AWWA JTMGT69632

As water utilities struggle to deal with tough issues of long-term drought,increasingly stringent regulations, public concerns about water quality and a host of otherchallenges, there is real value in taking the time to understand and improve the business andservice delivery processes of the organization. Creating a comfortable and safe environment fordialogue among employees who know and perform the tasks which take the process from pointA to point B or C is critical to gathering the information needed. Unfortunately, many utilitymanagers find themselves too busy to undertake the mapping or they delegate the task to astaff member and don't follow-up to monitor progress. Time passes and the mapping movesdown on the list of priorities. This tends to be the reason that a consultant and/or customerservice coach is brought in to facilitate the project.Facilitating meetings of employees to map processes that cross department boundarieschallenges old ways of doing things and fosters dialogue to explore opportunities to improve.Along the way, procedures are reviewed, omissions are caught and greater consistency in bestpractices is achieved.This paper includes examples of two utilities that learned the value of mapping theirbusiness processes, which allowed them to improve operations and provide more responsiveand improved service to customers.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

11/01/2009

Number of Pages:

3

File Size:

1 file , 730 KB