AWWA JAW50170

In 1996, a group of water utilities formed the Western Regional Water Utilities Benchmarking Group to search for meaningful benchmarking structures and practices. This article describes the processes used in the research, its findings, and the group's plans for using these findings. The group encountered many challenges in determining a benchmarking approach. The methods used, the lessons learned, and the benchmarking model tests are discussed in relation to operational definitions, qualitative and quantitative protocol, data availability, data management practices, maintenance planning practices, and use of automation. Key findings included unexpected differences in maintenance strategies and tactics among participating utilities and a general ineffectiveness at accessing and using collected or stored component data for decision-making purposes. The article closes with plans for future use of the benchmarking data and findings to evaluate more specifically differences in practices, outputs, and outcomes. Includes 6 references, table, figures.