Improving Design Performance

The T&D design function is important to the Electric Utility as it faces the changes of improving reliability, upgrading the infrastructure and implementing a smart grid to meet the needs of the 21st century. The T&D design function is not monolithic and has several components:

Long range planning
Standards
Conceptual engineering
Preliminary engineering
Final Design

So the contribution of the engineering/design group is exceedingly important. That performance consists of the following dimensions: productivity, quality of output (measured by various ways, including constructability) and intangibles (like innovation, avoided costs and future benefits).

Literature Review Goals

We will explore general questions that influence improvement efforts with engineering/design groups in other industries, to include:

What are the sources of new talent and information transfer?
How to manage increasing role of Contractors and Outsourcing?
What are keys to recruitment and retention?
What new labor-enhancing technology/software is available for engineers/designers?
What is the impact of new organizational paradigms: Asset management; Contractor management; Project Management; Quality Control?
How do you instill Teamwork in the organization?
What Process /Quality Improvement strategies work for engineers/designers?
How do you achieve effective Integration of technology?

The particular needs of Electric T&D Design that distinguish it from other design activities will be identified, as well as case studies that describe major process improvements. Questionnaire/case study Goals
Our major research goals will be to identify people and process improvement initiatives underway in utilities to improve the design process. The focus will be on Distribution, which represents the bulk of the costs.

Our approach will be to concentrate on identifying where process improvement is taking place. In particular, we will look at how utilities do the following (but not overlook other improvement actions):

Define the type of work being performed (categorized by duration)
Define the roles to perform the work (e.g. Engineer, designer, technician)
Identify the Employee profile requirements (types of skills required of employee)
Develop Performance measures around efficiency and productivity
Insure Time charging (accuracy, appropriate coding)
Optimize and integrate the use of infrastructure/tools (GIS, training, estimating system, standards/CU, etc)
Organization (physical location, hierarchy) and Interactions with other departments
Interactions with other departments (processing the request)
Feedback and quality control
What measures are used to understand Designer performance and/or quality needs

Based upon the results, we will approach one or more utilities to prepare a case study describing their approach to improving design performance in the Electric T&D area.

gatesix