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AionDS® Case Study: Automating Union Rules

Project Objectives:

Complex union contracts can clog conventional MIS systems and cost more than just salaries. Organizations employing union workers face the difficult task of incorporating the legal requirements from frequently negotiated contracts into core business applications. Payroll, scheduling, and other MIS applications are affected by logic-intensive union rules governing work schedules, compensation, vacations and paid leave, membership, payroll deductions, tenure, benefits, discipline, disputes, and working conditions.

"We've got thirty-some unions to consider. Contract stipulations are incredibly complex. What does this translate to in terms of volume of code?"

Job scheduling becomes critical when confronting the differences between "regular rate" and "overtime premium". The impact of contract changes is difficult to predict and productivity can be wasted through unproductive negotiations. Money can also be lost through non-compliance and defending against non-compliance claims. Audit trails for employment tenure and grievance arbitration can be difficult or impossible to produce.

At one of New England's largest utility companies, union workers were covered by myriad complex contracts that the existing MIS could not successfully model or quickly update. Additionally, different types of work hours had to be charged against different accounts. Much of the calculation was performed manually and many errors occurred simply because of the volume of interlocked, constantly changing rules. Payroll depended on clerks who needed to know the union rules and be aware of all changes. A typical contract could have over 150 rules that affected payroll and each contract seemed to be perpetually in renegotiation.

The utility purchased AionDS, a rules-based, object oriented development language, to manage contract requirements. AionDS systems are constructed from relatively simple, self-contained, tested software modules (objects) that represent actual elements of a business. An object is a nugget of programming and data that behaves like something in the real world. Each self-contained unit fully describes a discrete business process: a business form, an insurance policy, a union contract, even an automobile axle complete with a physical description of parts and how they interact with other systems in the automobile.

"With conventional languages, 20 rules might require coding 400 separate paths. AionDS has a powerful inferencing engine: You just code the rules; the system picks the rules to use, figures the sequencing, and applies the rules."

AionDS is very powerful and very different from conventional business systems. Learning curves can stretch out to exceed six months, and more than half of the applications eventually fail to meet their full potential. For the utility, fully implementing this expert system required expert assistance: Paul James Slagle & Associates, L.L.C. (PJS), a leading AionDS consultant specializing in union rules, scheduling, fraud, underwriting, and profit sharing. It takes experience to build a fully functional, AionDS system. Our experience covers both mainframe and microcomputer environments in the utility, insurance, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, aircraft, and entertainment industries.

Much of the utility's system could be created before PJS' consultants even arrived on-site. Objects are reusable from project to project and recycled existing objects can account for as much as two-thirds of a complete system. Frequently, the consultant needs to go on-site just to construct the final third. Reusing AionDS' existing objects enables PJS to provide a quick payback and positive effect on profits.

The PJS team developed code to apply each employee's hours against the contract rules, then charged the salary against the appropriate account. In four months, the utility's payroll system moved from largely manual operations to a fully automated process.

The utility quickly realized a savings just from reduced clerical costs. Previously, whenever union workers complained that their time was incorrectly calculated to their detriment, many clerical hours were needed to rework each claim. Additionally, no automated method existed for detecting incorrect calculations made in the workers' favor; overpayments simply continued until someone noticed them. Using the professionally constructed AionDS payroll system enabled the utility to pay the right amount the first time and eliminate many of the overpayments and added clerical work.

As each contract is renegotiated, the new rules are quickly added to the payroll processing. Previously, the utility had no way of knowing in advance how much each new rule change would cost. Using AionDS enables management to quickly model each change or new rule and accurately calculate its impact.

"AionDS' object technology makes software easier to create, simpler to use, and far more reliable," says Paul Slagle, president of PJS. "But, it's a very different technology; organizations need help early in the process to gain full benefit from AionDS' rules-based structure. We haven't even begun to tap object oriented systems' abilities. It will be the technology of choice for people with complex business applications."

For more information about AionDS and building your object oriented system,
call Paul James Slagle & Associates, L.L.C., at 301-530-8769.

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