KC Water's Capital Improvement Program Planning & Delivery Improvements - The Power of Business Process Modeling

Background KC Water became involved in the Utility Analysis & Improvement Methodology (UAIM) Project in Year 2 of the initiative. Department staff charged with the planning and delivery utilized UAIM artifacts, resources and models to shape their program for the Fiscal Year 2022-2035 planning and project delivery cycle. About KC Water KC Water is a department of the City of Kansas City, Missouri's Municipal Government. Dating back to 1873, the department manages and operates the city's Water, Wastewater and Stormwater Utilities. With a service population of more than 600,000 the department has a combined $446 million operating budget and serves a population of 700,000 through direct delivery and multiple agreements with wholesale and inter-jurisdictional agreements. Clean Water is treated and distributed through 1 water treatment plant, 18 pump stations and 2,800 miles of water mains. Wastewater is treated and clean water is returned to the Missouri River and its tributaries by 6 wastewater treatment plants, 43 pump stations, and over 2,500 miles of sanitary sewer pipelines. Stormwater includes 600+ miles of sewer, 15 flood pump stations, 13 miles of levee and over 600 Green Infrastructure assets. Each year, KC Water spends approximately $200-$300 million on its combined capital program. The main drivers for its capital expense are rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, largely driven by the replacement of aging water and wastewater assets, including water mains, wastewater collection system pipeline, and treatment plant and pumping station assets. In addition, KC Water is in the middle of a program to reduce overflows in its combined and separate sewer systems in compliance with the federal Clean Water Act and policies of the EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources ('MDNR') related to sewer infrastructure. The original cost for that program was estimated to be $4.5 billion (on an inflated adjusted basis) and was to be completed in 2035. By 2021, the department had spent approximately $800 million towards meeting the tenants of the decree. The decree was amended in 2021, and it is projected to cost almost $2 billion less than was originally anticipated. The department expects to spend over $700 million in its Water Utility and $1.8 billion in its Wastewater Utility on capital improvements through 2035. Case Study Description KC Water selected two initiatives as part of the Year 2 UAIM Project. Initiative #1 focused on documenting, improving, and implementing an updated CIP Planning and Business Case Evaluation process. Initiative #2 focuses on documenting and improving the CIP Project Delivery Processes and KC Water's efforts to implement a Project Delivery 'Roadmap' using the business process models developed as part of the Year 2 UAIM Project. Both initiatives were completed by the same project team at KC Water using the methodology, framework, and tools developed under the UAIM research project in Year 1. Goals Accomplished-- KC Water's goals for Initiative #1 were as follows: ---Documented the 'As Is' BCE/CIP Planning process --Compared our process to the model developed as part of the UAIM research project in Year 1 --Developed a robust 'Lessons Learned' list to share with other Utilities who may be interested in developing a more robust CIP Planning/BCE process. --Shared a list of new processes and tools that were developed and implemented as a result of the work done in the past year as part of the project. KC Water's goals for Initiative #2 were as follows: --Documented the CIP Delivery Process in a Business Process Model (BPMN) format. --Shared the KC Water CIP Delivery BPM flow charts and walk through the process models with key stakeholders (Engineer Management, Experience Project Managers, New Project Managers) to confirm the 'as-is' model is accurate and capture updates and detail missing and identify opportunities for improvement for the 'to-be' model. --Implemented and used the BPM flow charts for communication & training with KC Water Engineering and Project Management staff. --Made the BPM flow charts accessible to front line stakeholders responsible for Project Delivery to create greater clarity of the process, provide better access to resources needed to execute the project delivery process, and ultimately improve collaboration, decision making, and efficiency during project delivery to yield an optimal project outcome that improves levels of service and reduces risk at an optimal cost. Longer term goals and desired outcomes that were discovered and clarified as a result of collaborating with key stakeholders at KC Water were as follows and are currently being implemented: --Establish a 'road map' for our CIP Delivery Process that uses a 'common language' and standard to help frame conversations around the goal of understanding and improving existing CIP Delivery Processes. The intent of the 'roadmap' is to reduce confusion and the risk of people 'getting lost' trying to navigate their way through the project delivery life cycle at KC Water. -- Improve KC Water's execution of change management by using the 'roadmap' to make value added changes to the process and then implementing and communicating these changes using the BPM flow charts. These tools can help create greater consistency and allow for changes to be communicated more effectively to frontline stakeholders involved in the execution of the CIP Delivery Process.