American Gas - May 2014 - (Page 32)

o p e r at i o n s getting the most out of the BPP By Matthew Helmers I f your company has not joined AGA's Best Practices Program, you should take a second look. Southwest Gas Corp. has found the program to be a valuable tool in benchmarking our processes and procedures against the rest of the industry. The BPP is comprised of different size companies, so you can find a subset to use for comparison with your company. Being involved can introduce best practices that your company might never have tried, or your company may be a leader and your knowledge-sharing improves the industry as a whole. Southwest has embraced a goal of improving safety, service, and reliability. This can only be accomplished by leveraging the strengths of our employees and others in the industry. To get the most from the BPP, you should designate someone to be the point of contact throughout the process. This person will ensure that the data collected during the benchmarking is consistent with that provided by the other members. Southwest has five operating divisions in three states, so most data must be collected by each division and then merged into a single response. The results from the process are only as good as the data you put forth. Once all the results are published, your company's contact should spend time analyzing the data packet and questionnaires Up For DIscUssIon About 70 topics have been discussed by the Distribution Best Practices committee since 1993, many of them several times. Here's a sampling of recent topics. TopIcs DIscUssED EacH yEar system reliability (leak response, outages, third-party damages, etc.) company Profile (operations and maintenance expenditure, capital expenditures, etc.) spEcIaL TopIcs For 2014 Distribution integrity management Damage Prevention Leak management Field Operations safety spEcIaL TopIcs For 2013 Public Awareness meter set Protection Quality management emergency response 32 AmericAn GAs may 2014 for trends. The data will show how your company generally compares, as well as areas where you may excel or need improvement. The contact should then report his or her findings to management for discussion. The data collection for the benchmarking can seem daunting. AGA and the Best Practices Committee members have made great strides in streamlining the process. They have worked with member companies to review all data packets and questionnaires to remove questions that were not beneficial to the process. For example, this year's Damage Prevention Marking Locating questionnaire had more than 40 questions removed, allowing for a shorter response time while not impacting the quality of results. The benchmarking data is invaluable for comparing your company's results to others in the industry. You can use the data to find subsets of companies similar to yours in size or geographical region and compare the results. You might find that your company is a vanguard in one area, while it may need to focus on improving its processes and procedures in another. The results will help you compile a list of companies you will want to contact during the follow-up conference and corresponding roundtables, to discuss their practices in achieving their results. While the benchmarking data is important, involvement in the corresponding roundtable events is paramount. These meetings give you the opportunity to interact with other BPP companies and gather information. Use your findings from the benchmarking section to draft questions that you would like to ask your fellow BPP members. Seek out those that you want to learn more about and discuss with them how they achieved their results. There are multiple networking opportunities throughout a roundtable event in which you can ask questions and probe further into another company's best practices. There are also breakout sessions where smaller groups discuss their successes. The findings from the breakout sessions are then summarized and reported to the entire group. These discussions can have unexpected benefits. Leak survey was not even a topic on last year's roundtable agenda, but a side conversation brought up the idea of tracking leak surveys using GPS. One of the member companies explained that its local public utility commission was requiring it to supply GPS tracking data as proof that the leak survey was complete; it would no longer accept highlighted maps. The company said that GPS data assists with the quality control process, as the tracking helps to verify that all mains and services were surveyed. Now Southwest is exploring options to utilize GPS leak survey tracking in the future. Once the representatives return from the roundtable, they should report on what they discovered. Then they should review the practices that were discussed and see if they are right for their company to implement. They can also point out where their company already excels. Southwest has been a longtime member of the BPP and plans to continue. We recognize that to achieve our goals in the areas of safety, service, and reliability, we must learn from others and strive to be a leader in the industry. The BPP helps us to do so. u

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American Gas - May 2014