Currently, approximately 85 percent of U.S. municipalities are in a budget crunch. As a result, water and wastewater utility managers face a great deal of pressure to identify immediate cost savings and help close budget gaps without resorting to rate or tax increases.
Contract management—which involves placing a full-time utility operations expert into a facility on a short- or long-term basis to perform facility efficiency analyses and provide recommendations on all systems, budgets, and employee utilization and training needs—allows facility owners access to both immediate and long-term savings for their facilities with a relatively low up-front cost.
Many Choices
Utilizing contract management, when current financial and time considerations do not allow a utility to implement a more comprehensive program, provides utility managers with immediate access to a wealth of resources, including maintenance and instrumentation and control specialists, as well as organizational change, work flow efficiency, and energy audit experts. As a result, facility owners can choose to implement information management systems to improve efficiency, establish maintenance plans to ensure the proper care of assets, and/or conduct employee training, certification, and reinforcement to increase morale and productivity.
Fast Results
With a full-time contract manager identifying key and immediate improvements that can be made for a small cost, a utility can choose to implement the recommended short-term actions,and realize a fast return on investment. This will make the utility more competitive for the customers it serves and help reduce the budget gap that many utilities are currently facing.
In today's economy it is important to weigh all options when it comes to enhancing facility and employee performance. For utility managers looking to shrink their budget gaps while improving productivity, enhancing operational efficiency, and realizing a fast return on investment, contract management can allow a utility to do more with less.
Stephen Kellogg, senior vice president, specializes in all phases of operation and maintenance of municipal water and wastewater facilities, including contract operations and competitive utility operations.