Inspection Finding Triage: every defect found becomes a work order with a due date, and no crew is sent twice
Every defect found becomes a work order with a due date, and no crew is sent twice.
See one case, screen by screen ↓A utility inspects its network all year: foot patrols, drone flights, substation thermography, wood pole testing, contractor surveys and water pump-station rounds. Each one sends back findings — a photo and a note saying something is wrong — as field-app forms, contractor PDFs, spreadsheets and folders of images. Someone has to read every one, work out which pole or plant item it is, look for an open job, set a priority from the defect matrix and type a corrective work request. On a patrol day that is 30 to 60 findings for one planner.
So findings wait in inboxes and contractor portals. Some are never raised. Others are raised twice, because the same cracked insulator was seen by a line patrol in September and by a drone in October, and a second crew goes out. Worse, the second photo often shows the defect getting worse — a crack now tracking — but the first job keeps its old, slower date. Regulators audit open defects against their due dates, and a known Level 1 condition sitting in a queue is the failure every audit and incident report looks for.
Estimated split for one routine finding from a patrol, drone or contractor report, in working days, by hand and with the solution. A make-safe is handled within the hour.
Seven specialist agents read, locate, prioritise, de-duplicate and draft every finding; the maintenance planner decides and sends.
Lumina Utilities runs electricity and water in its Northern network from the Wexmoor depot. On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 07:40, maintenance planner Elena Marsh opens Inspection Finding Triage. Here is what happened overnight and what she decides, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Since Elena left yesterday, 46 findings arrived from 5 inspections. Each one was read, tied to its asset, given a priority from Lumina's rules and checked against 1,284 open work orders before any job was drafted. They sit in six lanes: Make safe · 24 hours (2), Within 30 days (12), Within 6 months (15), Next planned visit (6), Already open · evidence added (8) and Needs a look (3).
“35 work requests drafted · 2 sent · 8 added to open jobs · 3 need a look · 0 without a due date”
Kestrel Ridge Aerial's drone patrol of the WX-33 Wexmoor–Halden 33 kV line — 212 images and a flight log — became 19 findings in 11 minutes. Oakline Pole Testing's 22-page PDF with a sheet of 88 poles became 14 in 1 minute 40 seconds. Ferrow Thermal Services' 38-page thermography survey of Halden Cross 33/11 kV substation became 6. Five patrol forms from Lumina line crews and the Tarn Hill pump-station inspection add the rest.
The report reader never invents a measurement that is not in the report, and every finding keeps a link to the page or frame it came from.
F-10421, image IR-0131: the red-phase palm clamp on 11 kV disconnector DS-4 is at 96.4 °C against 35.2 °C on the yellow phase — a 61.2 K rise at 58 % load. Rule TH-1, over 40 K between like components, makes it a 24-hour make-safe. The clock watcher paged the duty supervisor at 18:10; Tom Adeyemi confirmed at 18:22, a substation crew is booked for 08:00 and switching schedule SS-HC-1014 is issued.
Drafted task, WR-26-07726: “Make safe: move Section 4 load to CB-9, isolate DS-4 and re-make the red-phase palm clamp”
Replayed on the board, each finding is dealt into its lane as it arrived. F-10418 — drone frame 0147 over pole WX-33/117, a cracked insulator with carbon tracking found at 11:42 — stops before it lands while the duplicate checker searches the open jobs on the same asset and component.
“Duplicate checker · F-10418 → WO-418833 · same pole tag · 4 m apart · same phase B insulator · 97 % match”
WO-418833, “Replace cracked insulator, phase B”, was raised on Sep 22 by Gareth Lyle from a foot patrol: 6 months, due Mar 22, 2027, planned, no crew. Same pole tag, GPS 4 m apart, same phase B pin insulator. No new job is raised; the drone photo is added to WO-418833 as evidence. But the defect is worse now: Gareth's photo showed a hairline crack with no tracking, and the drone frame shows tracking down two sheds.
“F-10418 matched WO-418833 at 97 %. No second job was raised and no second crew will go.”
Rule IN-2 puts an insulator cracked with carbon tracking or flashover marks at 30 days, so the duplicate checker proposes raising WO-418833 from 6 months to 30 days, due Nov 11. It cannot change the job itself. Elena compares the two photos side by side and raises it; Gareth is told his job moved up, and both photos stay on the job.
“WO-418833 raised to 30 days by Elena Marsh · due Nov 11.”
F-10414 is a drone frame soft from wind: a line across the second shed of phase A on WX-33/127, crack or shadow, at 0.58 confidence — under the 0.80 threshold, so it does not sit on its own. F-10435 has no pole tag and a GPS fix between two poles 11 m apart. F-10444's note names WX-35/216 but the photo's tag reads WX-35/215. Tom settles each one.
Choices on F-10414: “It is a crack · 6 months” · “Ask Kestrel Ridge to re-fly pole 127” · “No defect · close”
Priya Shah's patrol form, F-10443 — “Crossarm soft at the phase C end, getting worse” — matches WO-418520, raised on Aug 14 at 30 days for WX-35/212 and now 30 days overdue with no crew booked. The sighting is added as evidence and the job is escalated to Elena. The work orders list shows every open corrective job with its clock and the evidence added overnight.
“WO-418520 · Replace crossarm + F-10443 · Overdue 30 days · no crew booked”
Each drafted request carries the task, crew, materials, outage need, the marked photo, the map position and the due date — “Replace the crossarm and king bolt”, “Cut back the vegetation to 3 m clearance”, “Replace the pole; mark it ‘no climbing’ until replaced”. Elena reviews the lane and sends the 12 requests, all due Nov 11. Nothing goes to the work management system until she does.
“12 work requests sent to work management · WR-26-07711 to WR-26-07740”
The clock watcher checks every open job and finding against its due date each hour, alerts the planner 7 days before a 30-day job is due and lists what is at risk or overdue — the Tarn Hill kiosk door, 4 days overdue with a crew booked Oct 14; the Kellby reservoir roof hatch, due Oct 27 with no crew. Over 90 days: 23 of 23 make-safes raised within the hour, 94 % of 30-day jobs on time and 0 findings without a due date.
The clock watcher never extends a due date.
The same morning's findings, seen by the four people who own them — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Seven specialist agents read, locate, prioritise, de-duplicate and draft every finding; the maintenance planner decides and sends.
Reads patrol forms, contractor PDFs, spreadsheets and photo metadata, and splits each delivery into separate findings with their measurements, the inspector's words and the time found.
Finds the component and the defect in each photo or thermal image, marks it on the image, compares it with the inspector's note and says how sure it is.
Ties each finding to one asset in the register — by pole tag first, then GPS within 15 m on the named circuit.
Applies Lumina's defect priority rules and modifiers — the fire-risk area and a repeat on the same component — and sets the priority and due date with the rule that decided it.
Checks every finding against the open work orders on the same asset and component; adds a match to the job as evidence and proposes a faster priority if the new evidence is worse.
Drafts the corrective work request in the depot's words: task, crew, materials, outage need, the marked photo, the map position and the due date.
Watches every open finding and job against its due date each hour, alerts the planner before the clock runs out and pages the duty supervisor at once for a make-safe.
Decides and sends. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any finding, job or rule, or say what to change. Every answer points to the finding, the job or the rule behind it.
Why did F-10418 go onto an existing job instead of a new one?
Because WO-418833 is already open for the same defect on the same insulator. The drone frame and Gareth Lyle's September patrol photo share the pole tag WX-33/117, are 4 m apart by GPS, and both show the phase B pin insulator cracked: a 97 % match. The drone photo was added to the job as evidence. It also shows carbon tracking, which rule IN-2 puts at 30 days, so a raise from 6 months to 30 days is proposed. That is your decision.
Which make-safe jobs need a crew today?
Two, both due today. DS-4 at Halden Cross: red-phase clamp at 96.4 °C, 61.2 K above the yellow phase, due 14:20; Tom Adeyemi confirmed it at 18:22 and a substation crew is booked for 08:00. Moor Lane footpath: phase C 4.9 m over the path against a 5.8 m minimum, due 15:52; the line crew is booked for 08:30 and the path is to be barriered first.
Show everything on pole WX-33/117
WX-33/117 is a 1984 wood pole on WX-33 with one open job, WO-418833, and two sightings of the same phase B insulator: Gareth Lyle's patrol on Sep 22 and drone frame 0147 yesterday. Its last pole test, in October 2023, gave 64 % remaining strength.
Make vegetation within 1.5 m in the fire-risk area a make-safe
Drafted as rule VG-1F: vegetation within 1.5 m of a live 33 kV conductor inside the fire-risk area becomes a 24-hour make-safe. Over the last 90 days it would have moved 9 findings, all on WX-33 between poles 120 and 128. Rule changes need the asset engineer, so it is waiting for Rahul Venkat. Nothing changes until he approves.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The correction clocks, the open-job check, the confidence threshold and who decides are settings for each network, and every change is recorded in the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Make safe | 24 hours | Pages the duty supervisor at once |
| Within 30 days | 30 days | Alerts the planner 7 days before |
| Within 6 months | 6 months | Alerts the planner 30 days before; next planned visit adds the finding to the next inspection of that asset |
| Look for open jobs on | Same component | Same component · Same asset |
| Distance | 15 m | GPS between the sighting and the asset |
| Match needed to add as evidence | 90 % | Below this, a person decides |
| When the new evidence is worse | On | Propose a faster priority to the planner |
| Photo confidence | 0.80 | Below this, the finding needs a look |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample network data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our arithmetic or estimate, inputs shown · “typical” = published figures: CPUC Safety and Enforcement Division audits EA2014-032 (1,442 corrective notifications completed past their scheduled date in one division over three years) and TA2020-884 (1,766 past-due work orders in one transmission area); truck roll $250–$500 (S&C Electric, via Ventavid). The estimated $620K a year in duplicate visits not sent = 13,800 findings a year × 15 % already on an open job × $300 a visit. Regulatory context: CPUC General Order 95, Rule 18 (correction clocks); ANSI/NETA MTS Table 100.18 (thermal bands). Lumina Utilities, its people, contractors, assets and records named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
It is the work of turning every inspection finding — a patrol photo, a drone frame, a pole test result, a hot spot on a thermal survey — into a decision: which asset, how urgent, is there already a job, and when must it be fixed. Inspection Finding Triage does that with seven agents and drafts the corrective work request; the maintenance planner decides and sends it.
The report reader splits each delivery into findings with their measurements. The photo inspector marks the defect and its confidence, the asset matcher ties it to the register by pole tag and GPS, and the severity assessor sets the priority and due date from your rules. The duplicate checker searches the open work orders, and the work request writer drafts the job with photo, place, crew and due date.
No. Before any job is drafted, each finding is checked against open work orders on the same asset and component within 15 m. A match of 90 % or more is added to the existing job as evidence instead of a new job; below that, a person decides. In the sample network, 512 of 3,412 findings in 90 days went onto a job already open.
The duplicate checker proposes a faster priority on the open job — it never changes the job itself. In the sample case, a drone photo showed carbon tracking on an insulator a patrol had reported in September with no tracking, so it proposed raising the job from 6 months to 30 days. The planner compared the photos and raised it.
A finding that meets a make-safe rule — a clamp more than 40 K above its like phases, a conductor below the minimum clearance over a footpath, a pole under 33 % remaining strength — becomes a 24-hour job, and the clock watcher pages the duty supervisor at once by phone and text. A person confirms it and books the crew.
Yes. The rules, the clocks and the modifiers — such as one level faster in the fire-risk area, or for a repeat on the same component within 12 months — are yours, owned by your asset engineer. A change takes effect only when the asset engineer approves it, after a test against the last 90 days. Where a regulator sets correction clocks, such as California's GO 95 Rule 18, your rules can carry them.
Yes. The same board takes pump-station and reservoir rounds from water operations, with rules for pump seal leaks and damaged gauges. In the sample network, the Tarn Hill pump-station inspection and the Kellby reservoir sit on the same map and clocks as the 33 kV lines and substations.
Yes. Nothing goes to the work management system until the planner sends it, and only the planner accepts a priority raise. The inspection supervisor confirms every make-safe and settles findings that need a look, and only the asset engineer can lower a priority or change a rule. Agents never close, cancel or downgrade a job, or extend a due date.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your defect priority rules, inspection programmes, sample reports and the work management and asset register it connects to — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own inspection findings first.
Defects caught while they grow: every structure compared with last year's flight.
1-min demoAsset Health IndexThe same capital budget removes 2.5× the risk, every score traced to its evidence.
1-min demoMaintenance Knowledge SearchDecades of fixes, searchable before the expert retires.
1-min demoWe'll run Inspection Finding Triage on a sample of your own patrol, drone and contractor reports.