Improvement through performance measurement

Abstract

Strategic tools to support the most effective and efficient use of a utility's resources have become critically important to a utility's planning process. Using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's capacity, management, operations, and maintenance program (CMOM) as a guide, the water division of the Orange County Utilities Department in Orlando, Florida, developed a performance management plan to address the challenges of a rapidly growing population and stretched water resources. Originally developed for wastewater utilities, CMOM addresses all aspects of the Orange County Utilities organization, with specific focuses on water utility management and operations, financial considerations, water treatment maintenance issues, public health protection, regulatory compliance, and safety. The Water CMOM program showed the gaps in the utility's organization, provided a method to prioritize and implement gap closure projects, and aligned the final recommendations of the assessment with the utility's goals and mission statement. The program created a repeatable process that can measure how the utility is performing, re‐analyze the utility periodically, show gaps in performance, develop plans to close those gaps, and remeasure the utility using performance indicators and industry‐accepted metrics.