A mass data transfer of all work order data from SAP to the GIS takes place upon the commencement of a data purge originating from the transfer process. Services is the automated delivery of newly acquired or changed work orders from the SAP system to the route planning system. Single queries from SAP generate a prompt response from the GIS to the operator. BELUGA manages a variety of queries and data transfers. The interfaces between the three systems regulate the data exchange between SAP-IS-Waste and GIS/Route Planning.
BELUGA supports the comparison and optimization of various route possibilities, allowing Hamburg’s Department of Sanitation to better serve the needs of its customers while, at the same time, increasing efficiency to it’s full potential.
The GIS provides the integrating platform for BELUGA, incorporating both MySAP’s business process administration and Combitour’s route management applications, which allows a seamless managed process from route planning, through collection services, to payment processing.Ī primary reason for integrating the three systems is to eliminate the department’s current time consuming and laborious manual planning and route optimization procedures. The BELUGA system includes mySAP Utilities for Waste Management from SAP, which is used to manage all work order data and billing processes, Combitour by IVU traffic technologies for logistic planning and fleet management, and ESRI’s GIS software, including ArcSDE, ArcView, and MapObjects, for geographic database management and analysis.
This integrated system, which includes SAP, GIS, and route planning software, is being designed by ÖKODATA, a software developer in Germany. So, in 2000 the department began the development of its Betriebliche Leistungssteuerung und Gebührenabrechnung (BELUGA) or “Operational Efficiency, Control, and Billing System.” The goal of the BELUGA project is to create a system for the integrated processing of commercial, technical, and logistic data. Originally acquiring its GIS in the late 1990s for mapping projects, the department soon realized that because of its versatility, GIS could be used as the integrating platform for both its existing account management and logistical planning applications. The sheer enormity of the job dictates that well organized, well managed teams perform the necessary duties andĪdhere to the stringent schedules to collect, transport, and dispose of the mountains of trash generated each and every day in Hamburg, as well as complete the other responsibilities of the Department of Sanitation, such as billing and route planning. Long gone are the days of crews simply moving through neighborhoods to collect and empty trash-laden containers into trucks for transport to nearby incinerators.
With a population approaching 2 million that produces nearly 2 billion pounds of waste annually, Hamburg, Germany’s legion of sanitation workers and administrators must maintain strict schedules and deadlines to sustain the demanding hygienic standards that the city’s residents have come to expect.