9/12/2004
APWA National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia
LAC coordinated with clients to speak at five sessions in September of 2004 at the APWA National Congress.
Using a Maintenance System and GIS as a Tool for Catch Basin Cleaning - Urban runoff has become a major challenge for cities and counties. Non-point source pollution is runoff caused by materials that wash off city streets, suburban lawns, and agricultural land. This flow is disseminated through the storm drain system with the ocean being its final destination. This session will show what a California County has done to manage urban runoff by utilizing GIS technology interfaced with a maintenance management system to plan, schedule and track catch basin cleaning. The catch basin inventory is contained in the maintenance management system. There is an annual plan to clean all catch basins in the inventory one time, with additional cleaning planned for problem drains. Work orders are generated in the maintenance management system and include the list of catch basins and an integrated GIS map of their locations. Maintenance operation employees track their labor, equipment and materials used against the work order which is linked to the GIS map which depicts all the catch basins under the County’s responsibility. The County is able to produce detailed reports at the push of a button regarding which catch basins were cleaned and when they were cleaned. Information on what, when and where maintenance was performed can be obtained simply by clicking on the GIS map. This effort ensures that all catch basins are cleaned in compliance with NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) requirements.
Integrating Payroll and Work Management Systems - There is often a redundancy between daily timesheets that are entered into a Work Management System and what Finance requires for payroll, but in many case public works employees must complete two separate timesheets. This session will show how two agencies developed a way to streamline this process and reduce the number of forms that are needed to be filled out by maintenance employees, but still have the information needed for both the maintenance and payroll system. It will be demonstrated how one agency prints a report from its maintenance system that contains all the labor information for an individual employee on a bi-weekly basis, which is then submitted to the Finance Department. The other agency uses a batch process to print payroll data from their maintenance system for an entire crew which is then reviewed and submitted to the Payroll Department. Both agencies intend to automate the entire process. The end result has been less paperwork! The discussion will include how each agency set up the process including established needed data, coordination with the IT department, and providing the necessary training to all involved employees. Creating a more integrated approach between work and payroll management reduces paperwork and puts the required information into one system.
Regional Cooperation Works! - A regional transportation agency supported the implementation of a maintenance system for member road and traffic maintenance performed in the county and cities within its region. The system became fully operational in January 1996 and now is used for continuous improvement. The system is being used in 2003 to allow agencies to identify ways to share methods, resources and processes to perform work in a most cost beneficial manner. This system aided the maintenance staff by utilizing a “business approach” to maintenance operations that incorporated the management concepts of planning, organizing, scheduling, and controlling maintenance activities. This continuous improvement process has resulted in “real” documented improvements of over 35% resulting in millions of dollars of savings. This continuous success with maintenance operations improvement can be attributed to all agencies staffing dedicated employees, setting goals, focusing on getting results, and a commitment to the process. Most importantly though, is a commitment to regional cooperation. The agencies within the region have developed and implemented a plan to take maintenance operations improvements to the next level. Together, they examined ways of reducing low use equipment and sharing resources by committing to a standing agreement, streamlining similarly performed activities to improve benchmarking efforts, research and implement new methods of preventative asphalt maintenance strategies, comparing crew size and equipment use for greatest optimization, standardizing PMS methods, and examining yard locations and work staging efforts.
Improving Fleet Operations in Public Works Setting - Public sector Fleet operations are often a business function that benefits from a management evaluation and system implementation to improve their processes and many of the tasks that they perform. This presentation is a case study of one county that followed through with an improvement process evaluation and subsequent fleet management system implementation. The county will describe in detail how the basic management practices of fleet operations planning, organizing, controlling, and directing were used during the evaluation. The activities that are performed (and ones that were not) were identified. The review included how the fleet is managed; how the fleet management system was used; and how the shop floor operated. The operations were benchmarked against other similar agencies to identify improvement opportunities. Once the opportunities were identified, the county was able to assess their strengths and identify areas where challenges existed. This allowed the county to run their operation more effectively with the help of their newly implemented business rules and fleet maintenance system. This seminar will demonstrate how an evaluation of fleet business practices can identify ways to improve and maintain a competitive operation.
Using Maintenance Systems to Cut Through State Pesticide Reporting Requirements! - This presentation demonstrates how two agencies track and report their pesticide spray programs. Under full use reporting regulations required by their state, public sector pest control operators are required to report the use of pesticides to the county agricultural commissioner on a monthly basis. This process is usually cumbersome at best, frustrating at worst. This seminar will detail how public works operations can use a maintenance system to plan, schedule and track their pesticide operations and provide county and state pesticide reporting requirements at the push of a button by linking the pesticide database to their maintenance planning and work order system. This allows the agencies to create pesticide work orders in the maintenance system and print all of the necessary reporting data in the required format. This reduces data entry redundancy and meets the reporting requirements for their agency. Information can be easily obtained on type and amount of pesticides used by site, date, applicator and spray program. Cost and accomplishment information (acres sprayed) is also readily available to make management decisions.
Speakers:
Harry C. Lorick, PE, PTOE
Principal, LA Consulting Inc, Manhattan Beach, CA
Amie Drotning
Senior Associate, LA Consulting INC, Manhattan Beach, CA
Nick Nguyen
Senior Associate, LA Consulting INC, Manhattan Beach, CA