Helping a municipality operate and provide utility services as a more efficient, cost-conscious, and resilient organization

Municipal Utility Asset Management and Business Process Optimization

A municipality that provides electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater services was looking to upgrade their asset management and labor business processes to better plan for repairs, replacements, and redesigns. They reached out to us to help.

Our team reviewed the current asset management program to understand our client’s unique processes for each service. We found that high-risk assets weren’t always identified, so we suggested improvements to create a proactive identification process for all services. We developed a risk-based asset management framework that focuses operational processes, validates asset classes, and confirms asset naming and hierarchy. The framework also helps with performing failure models, defining the severity of needed repairs, and setting standard failure codes for consistent reporting and evaluation.

We also handled the organizational change management and communication needed to introduce the new risk-based approach to the engineering, planning, operations, and maintenance personnel. We trained them on the risk framework and supporting revised processes to help pass on knowledge to new utility staff and reduce the loss of important knowledge when senior staff retire.

With the new processes in place, our client is now operating as a more efficient, cost-conscious, and resilient organization, capable of delivering high-quality services to their community for years to come.