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4 key components for better water service and delivery

Published Date
Author Bill Grant

Organizations responsible for the treatment and delivery of potable water need the ability to analyze asset maintenance and network design criteria to reduce water leaks and outages, which ultimately leads to better service to the customer.

There are four key components that need to be addressed to achieve this goal.

  1. Complete water asset inventory stored in a GIS; the data is accessible to maintenance, operations and engineering staff.
  2. Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) with asset inspection and condition rating capabilities, along with work orders to track asset repair history.
  3. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of the water department in its job of providing for the delivery of water at an acceptable level of service.
  4. Tools to perform analysis of all work performed on water assets to support changes in system design and maintenance procedures.

Asset Inventory

The asset inventory is the base for reporting all work performed on water assets. This includes but is not limited to main lines, service lines, hydrants, valves and pumping stations with all assets within the station. To be able to perform analysis on different assets there are specific attributes that should be collected for each asset. Some of these include year installed, material type, soil type, condition score, and others, that can be used to determine if design standards need to be changed or maintenance programs need to be adjusted.

CMMS

To analyze repair history there is a need to collect data on all work related to water assets. Specific repair information such as duration of repair, water service outage time, cause of failure and others that are used in the analysis of work must be captured. Setting the CMMS to collect this information is vital in being able to perform the analytics needed to make decisions.

KPIs

Key Performance Indicators that relate to the business of the water department are used to gauge factors that show whether levels of service are being met, regulations are being followed and show where additional analysis may be necessary to achieve success in the KPIs.

Data Analysis

A tremendous amount of data is collected and it is important to turn this data into information. There are tools available that will allow an organization to dive deep into the data pool and analyze repair history, failure causes, failures by asset type, age, material, etc. It is imperative that this analysis is based on a consistent methodology of data collection drawn from the asset inventory and reporting through the CMMS. The data collected in the field must include the appropriate items so that the analysis is meaningful and provides managers with the ability to make changes to design and maintenance operations programs.

These components all work together to ensure the organization’s water operations are managed in the most efficient way. Professional services and quick start packages like the Workforce Starter can be leveraged to not only appropriately configure workflows, but help with long-term planning for the success in the service delivery to customers.