Overview#
A water utility's SCADA system detects a pressure drop indicating a burst main in a residential area. Within seconds, the platform classifies the alarm, generates a work order with the appropriate priority, and identifies the best available crew: the one closest to the site, with pipe repair certification current, carrying the correct pipe fittings, and not already at capacity. The dispatcher sees the recommended crew at the top of the list with a scored rationale. For a critical alarm, the platform can dispatch automatically without waiting for human confirmation. The Intelligent Dispatch domain handles every step of that workflow.
Dispatching the right crew to the right job faster than manual selection reduces mean time to repair, minimises repeat visits caused by skills or parts mismatches, and keeps service disruption short. It also creates an auditable record of every recommendation and acceptance for performance analysis.
Key Features#
- Eight-dimension weighted crew scoring: distance and ETA, heading, vehicle health, data freshness, workload, skill match, parts availability, and customer priority
- Real-time vehicle telemetry integration for GPS, heading, speed, fuel, and fault data
- Skill matching against workforce certifications with expiry date checking to prevent dispatch of uncertified crew
- Parts availability checking against crew inventory to prevent dispatch without required materials
- Customer priority scoring: life support, critical facility, and standard
- Thirteen alarm classification rules across electric, water, and gas utilities
- Auto-dispatch for critical priority work orders with configurable organisation settings
- Recommendation history with acceptance tracking and audit persistence
- Duplicate work order detection for the same asset and alarm type to prevent parallel orders
- Health gating to exclude crews with critical fuel levels or active vehicle faults
Use Cases#
- Recommending the best-suited crew for a work order using multi-dimensional scoring that accounts for proximity, skills, parts, and vehicle condition simultaneously
- Automatically generating work orders from telemetry alarms with the correct priority classification for the fault type
- Auto-dispatching critical work orders, such as gas leaks or power outages affecting life support customers, to the highest-scoring available crew without manual delay
- Tracking crew recommendation acceptance rates to identify patterns in dispatcher overrides and refine scoring weights over time
Industry Context#
Electric distribution operators use intelligent dispatch to assign crews to fault restoration work, minimising customer outage duration by matching the nearest crew with the right vehicle-mounted equipment. Water utilities dispatch pipe repair crews based on material certifications and carried fitting sizes. Gas network operators apply customer priority scoring to ensure life support and medical-dependent customers receive priority response during supply incidents. Telecommunications infrastructure operators dispatch tower maintenance crews based on vehicle platform type and access certification. Critical infrastructure operators across multiple sectors use the auto-dispatch capability for highest-priority alarms where manual steps would introduce unacceptable delay.
Integration#
The Intelligent Dispatch domain integrates with Work Orders for creation and assignment, Vehicle Telemetry for real-time positioning, Workforce for certification matching, Inventory for parts checking, and Org Config for dispatch settings. All recommendation and dispatch records are stored in PostgreSQL.
Open Standards#
- GraphQL (June 2018 specification): all crew recommendation queries, auto-generated work order queries, and dispatch mutations are exposed through a typed, self-documenting GraphQL schema.
- WGS 84 (EPSG:4326): crew and work order positions are stored and processed as WGS 84 decimal-degree latitude/longitude pairs; haversine bearing and distance calculations operate directly on these coordinates.
- ISO 8601 / RFC 3339: all timestamps in the domain (recommendation generation time, dispatch time, approval time, and work order audit entries) are serialised as UTC-offset ISO 8601 strings.
- RFC 4122 (UUID v4): work order identifiers, recommendation record identifiers, and crew assignment records are generated as RFC 4122 version-4 UUIDs to ensure globally unique, collision-resistant keys.
- OPC UA (IEC 62541): SCADA telemetry alarms that trigger automatic work order generation are sourced from OPC UA gateways; the platform consumes OPC UA status codes, alarm severities, and data-type mappings from those feeds.
- IEC 61968 (Common Information Model -- Work Management): work order structures and crew assignment records follow the IEC 61968 Common Information Model for utility work management, enabling interoperability with third-party asset and field-service systems.
- PHMSA 49 CFR Parts 192/193: gas-leak work orders generated by the alarm classifier cite PHMSA compliance requirements and mandate Pipeline Operator Qualified certification, aligning dispatch records with US federal pipeline safety regulations.
Last Reviewed: 2026-02-24 Last Updated: 2026-04-14