Necessary and sufficient functions of ERP systems for power engineering specialists and housing and public utilities

Control functions by administrative activity of the enterprise

Certainly, some basic feature set of the ERP system will be the general for all energy companies and the housing and public utilities enterprises. These functional units have no tough binding to any industry or a field of activity at all, but, nevertheless, should consider the corresponding industry specifics. It is possible to carry to a similar standard set of blocks:

• Block of financial accounting and planning;
• Control block personnel;
• Business intelligence block.

Financial accounting and planning

The block of financial accounting and planning provides, as well as in other industries, maintaining managerial, financial, accounting and tax accounting, reporting, management of cash flows, implementation of planning, budgeting, etc.

Personnel management

The control block personnel allows to automate payroll and all necessary taxes and assignments, formation of statistics, forms and various reports for external and internal needs, maintaining documentation on personnel problems and the personified accounting, a time recording and the analysis of its effective use, accounting, planning and control of labor resources of the enterprise, etc.

Business intelligence

The block of a business intelligence is intended for extraction and structurization of the "crude" data which are contained in the operational systems and their conversion to the useful information suitable for business activity monitoring, carrying out the analysis, a research of data, reporting, forecasting of a situation and development of solutions.

The tasks solved by above-mentioned blocks a little in what differ from the similar tasks which are carried out in the companies of other industries. Functional units about which the speech will go below have the expressed industry specifics. It is possible to select blocks which are the general for all enterprises of this industry:

• Block of consolidation of accounting information;
• Control block infrastructure.

Consolidation of accounting information

On the scale of profile activity the companies created during power reform exceed former monopolies of the regional level: the new companies often integrate the profile enterprises of several regions or are all-Russian. Therefore the information system of the power company should be distributed, have the block of consolidation of accounting information and reporting which comes from territorial subdivisions to the center and also to provide access isolation of users to databases.

Infrastructure management

It is necessary to mention geoinformation component of an information system which helps to collect and analyze space information on the installed equipment and networks of utilities. The control block infrastructure includes base of real physical and logical entities of electro-and warm networks and gives the chance to manipulate these objects, to create and manage graphic cards and schemes of objects, to manage separate objects, etc.

The players of other ERP systems blocks are changed even within the industry depending on activity of the company. Let's consider the standard functions of the ERP system inherent in each of the selected business activities of the companies.

Generation companies

The energy-generating companies require in addition existence of the following functional units:

• Control block fixed assets and repairs of the equipment;
• Block of operational production management of energy;
• Control block material flows;
• Control block fuel purchases;
• Control block sales.

Management of fixed assets and repairs of the equipment

Speaking about specifics of the generating activity, it should be noted extreme importance of management tools maintenance and repairs (MRO) in view of the high cost of the used equipment and high cost of its idle times.

Within control block fixed assets decide, in particular such tasks as accounting and classification of a production equipment, optimization of use of the equipment, cost optimization and the capital investments (investments), time management of work and equipment downtimes, event management on an equipment MRO, costs planning, preparation and holding tenders, signing of the contracts with the contractors who won biddings, control of execution of the plan, tracking of payments to contract organizations, management of technical documentation (archive).

Production management

This block represents itself the system of dispatching and technology management for effective implementation of works orders on continued production which the power is. Includes, in particular, such functions as requirements planning in structure of the burned fuel and production capacity planning calculation and optimization of specific fuel consumption on power generation by stations, operational management and planned cost calculation of development of electrical and thermal energy, management of power generation, loading of the equipment and quality of conducting technology processes, calculation of production costs, etc.

Logistics

Operation of the block of a .upravleniye fixed assets and a MRO is more effective in the presence in the system of control block material flows. This block provides an information access about existence/lack of spare parts, component parts in a warehouse, the forecast of availability and also places of their storage. In parallel there is a tracking of the movement of component parts between warehouses and production division. There is a possibility of an execution of purchasing requests of not stored component parts directly by preparation of tasks for service and repair. All tasks of management of supply, including collecting of supply requisitions of materials and component parts, the choice of the optimal supplier, arrival registration, quality control and placement in a warehouse are supported.

Fuel purchases

The main production resource for power generation is fuel therefore at a system there has to be a control block purchases giving the chance to plan a toplivopotrebleniye, to keep account of amounts, prices and fuel cost taking into account the forecast, expected and actual structure of the burned fuel and also to manage vendor relations.

Sales

The generation company can be engaged both in trade in the wholesale energy market, and implementation of the heatelectric power to end consumers. Therefore the functionality of this block includes, in particular, the analysis of results of biddings and the actual financial results of activity of the company in wholesale market, the analysis and forecasting of the prices, control of compliance to the stated contractual power to the actual sales amounts, conducting complex accounting of calculations both for heat, and for the electric power, work with agreements, management of cash receipts, accounts receivable management, etc.

Power transport companies

ERP-a system for the network company should include the following functional units:

• Control block fixed assets and repairs of the equipment;
• The block of accounting of energy in networks;
• Control block material flows;
• Control block sales.

Management of fixed assets and repairs of the equipment

Power transport enterprises, as well as the generation companies, have expensive fixed assets (the power transmission line, substations, heating mains, thermal points, etc.) and therefore, the control block fixed assets is present also at ERP-to the system of the network company and performs the functions similar to functionality for the energy-generating company.

Accounting of energy in networks

Automation accounting of energy (in integration into the ASCAPC – an automated system of complex accounting of energy) is intended for increase in efficiency of a company performance. The block of accounting of energy, in particular, includes such functions as accounting of internetwork communications, accounting of settlement schemes of borders of balance sheet accessory, accounting of measuring complexes and indications, calculation of the transferred electric power, calculation of transmission losses, formation of balance statements, etc.

Management of material flows

The block has appointment and the functionality similar to described above for the energy-generating company.

Sales management

This block includes, in particular maintaining an agreement base on transfer of electro-and warm energy, calculation of rates for transfer of electro-and warm energy, accounts receivable management, etc.

Sales companies

In addition to the general blocks listed at the beginning of article it is necessary to have for power supply company:

• Control block sales of energy;
• Control block energy supply.

Sales management

The control block sales, in fact, is a full-function billing system in which processes of management of the relations with subscribers, maintaining agreements of power supply, calculation of the actual power supply and drawing of accounts, accounting of the arrived payments, work with receivables, etc. are implemented.

Supply management

The control block energy supply includes vendor relationship management, forecast planning, inventory management, etc.

Municipal services

The enterprises of housing and communal services, unlike the energy companies, have separation on territorial, but not by function therefore the ERP system for municipal services will include the majority of the blocks which are already mentioned above.

Housing and communal services are the industry saturated with capital-intensive fixed assets in which fixed capital is operated intensively. Accidents of communications and unplanned repair turns around in an essential overexpenditure of means at operation of buildings. Therefore in the ERP system it is necessary to have:

• Control block fixed assets and repairs of the equipment;
• Control block material flows.

Within the territory the housing and public utilities enterprise performs transportation of energy resources to consumers therefore in a system should be:

• The block of accounting of energy in utility networks;

The housing and public utilities enterprises perform providing utilities and perform agency activities for supply of energy resources. Therefore also should be present at the ERP system:

• Control block sales;
• Control block deliveries.

Functionality of these blocks was described earlier, at formulation of requirements to ERP systems of the power companies therefore we will not repeat.

Complete or integrated solution?

It is necessary to notice that in power (as well as in any other industry), at implementation of automated information systems there is a question of what is more preferable: implementation of the complex ERP system covering all functional areas, or integration of several subsystems which are selected by the principle "the best in the class"? There is no definite answer to this question and, in principle, cannot be. And that, and other option has the right to existence, but, perhaps, the most suitable option is consecutive implementation of the necessary modules and their integration with the information systems operating at the enterprise.