Greater Toronto Airports Authority

Airport Authority Doubles Sign Inspection Efficiency with Mobile Solution

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) employs more than 1,000 people and operates Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada’s largest. Tightened government guidelines prompted GTAA to devise a technology solution for tracking and inspecting its many roadway signs. GTAA deployed ABOUTIME®, a mobile device–based solution that uses Windows Mobile® 5.0, Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition, Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Mobile Edition, and the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework to combine global positioning system (GPS), Bluetooth technology, digital photography, and barcode scanning capabilities. The solution, a resounding success, is being extended to all Toronto Pearson’s signs. Besides achieving regulatory compliance and mitigating possible lawsuits, it has reduced GTAA sign inspection labor costs by more than CDN$100,000 [U.S.$89,289] while doubling sign inspection efficiency.

 

Situation

Airports are often described as small cities. They encompass large areas of land and numerous facilities. They employ vast workforces and embrace newcomers nearly every hour of every day. They offer assorted public marketplaces, retail outlets, and eateries. And, of course, they facilitate the coming and going of both passengers and parcels on a non-stop basis.

Windows Mobile 5.0, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, and the .NET Compact Framework provide an exceptional foundation on which to build a mobile asset tracking solution. Tuan La IT and Telecommunications Manager, Greater Toronto Airports Authority

Managing, operating, and maintaining an airport can be quite a challenge; just ask the leaders of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA). Incorporated in 1993 as part of the Canada Corporations Act, GTAA is tasked with providing the Greater Toronto area with a regional system of airports that meets current and future demands for air services. The not-for-profit corporation is responsible for Toronto Pearson International Airport, which handled 31 million passengers in 2006.

“Managing an airport of this size is a considerable and multifaceted task,” says Peter Wiszniewski, Supervisor of the Sign and Graphics Department at GTAA. “We are continually making improvements to our operations, processes, facilities, and service.”

One recent improvement was brought forth by the twofold impetus of tightened government regulations and the potential for loss control and claims issues. In 1995, the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) published the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, outlining maintenance protocols that include biannual inspections of all roadway signage. To address this directive, GTAA established the Airport Signage Information System (ASIS) project, designed to improve the tracking, inspection, and maintenance of such signs at Toronto Pearson.

Prior to the ASIS project, the responsibility for inspecting airport signage was divided between the Sign Shop and the Pavement and Grounds Department. This was not considered to be either group’s primary or full-time responsibility, however, and inspections were therefore inconsistent.

“When we launched the ASIS project, we were inspecting and maintaining our signs in piecemeal fashion. We didn’t have sufficient details related to their location, condition, or when they were last inspected,” Wiszniewski explains. “The information we had was outdated, incomplete, and contained within a single paperback notebook.”

Although the ASIS project represented a reactive measure to government guidelines, GTAA leaders recognized this as an opportunity to proactively prepare the organization in the event of legal action. “If we are ever sequestered to court because a motorist gets in an accident on airport grounds, historical evidence of sign maintenance and condition becomes critical,” Wiszniewski says. “We saw the ASIS project as a way to mitigate possible legal action and better protect GTAA.”

The ASIS project also represented an opportunity to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. “Implementing a system that helps us better track, inspect, document, and maintain all of our signs doesn’t simply put us in compliance with government guidelines,” notes Wiszniewski. “It also improves our productivity and reduces our everyday expenses.”

Solution

GTAA has more than 10,000 road, building, and internal signs in use at any one time, and devising a new system for tracking, inspecting, and documenting them all was no small task. The ASIS team was aware of a project at Toronto Pearson that employed a Windows Mobile® 5.0 powered Pocket PC to inspect defibrillators, fire hydrants, and other life-safety equipment. Upon further inquiry, they were placed in contact with Irwin Consulting Services, a Microsoft® partner working with other groups within GTAA.

“The ASIS project team approached us and asked what it would take to develop a mobile solution that could help them track and inspect all airport signage,” recalls George Irwin, President and CEO of Irwin Consulting Services. “With extensive experience using Windows Mobile 5.0 and the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework, and having just developed an asset tracking solution for GTAA’s life-safety equipment, we knew we could quickly create a robust mobile solution for their signs.”

Three months after the specifications had been established, Irwin Consulting Services and the ASIS project team deployed a sign tracking and inspection solution that has paid significant dividends. Key to the solution is a mobile device–based software product—called ABOUTIME and developed by Irwin Consulting Services—that combines global positioning system (GPS), Bluetooth, digital photography, and barcode scanning technologies. ABOUTIME creates a chronologically indexed sign inspection history that can be securely accessed across GTAA’s corporate intranet.

To my knowledge, ABOUTIME is the first system to combine a Windows Mobile powered device, GPS, Bluetooth technology, barcode scanning, and digital photography to uniquely identify, map, photograph, and inspect assets in a time-based inventory. George Irwin President and CEO, Irwin Consulting Services

“To my knowledge, ABOUTIME is the first system to combine a Windows Mobile powered device, GPS, Bluetooth technology, barcode scanning, and digital photography to uniquely identify, map, photograph, and inspect assets in a time-based inventory,” says Irwin. “The solution resides comfortably on the broad shoulders of Windows Mobile 5.0, [Microsoft] SQL Server™ 2005 Mobile Edition, and the [Microsoft] .NET Compact Framework, which offer a fantastic development environment.

“In the past, implementing, testing, deploying, and troubleshooting mobile solutions were much more difficult because we were working with unmanaged, C++ code. Using managed, .NET code, however, reduced development time by roughly 500 percent. And with the new [Microsoft] Visual Studio® development tools and XML Web Services, resolving problems is much quicker on the rare occasion that they do arise. Most often the problems that we encounter are with existing client applications that are not yet running the .NET Compact Framework.”

GTAA is currently using two types of devices—Windows Mobile 5.0 powered Trimble GeoXT Pocket PCs and Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition powered Motion LE1600 Tablet PCs—to run SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition and the ABOUTIME application on airport grounds. “Windows is the only technology platform that can support a single application on both Pocket PC and Tablet PC devices,” explains Tuan La, IT and Telecommunications Systems Specialist for GTAA. “It provides tremendous flexibility.”

Personnel use the mobile devices to catalog and inspect all airport signs, noting signs’ location and condition. When the devices are docked at a central workstation, the information is uploaded through a Web Service and stored on GTAA’s database servers. The entire solution was built, and is linked, using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition and the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0. Irwin adds that the ABOUTIME application can run on a variety of Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition powered devices.

“In the past, work crews would haphazardly identify signage maintenance needs and take notes on a sheet of paper. The notes were eventually handed to an individual for data entry and work order processing purposes,” says Wiszniewski. “Comprehensive signage information and accounting simply did not exist, and inspections were erratic at best. Today, with a mobile device running the ABOUTIME application, a single individual can inspect and document airport signage quickly and efficiently.”

The bar scanning and digital photography capabilities of the solution make it possible for an inspector to log the particular sign and take one or more photographs of its condition. The user is then able to classify the type of sign; its location code (for example, highway or bridge); and details related to condition, support posts, mounting components, and traffic flow. All of these details are documented using check boxes and drop-down menus on the Tablet PC, eliminating handwritten notes and manual data entry. The information logged, as well as specific GPS coordinates and a time-stamp of the inspection, are included with each entry.

“Windows Mobile 5.0, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, and the .NET Compact Framework provide an exceptional foundation on which to build a mobile asset tracking solution,” says La. “From a user standpoint, it is extremely easy to capture, upload, and retrieve information. We can also create robust reports for planning, operational, and legal purposes. From a technology standpoint, the solution is very reliable and everything is seamlessly connected, from the mobile devices to the database servers to the workstations through which we access signage information and create reports.”

Getting a handle on GTAA’s numerous signs has been a multipart undertaking. All of Toronto Pearson’s 2,000 road signs have been given bar codes and successfully logged in the ABOUTIME application. The ASIS project team indicates that regular, biannual inspections of these road signs, which are of utmost concern to the MTO, are now underway. In addition, GTAA is in the process of cataloging the remaining 8,000 signs populating both the exterior and interior of all Toronto Pearson buildings.

Benefits

GTAA’s new sign tracking and inspection solution has delivered several improvements. First and foremost, the organization was able to accomplish its primary goal of compliance with the MTO’s sign inspection guidelines. The solution has also reduced GTAA costs, provided a significant boost in operational efficiency, and enhanced the availability and usefulness of its sign data.

Reduced Sign Inspection Labor Costs by 45 Percent
The mobile solution is saving considerable operational costs for GTAA. Because the mobile devices are extremely easy to use, GTAA has been able to hand the job of sign cataloging and inspections to a single contractor. These tasks were previously handled by multi-person crews from the GTAA Pavement and Grounds Department as well as Sign Shop personnel.

“We crunched the numbers, and the results are impressive,” Wiszniewski reveals. “Altogether, we have slashed our sign inspection labor costs by roughly CDN$100,000 [U.S.$89,289], while being able to redeploy our multi-person work crews to more critical assignments.”

Doubled Sign Inspection Efficiency
The mobile solution has also dramatically improved sign inspection productivity. “In the past, a two-person crew could inspect only 30 signs per day,” Wiszniewski notes. “Today, with our new mobile solution, a single contractor can perform 60 inspections each day. And the level of detail afforded by the new solution is far greater than that of our previous inspections.”

Due to the efficiency increase delivered by the mobile solution, sign maintenance is now streamlined and biannual inspections are now in progress. Also, scheduling repair work will soon become much faster, thanks to an automated work order plug-in that will be added to the ABOUTIME application.

Enhanced Availability and Value of Information
The sign tracking and inspection solution has also helped boost the visibility and usefulness of GTAA’s sign information. In addition to sign shop personnel, GTAA traffic engineers, maintenance crews, risk and loss control managers, airport planners, and technical datacenter workers are now accessing and making use of the information using the ABOUTIME application. As the visibility and consumption of this data grows, so too does its value.

Historical documentation and information goes a long way when it comes to satisfying MTO guidelines as well as proactively mitigating against risk exposure. GTAA is now in full MTO compliance with updated accounting of its many signs—including inspection timestamps, digital photographs, GPS coordinates, bar code scans, and details relating to sign condition and maintenance history.

Useful Model for Other Teams
According to Irwin, the sign tracking and inspection solution is being recognized and considered by others. “Additional departments within GTAA, including electrical, plumbing, and sewer system teams, are considering the mobile solution for their assets. And it is being used as a model for other transportation organizations in Canada,” he says. “A mobile asset tracking solution that boosts efficiency and saves costs has limitless possibilities.”

Microsoft Windows Mobile
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For More Information

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For more information about Irwin Consulting Services, call (877) 500-5227 or visit the Web site at:
www.irwincs.com

For more information about Greater Toronto Airports Authority, call (416) 776-3000 or visit the Web site at:
www.gtaa.com