Operator rounds for wastewater treatment plants

A route to start from

Set up a wastewater plant and ShiftRounds starts it on a Day Round of 13 checkpoints, from the influent pump station to the standby generator:

• IPS Influent Pump Station, in Headworks (lift station checklist)
• IFM Influent Meter, in Headworks (meter checklist)
• AB-1 Aeration Basin 1, in Aeration (aeration basin checklist)
• AB-2 Aeration Basin 2, in Aeration (aeration basin checklist)
• BL-1 Blower 1, in Aeration (blower checklist)
• BL-2 Blower 2, in Aeration (blower checklist)
• SC-1 Secondary Clarifier 1, in Clarifiers (clarifier checklist)
• SC-2 Secondary Clarifier 2, in Clarifiers (clarifier checklist)
• RAS-1 RAS Pump 1, in Clarifiers (pump checklist)
• UV-1 UV System, in Disinfection (UV system checklist)
• EFM Effluent Meter, in Effluent (meter checklist)
• EPH Effluent pH Analyzer, in Effluent (pH analyzer checklist)
• GEN-1 Standby Generator, in Electrical (generator checklist)

Set up the collection system as a lift station plant instead, and it starts on a Lift Station Round of 5 checkpoints across 3 stations. Neither route has limits set. Rename the checkpoints, add your own, and set the schedule and the limits in the console. Phones pick up each change the next time they have signal, with no app update.

Checkpoints for a wastewater plant

A route is a list of checkpoints in walk order. Each one starts from a template:

• Aeration basin: dissolved oxygen and the basin’s condition.
• Blower: status, and discharge pressure and motor current while it’s running, run hours, noise and vibration.
• Clarifier: the drive, sludge blanket depth and condition.
• Lift station: wet well level, each pump’s status, whether the alarm is clear, and a leak check.
• Residuals lagoon: level and condition.

Pumps, generators, meters, pH and chlorine analyzers, UV systems, sample points and eyewash stations have templates too: see all the operator rounds checklists. Add your own items to any of them, and set the limits and the schedule in the console.

Lift stations with no signal

The whole round works with the phone in airplane mode, in a dry well or a station with no coverage. Every reading is saved on the phone as it’s taken and sent once there’s a connection, minutes or hours later, with the time it was taken.

A station the operator can’t get into is skipped with a reason: locked, flooded, not safe to enter, or out of service. The report lists every skip, so nobody mistakes it for a station that was checked.

Findings that get followed

• A reading outside your limits shows yellow, or red at an alarm, as it’s typed.
• A leak or a critical finding goes to the chief operator and supervisors as soon as it arrives.
• It opens an issue that a supervisor assigns and closes. The same problem seen again on the next round goes on the open issue, not a new one.

ShiftRounds isn’t a work-order system: closing an issue says what was done, and your maintenance system does the rest.

Rounds by shift

Each plant names its own shifts, and each route is due in the shifts you pick, at the shift’s end or sooner. A round that isn’t submitted by its due time sends an overdue alert, and anyone who wants one gets a daily digest of the day before at 6 AM.

Records you can stand behind

Every reading carries who took it, when, and when the server got it. A correction is a new entry, and the first one stays. A shared tablet shows a roster, and each operator unlocks it with their own PIN, so a reading taken on it still says who took it. Every reading builds a trend anyone can pull up, and Export downloads them as a spreadsheet, with each meter’s daily flow for the monthly operating report. How your data is kept safe