Transpower Mātai

With the existing process Transpower lacked a clear view of the state of their assets and what work needed to be prioritised, due to the way in which grid asset information was collected by different service providers. The solution was a complete process transformation that involves a tablet app integrating directly with the Maximo back-end, changing the way Transpower and their service providers capture and maintain data. This removed the need for excess paperwork and standardised the data collection. Mātai is held up as an exemplar project within Transpower.

From strategic vision to delivery. Our designers and developers collaborated with Transpower's ELT, engineers and service providers to review the entire journey from beginning to end, identifying opportunities and pain points. We shadowed field engineers visiting grid assets (towers, conductors, transformers) in remote areas with little-to-no connectivity. The ideal experience was evaluated against the constraints of IBM's asset management system, Maximo. The subject matter was highly technical and complex, our design and development team worked closely together to deliver a workforce tablet app that satisfied the needs of everyone involved. This ensured its adoption as the standard system.

Mātai has helped to align workflow processes with consistent data capture between the different service providers, reducing costs by removing the administration overhead. This transformation in their workflow has resulted in productivity increases, but has also enabled Transpower to gain a better understanding of the state of their assets across the National Grid. This helps them to better allocate their resources, safely improve stability and resilience in the grid, and efficiently plan for future capability based on population growth. Better for Transpower, better for workers, better for NZ.

Mātai balances business needs and system constraints while focusing on users' needs. Simplicity, contrast, and large touch areas were key design principles as users would be working in conditions with harsh sunlight and would often be wearing protective gear. Health and safety is Transpower's top priority, so we broke down the task flow to reduce on-screen clutter, and designed the user interface to be easily usable, no matter the environment. It was critical that engineers had the ability to work offline and track their progress, syncing the data as soon as a network becomes available. We integrated a mapping system, so users can easily view different access tracks, as well as image capture to improve tracking and identifying faults. Ongoing improvements based on user feedback has helped to fine tune the product. We designed UI patterns in such a way that they can be extended for different use cases in future, as features are built over time.