasing can see exactly what was faxed to the vendor and file the documents accordingly.