ArcFM Desktop Developer Guide
The Design Environment
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Work management systems can vary in the manner with which they work through a work order process. The basic concepts are more universal, inherent in virtually all types of work management. These basic concepts include work requests, designs, work locations, and compatible units.
Work Requests: A work request is usually viewed as the top-level of the work management process. As the name implies, it is a request for work to be performed. This work request may either require modifying existing infrastructure or constructing new infrastructure. There might be several alternatives to fulfill the work request. These alternatives are usually represented by alternate designs.
Designs: A design represents a solution to the work request. For example, if a work request requires a pole to be replaced, then the design would detail exactly how (and with what material) the pole would be replaced. Since there might be many options for the pole replacement, several designs may exist.
In managing the details regarding how a work request is fulfilled, a design keeps track of materials used, labor needed, and where the work was done.
Work Locations: For a given design, there is always work to be done. Geographically speaking, the work will have a location. So, each task outlined in a design could have a location where the task is to be performed. Information that would apply to the work location level would be items such as address, work conditions, site conditions (traffic, ground cover, etc.) - any attribute that would affect the work being performed.
Materials can be transacted upon at a work location. In other words, hardware can be installed, removed, abandoned, moved, or replaced. Work locations keep track of the materials involved by storing references to Compatible Units (CUs).
Compatible Units: A compatible unit can be thought of as the base unit of a design scenario. Compatible units package the hardware installed (which often can be modeled geographically) with the ancillary factors of its work function (installation, removal, movement, abandonment, etc.) which might not have spatial significance. CUs can also be used to represent the labor necessary to complete the work request.
For example, the installation of a utility pole requires not only the pole itself but also setting the pole in the ground, which would require digging and perhaps the use of concrete or other means of anchoring. One CU might represent the pole, while another might represent the worker who performs the task. CUs can be applied in quantities - where poles would have a quantity of one, a CU representing primary conductor wire might be quantified by feet. A CU for the worker might be quantified by the number of hours worked.
So, a CU not only describes the hardware used, but describes how it was used and in what quantities. This serves as a means to attach a cost to the CUs used in a design, and thus a means to estimate the cost of the design.
Designer will likely differ with a Work Management System (WMS) in how it views work requests and designs. The figure below shows a graphical representation of the design structure that Designer requires.
Design Structure
