Eskom`s Koeberg nuclear power station has saved R1 million by digitising its analogue microfilm aperture cards. The outsourcing contract was awarded to Metrofile.
The cards contain engineering schematics of the power operation in the Cape and offer a host of benefits over the microfilm they replace.
"Following the pilot project in 2003 we realised the image quality of the digital cards was far superior to the microfilm system," says Thaabit Toefy, project manager at Eskom. "But the major advantages have been the cost saving, the speed with which engineers can access the drawings, and the number of people we can now make the drawings available to."
Eskom has realised several benefits through the new system:
* The outsourcing contract has saved Eskom in excess of R1 million;
* All users have access to the engineering diagrams;
* Access is far faster than before;
* Monthly overheads are reduced;
* There is less demand on IT resources to deliver diagrams; and
* The image quality is 400% better.
Following the pilot project, Toefy`s team conducted a feasibility study that found replacing three ageing 3M microfilm viewing machines would cost R400 000 per device. By using the Metrofile service, Eskom has had to replace PCs and monitors at a cost of R60 000. The digitising costs total R130 000. Eskom now creates one copy of a diagram, generating only electronic copies thereafter, ensuring integrity of the information and more importantly, the cost of creating, sharing, managing and storing the engineering diagrams.
Under the previous system engineers would send a request to the IT department to have specific diagrams printed and delivered to their desks. That took time, placed an onerous overhead on IT employees and cost the business money. The older, more expensive process also resulted in fewer people having access to the diagrams because it would otherwise simply have cost Eskom too much. Koeberg`s IT department services 1 000 users.
"Metrofile has had a long relationship with Eskom, in excess of a decade, which we are assured is based on our willingness to find solutions to their operations," says Leslie Clark, sales executive at Metrofile in Cape Town. "We kicked off the project with regular workshops and information sessions with the people at Eskom, ensuring they were informed about the latest digital technologies."
"Eskom`s Koeberg operation is about efficiencies. The two reactors produce 6% of SA`s electricity needs. Using 621 tons of uranium the station has produced 200 179GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity since 1984 and all the cooling for the condensers is provided by seawater that is returned at a slightly higher temperature to the ocean," says Toefy. A similar sized coal-fired station would have entirely consumed billions of litres of fresh water and 105 million tons of coal in the same period.
Metrofile`s service to the utility giant is also about efficiencies, using the latest digitising technologies available. It is the first African business to use a Kodak digital archive writer (DAW), a system that enables Metrofile to boost throughput of archived digital documents and image capture by 90%, reduce information and storage costs and accelerate document retrieval turnaround time for customers.
"The filming of individual documents to create microfilm is labour- and cost-intensive as well as time-consuming. Being analogue technology, microfilm is also slow and restrictive. DAW converts physical documents into digital images instantaneously. The solution enables the creation of an image captured onto archive media at a rate of five frames per second as opposed to a rate of one frame every 10 seconds when using microfilm photography," says Metrofile`s Clark.
Share
Metrofile, an Empowerdex BBB-rated empowerment company, is the South African market leader in the management of business documents, and is committed to help customers reduce costs and improve productivity in processes that are centred on documents and corporate records.
All companies have a combination of paper and electronic documents, and are forced by law and customer requirements to secure the availability of the documents for the duration of their lifecycle. For most organisations, the volume of documents is growing at an exponential rate, and is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Metrofile is uniquely positioned to provide consulting and implementation of full lifecycle paper and electronic records management solutions from storage and conversion through to destruction.
Editorial contacts