American Gas - May 2014 - (Page 31)
this year marks the 21st anniversary of aga's gas utility operations Best Practices Benchmarking program. With more than 500 operations personnel coming to Pittsburgh this
month for the aga operations conference, it seemed like a good time to review the benefits of one of aga's most powerful tools for improving operational performance from both
an efficiency and a safety perspective. as the columns below make clear, the program's
benchmarking and roundtable programs provide valuable insights while acknowledging
that what's a "best practice" for one company isn't best for all. -Richard Sine
like coke and PePsi
Working together
By Scott Edgerton
T
he AGA's Best Practices Program has been a leader in
improving the safety of our customers and communities in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.
Each year our Steering Committee chooses three
to six topics to discuss for benchmarking and roundtable discussion (see sidebar, next page). At the kickoff meeting in
January, program participants discuss the criteria for measuring
performance and related industry issues. (Typically we decide on
two measures, one for productivity, or cost, and one for effectiveness, or service level.) After each participating organization collects
the required data, AGA and the program managers summarize
the data and provide the benchmarking data to all participants.
The group identifies certain companies as having leading practices
and invites them to make presentations during a June data review
meeting, which typically lasts about two days.
After data has been collected and the best-practice companies
selected, roundtable dates and sites are determined in order to
bring subject matter experts (SMEs) together to review various
processes within the work topics benchmarked. At these roundtables SMEs discuss their own internal practices for tackling
industry issues related to the benchmarked topic and identify best
practices to share with their companies.
New Jersey Natural Gas has participated in the program
since 1997. We review all performance measures supplied by the
program and use them to help set our own internal goals for the
following fiscal year. To get the biggest "bang for the buck," we
focus our improvement efforts on areas where we placed near or
below the median. Of course, data collection among companies
does not entirely compare apples to apples and aren't audited.
But if you find yourself in a lower quartile than you expected of
a particular process, regardless of how the data is interpreted, this
suggests you might want to consider allocating resources for a
quality improvement initiative.
The first quartile of performance sets the bar for us in terms of
how we should be performing. The benchmarking data also allows
us to justify setting standards for workgroup-based incentives for
our workforce. When it came time about 10 years ago to benchmark the percentage of emergency calls responded to within 60
minutes, we thought we would be doing well because our figure
was 99.1 percent. It turned out that best-in-class performance was
100 percent. That has inspired us, and we are currently responding to 99.8 percent of calls within 60 minutes.
New Jersey Natural Gas has adopted best practices identified
through the program in areas including leak repair and emergency response. Additionally New Jersey Natural Gas has hosted
best practices roundtables after being identified as leaders in
main leak repair and contractor quality oversight. I've been told
by other utilities that they have adopted some of our best practices, such as using a pneumatic drill in leak pinpointing. (A few
years ago our quality team devised a method by which the drill is
affixed to the back of our trucks, which then drive down a street
drilling bar holes. The technique is safer and produces less strain
on employees when compared to having an employee walk down
the street with a jackhammer or a manual drill.)
Over the years, we have streamlined the data collection process in order to make it less cumbersome. And we have shifted
the focus of the program away from performance data to sharing
innovative technologies that could have meaningful impact on
safety or reliability-even if that impact hasn't shown up in the
numbers.
The gas industry is unique in its willingness to share information among competitors. Could you imagine Coca-Cola
and Pepsi getting together to make a better soda? All of us are
coming together to help keep our employees and customers safer
and our system more reliable, in the most cost-effective manner.
Every AGA member should take a hard look at this program.
Simply put, if you're not taking a hard look at your work practices, how do you know you're improving? u
may 2014 AmericAn GAs
31
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - May 2014
Contents
American Gas - May 2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/20151201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201411
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201410
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201405
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201404
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201403
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201402
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/20141201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201310
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/20130809
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201307
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201306
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201303
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201302
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/20131201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201208
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aga/201207
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