| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Main objectives of a remote control system are to efficiently produce and distribute water supply for the public in risky southern border provinces, ensure better management of water supply and decrease a risk of PWA’s staff traveling to operate their work in respective areas. Subsequent to obtaining basic data to be used to solve the problem, PWA’s staff concerned planned on such work as designing, procuring necessary equipment, assembling a remote-control set, installing a remote-control system, and testing and improving it so as to fulfill the objectives established.
Problem Analysis
A tactic of utilizing a remote-control system of water supply pumping stems from a frequent occurrence of unrest and insurgency in Thailand’s three southern border provinces with Malaysia, causing a risk for PWA’s staff working in the area who have to go to work at the site. For PWA’s water supply production, the staff have duties to maintenance pumping system and keep a close watch on and follow up the amount of water produced. In most case a water production station (a treatment plant) is a long distance from rural communities and in remote area, which is an obstacle for staff’s operation and makes monitoring difficult and risky for them. As a result, PWA’s Regional Office 5 has had a concept of applying mobile phone technology to staff’s operation by inventing “A remote-control set of water supply pumping in risky southern provinces”.
Data Investigation And Work Plan
It goes without saying that currently, wireless communication technology has been rapidly developed, one of which is cell (mobile) phone technology, which is constantly developed and widely used. Since separatist militants can use a cell phone to detonate a bomb, which generally causes considerable damage to both authorities’ and people’s lives and properties, PWA has an idea to use a cell phone to control its pumping system as well. Thus PWA has begun to study data on a cell phone’s operating system and found that its most significant part is the phone module, which is a central processing instrument of a phone, which PWA has studied its command process and various commands used to operate the pumping work. After deriving preliminary data for problem solving, PWA’s staff concerned began to design tools necessary for the work, assemble a remote-control set, install it, and test and modify the set to achieve the plan formulated.
Selection of Instruments Used for Project Implementation
Based on the data studied, it is found that major tools used to carry out the remote-control project comprise 1. GSM cell phone module and 2. micro-controller. In this regard, considerable data has been collected and tests conducted in compliance with numerous conditions made. If testing consequences are not satisfactory, working conditions of the phone are modified, including replacing some types of tools with new ones for appropriateness for each location.
Performance Test And Conclusion
After selecting suitable instruments, they have been assembled into a remote-control set and installed at an actual site to test the set’s operability in a real situation, in line with practitioners’ (staff) requirements. Meanwhile, a newly invented remote-control set has been continuously tested and improved for the system’s stability and high efficiency. Finally, due to steady tests and development of the system, the result is satisfactory to both system designers and staff operating in risky areas, reducing the menace of traveling to and fro between a production station (water treatment plant) and a raw water pumping station (low-pressure pumping station), which is generally far away from each other and from rural communities and is normally in a risky area.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Those who have taken part in designing and implementing the project consist of people in both the government and the private sector as the following.
PWA’s authorities concerned include:
1. Director of PWA’s Regional Office 5, as head of the department supervising the policy and strategy.
2. Director of Production System and Water Quality Control Division of PWA’s Regional Office 5, who supervises the development in respect of technology and design for inventing and installing a remote-control set. Two sections of the division, namely, Production Control Technology Section and Maintenance Section, have worked together to implement the project.
3. Director of Accounting and Finance Division of PWA’s Regional Office 5 supervises and allocates a budget for the project.
4. Managers of 6 PWA’s branches located in risky areas.
Other government agencies include:
5. Labor Skill Development Institute, Songkhla provided consultancy and a support on additional knowledge in terms of technology aimed at a design and production of a remote-control set.
6. The police and military officers who safeguard PWA’s staff’s lives when the latter travel to risky areas to install and provide maintenance to a remote-control set.
7. Officials of sub-district municipalities and sub-district Administration Organizations in the area, who collaborate with and provide convenience to PWA’s staff operating in the area.
8. The private sector, for instance, a Microsoft shop, Songkhla, as a supplier of materials and tools used to produce a remote-control set.
9. People in the area and water consumers willingly collaborate with PWA’s staff when PWA has to suspend its water distribution during an installation of a remote-control set. They also express their opinions and provide suggestions to PWA’s staff both before and after an installation of a remote-control set, which are used by the latter to improve the project technology.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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As to an implementation of the project, the following resources have been utilized.
Financial resources per 1 piece of work
Daily allowance (3 persons x 300 Baht ($ 10.0) x 10 days) 9,000 Baht
Accommodation (3 persons x 600 Baht x 9 nights) 16,200 Baht
Material and equipment cost (15,000 Baht ($ 500.0) x 2 sets 30,000 Baht
Petrol and vehicle cost (Capitalization) 3,000 Baht
Total 58,200 Baht ($ 1,940.0)
Technical resources
Laptop
computer 1 machine
Digital multi-meter 1 set
Tool for electrical work 1 set
Personnel resources
Electrical technician 2 persons
Mechanical technician 1 person
For the expenses on an installation of the remote-control set at 1 place, a budget of Baht 30,000 ($ 1,000.0) for material and equipment cost was allocated by PWA Headquarters in Bangkok, while daily allowance, and accommodation and petrol costs for staff performing their work in the field were supported by PWA’s Regional Office 5’s budget.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Concerning the benefits of the project, the following accomplishments have been derived.
1. When there is an unrest or insurgency in the area where PWA’s pumping stations or water treatment plants are located, PWA can still provide its water supply service efficiently and continuously, which is beneficial to hospitals and people’s homes in the vicinity and can avoid the service coming to a halt. A survey of satisfaction of people in the problematic area reveals that they are satisfied with the project and welcome it warmly, apart from encouraging it to be implemented in other risky areas too.
2. Risks can be minimized when PWA’s staff can avoid traveling to risky areas in 3 southern provinces at night to do their work, but use a remote-control set instead, which helps reduce the loss of their lives.
3. The cost of a loss of opportunity to produce water supply can be eliminated after an insurgency is committed in the risky area because PWA’s staff can still perform their work by using a remote-control set far away from the troubled scene, instead of risking their lives in traveling to that place to do the work.
4. The project helps boost up the morale of PWA’s staff working in menacing areas in southern Thailand.
5. The project encourages PWA’s staff to learn a novel innovation.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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For an assessment of the project, PWA’s staff concerned have carried out the following activities.
1. Staff of Production Control Technology Section of PWA’s Regional Office 5 pay a site visit once a month to all the 6 PWA’s branches installing a remote-control set of water supply pumping so as to follow up an implementation of the system in risky areas, including the maintenance and follow-up of the progress of the project in the real working environment. It has been found that a new operating system can effectively reduce PWA’s staff’s risks of traveling to respective areas to perform their duties. Staff make a trip to the area only once a day instead of driving back and forth between their offices and pumping stations 4 times a day to operate the machines and maintenance the system there. Furthermore, better water management can be achieved in case of threats of terrorist violence or bombing of power poles close to a low-pressure pumping station, causing a temporary blackout and military officers not allowing PWA’s staff to enter the area. With the old system, PWA cannot produce the water supply during an insurgent crisis, affecting water consumers in a wide circle. However, a new system of remote control through a mobile phone enables PWA to steadily produce its water supply. Staff can make a phone call to the system to switch on or off the pump as usual without having to go to a hazardous area, making possible constant water production and distribution and having no negative impact on water consumers. So far, the project has been of practical use.
2. PWA also makes an appraisal of the project via a questionnaire interview with people and its staff working in the risky area, conducted by staff of Production Control Technology Section of PWA’s Regional Office 5, with a hope to improve the efficiency of technology of a remote-control set of water supply pumping which commands an operation in threatening areas in Thailand’s 3 southern border provinces, helping facilitate the staff’s duty performance and reduce a loss of their lives and property incurred by a trip to the area to do their work.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Since there is a frequent occurrence of acts of violence and insurgency in Thailand’s 3 southern border provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, the police and military officers concerned have generally to cut off a phone signal, which is typically used to detonate a bomb by separatist militants, and to command an operation of water pumping and communications by PWA’s staff, making PWA’s control system unable to work regularly and PWA’s staff unable to travel to the area to install a remote-control set on some occasions due to an untrustworthy incident, causing a delay in an installation of a remote-control system.
For a solution to the problem, designers of the system have attempted to devise a new method of transmitting a wireless signal, including testing the necessary equipment in some risky areas. It is found that, with the limitation of distance and different topography of the area, new wireless technology can’t be applied in some areas. In some areas where wireless technology is practical, it is used instead of a phone signal. Besides, PWA has coordinated with and asked for cooperation from people in the areas for data and information so that it can make a plan for an installation of a remote-control set in those areas, apart from telling people about their work, which is intended for water consumers to receive PWA’s continuous and efficient water supply services.
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