More Important than the “Tailboard”

You might be asking yourself, “What could be more important than the Tailboard?”

How about the job plan? The Tailboard is simply a method of communicating to the crew, safety, roles and responsibilities, hazard assessment and risk mitigation, and timelines for production. The job plan is where the details are developed, you know what they say, “The devil is in the details.” In linework there are a number of jobs depending upon the type of work that is going to be performed, transmission, distribution, overhead, underground, capital projects, asset management, emergency outage restorations, etc. Each job regardless of the size or complexity, must have a plan. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, and a lot of foremen/supervisors rely on performing the work like it always has been done without taking enough time to lay out the “details” before delivering the tailboard. It’s called being complacent, or lazy, taking things for granted because this is the way we have always done things.

The things to consider in the job plan include but not limited to the following:

• Timelines for completion
• Stakeholders
• Tools, materials, equipment, etc.
• Conditions – weather, access, etc.
• Customers
• Media
• Local agencies – City, county, state, federal etc.
• Law enforcement and EMS

Job plans develop and implement “strategies and tactics.” A strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. For example: setting a pole and tying in the conductor. The strategy to develop will be based on some of the following factors: is the line de-energized or energized? Do we have access with our line truck or other machinery? Is this a hand-set?

The tactics are the smaller components within the strategy. Setting the pole may require spreading and covering the conductors, using tag lines on the conductors, etc. if the job calls for hanging a transformer on the pole the strategy requires using the line truck and the winch line, if it’s a hand-set in a back yard the strategy would be to require pole pikes and head-lines. Think of it this way the strategy is the macro – the plan to achieve the goal, and the tactics are the micro – individual actions and implementation of techniques within the plan to achieve the goal.

Timeline for completion – let’s say that your crew is out on emergency restoration operations, the foreman should have an idea of how long it takes to complete the job. I’m not talking about working a major disaster where there are thousands of outages and infrastructure is basically on the ground. A pole bolted transformer is not functioning, the crew arrives, and the scene is clear and good access. It’s reasonable for the foreman to report back to dispatch that it’s going to take approximately 4-hours to restore power. The foreman should have enough experience to develop a plan and provide an estimate as long as there are no issues that arise to complicate the job.

Stakeholders – the job plan needs to consider the other stakeholders that are affected by this job. The warehouse, garage, tool room, billing, service dispatchers, their supervisor, etc. Many times, the foreman and crew believe that they are the only ones who “have skin in the game” but that is not true.

Conditions – Weather and access to the work location must be factored into the job plan

Customers – Are you going to have customers out of power, are you going to need access to through their property, communicating to the customer outage and restoration times, etc. All issues affecting the customer must be addressed. What if the customer is on life-support? How will you manage that challenge?

Media – Have you been trained to deal with the media, from local news agencies to newspapers? What is your company’s policy on providing information through social media? Has your crew been instructed to not post on social media the activities of the crew and the type of work being performed?

Local Agencies – City, County, and State agencies that are impacted by the utility’s work. Environmental issues i.e., endangered species, wetlands, avian protection, etc.

Law Enforcement and EMS – Working with first responders to control the work location, assist them with your equipment to make the area safe, de-energizing lines and equipment for their safety, etc.

Summary

Your job plan is the critical piece of the puzzle in order to ensure safety, quality and production. The tailboard is a communication method.