Data Analyst Intern
In the summer of 2019, I worked as a Data Analyst at Exelon Corporation in their gas division. As a data analyst, I was responsible for the execution and monitoring of Work Management policies, programs and processes in order to provide safe and reliable gas services to 134,000 customers. I also acquired and interpreted data from primary and secondary sources to provide ongoing reports while maintaining data systems.
I worked in a couple of different projects at Exelon. One of the first projects I performed was fixing our signage player. Our signage player provided information regarding safety and performance. The signage player broadcasted information throughout the building to about 20 different displays. The signage player was able to be accessed remotely. At first the signage player was not working which I then had to configure and consistently update every Friday when Corporate released safety information. Every 1st day of the new month, I updated information regarding performance. Signage player is now working, and I was able to get in contact with the IT department and the developer to upgrade the whole systems to something more modern and easier to use. Which is a project they started working on the day I left and will teach management group how to use new device.
The next project I worked on was assisting management with labor cost. One of the issues we faced regarding cost is that we were spending too much on labor. In order to figure out why labor was blowing out our budget, I collected weekly hour sheets from our field technicians that contained what projects they were working on and what services they were being done. For an example, a hour sheet contains information that our field technicians spent 16 hours in a single location replacing a gas pipe. We gather the hour sheets and we put the data into excel. We averaged the hours per service then went back to look at the projects that went beyond the average hours of service. It turned out that we were spending too much time on gas leaks due to not having the correct information from the service packs provided by engineers. Any time a project/service is about to be started, an engineer creates a service pack that contains the permits, location of gas pipe, material order, work order, and instructions on what needs to be done. The information of the location of gas pipes have been wrong so the field technicians had to dig in multiple spots in order to find the pipe. Another issue, we faced is that there was a delay in permits which we had to get our work managers involved in to get the engineers more focused on getting the permit numbers first in order to avoid delay of work.
The third project I worked on was getting our restoration files organized. After every job performed, we would hire a contractor to go out and restore the area where it was worked. Our restoration files were not well kept organized. Information like what work was being done, timeline, and cost of each project was not tracked at all. So, what I did is get my work manager in charged with the restoration files and had him give me every bit of information I can use in order to track information correctly. I was given hundreds of files since 2015 and had to go through each file in order to get information I needed. I specifically was looking for date when restoration was order, when it was started, and when it ended. I was also looking for the work order number, permit number, cost, contractor and location. I created five different spread sheets. Four of the spread sheets were dedicated to each contractor that contained the information I listed previously. The fifth spreadsheet was a file called “Master file”that belonged only to the manager tracking the restoration work and it was linked to the other spreadsheets. The other four spreadsheets were sent to each contractor in which the contractor had to input information about the work. Those sheets were then sent back to the manager where he would refresh the “Masterfile” and all the information in the other four sheets updated and put into formulas and charts that would keep tell the manager if they are spending too much time somewhere or if it’s costing too much. I then had to show my manager how to work the new system because they weren’t used to even using excel in their work. I then was tasked in filing any restoration slips in the computer and dated them.
At the end of the internship, I provided all the information and findings to our gas divisional manager in which he was stunned by the amount of information I had to go through in order to come to a conclusion. Overall, I learned that data collecting is time consuming without the proper structure in place. I also learn how to accept failure because during this time, I tried to implement different software and routines for management to follow/use in order to keep of track everything but received pushback at every corner. I often spoke to close friends in related fields about the difficulty I faced and was given good advice. At the end, one life lesson I took away from this is that change doesn’t happen all at once often. Sometimes, you need to push and if you can move the ball down the field just an inch; consider it a win. I am very thankful that Exelon gave me this opportunity.