Advertorial
Environmental Data
Workflow Automation
Manufacturing Environmental Data Warehouses and Decisions
T
otal Quality Management (TQM) has provided valuable prin-
ciples for manufacturing everything from printers to satellites.
EarthSoft, the company behind the most widely used envi-
ronmental data management software, has applied TQM principles
which enables clients to “manufacture” high quality environmental
data warehouses and subsequently make informed decisions. EarthSoft
achieves this by integrating the workflow of environmental samples
with manufacturing very large Environmental Quality Information
System (EQuIS) data warehouses that are supported in either Oracle
or SQL Server.
For example, one TQM principle is that the manufacturer of a wid-
get must provide the QA/QC for said widget. The problems produced
by a step in the assembly line cannot simply be passed along to the next
step; QA/QC must be addressed at the point of manufacture. Passing
the problems only compounds the errors and increases the costs. Yet
for years, the environmental laboratories have delivered unchecked
Figure 1: An EDD is received and automatically processed with EQuIS
electronic data deliverables (EDDs) or worse, paper reports, as their
workflow. The New Notices dashboard provides information about
final deliverables. This has meant the associated errors are passed along workflow processes.
to others who use this flawed data to make decisions.
EDP + Enterprise EDP = EDD Automated Workflow
EarthSoft’s EQuIS Data Processor (EDP) and Enterprise EDP offer
a paradigm shift with a closed loop automated workflow. This disrup-
tive technology allows labs and consultants to check and transfer large
batches of EDDs, changing the speed and quality of shared and con-
sumed environmental data.
When the EDP is used at the lab, it not only finds errors, it identi-
fies and highlights the errors and so that they can be easily spotted
and interactively corrected. Once the data are checked and fixed, the
EDDs can be emailed to the consultant without errors, where they are
checked again by the consultant using EDP or Enterprise EDP and
loaded into the EQuIS data warehouse. If errors are found, an error log
is generated and emailed back to the lab for repair and resubmission.
A web dashboard can be used instead of emails. The EDDs are usually
spreadsheets, since .pdf files cannot be checked for content and are
Figure 2: EQuIS Information Agents select a report and wait for
mere “pictures” of the data values. calendar events or watch incoming data for new data arrivals or
exceedances. When the condition is met, the report automatically
Workflow Automation generates and is sent via email to the distribution list defined in the
trigger. New reports are logged in the New Notices dashboard.
EZView + EQuIS Environmental Information Agents (EIA)
staff, managers or clients with no additional effort or labor.
= “No-Keystroke Reporting”
Benefits of Workflow Automation and a Sample Data
EQuIS Environmental Information Agents (EIAs) take workflow
Warehouse
automation one step further. Agents are software modules that
Benefits of workflow automation include increase of correct data load-
monitor data elements, such as the date or a particular data item,
ed, more incorrect data rejected, improved productivity of expensive
and then perform action(s) when the date or data trigger conditions
engineers, increased accountability to labs, more reports and graphics
are met. Reports are then available on the Internet/intranet/private
on more desktops and better decisions. These benefits are easily mea-
network in the EQuIS Enterprise Dashboard, or emails can be cre-
sured for metric-based statistically-driven process quality improve-
ated and automatically forwarded to a list of designated recipients
ment, another principal of a larger TQM program.
(“no-keystroke reporting”). The graphics can be emailed out to
(978) 369-2201 | info@earthsoft.com | www.earthsoft.com
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