OPERAS: Operation record analysis system for continual improvement of operating workflows

This paper proposes an operation management system to analyze operating workflows as preliminary step for the continual improvement of them. To provide highly dependable and cost effective services, telecom operators must decrease human errors and operational costs. It is common for the operators to conduct operating procedures by following predefined operational workflows. However, it is difficult to predefine the workflow to cover all the operational conditions, and thus the operator´s personal decisions are involved in the operations. In order to minimize the human errors, first, actual operating procedures need to be quantitatively assessed, and second, the result needs to be reflected to the workflows for the optimization. The Operation Record Analysis System (OPERAS) is proposed to analyze the operating workflow for the continual improvement of them by introducing the aforementioned optimization. The algorithm and system design of the OPERAS are described, and the implemented OPERAS is demonstrated for proof of concept. Throughout the demonstration in a scenario assuming network equipment installation, the basic system capabilities to analyze operating workflows such as management of workflows, recording operating procedures, and outputting operating statistics are shown.