ArcLogistics Excells Within Large Utility

Nashville Electric Service, Nashville, Tennessee

One of the largest public utilities in the country, Nashville Electric Service (NES) distributes energy to more than 329,000 customers in middle Tennessee. The NES service area covers 700 square miles—which includes all of Davidson County and portions of the six surrounding counties. Responsible for 104,700 streetlights and private lights, NES receives 75 to 100 calls for maintenance per day.

"I would download the calls from the main office and print them out," says John Thomas, line supervisor, NES. "I would take all of the calls for the next day and look up all of the addresses—and this is in a town the size of Nashville. I would group the calls into areas and then give each crew a sheaf of papers. It was a long, slow process."

"We began to have retirements," comments Michael Buri, lighting and attachments supervisor, "and the people who knew the system inside and out were starting to leave. The remaining employees did not have the years of experience to know where each particular light or address was located or the expertise of retiring employees who had worked at NES for 30 or 40 years.

"While investigating our options, we looked at ArcLogistics," adds Buri, "and it worked with our operations crews and here at headquarters. Based on what we saw, we realized we could get a very good response with minimal input."

"The crews love it," says Thomas. "Not only did it make my job a lot faster and easier, but it also did the same for them. They can look at my cover sheet with the route map, and they know exactly what area of town they're going to. Previously, they had to shuffle through a pile of papers and put all of their calls in order. That would take each crew about an hour every morning, time we're now using to service lights. We have had the program for a year now and have improved the number of lights serviced per day per crew by about 20 to 23 percent."