Solomon, JD

JD Solomon, PE, CRE, CMRP is the President of JD Solomon, Inc, a two-office consulting firm with active projects in six states. His more than 30 years of experience includes senior leadership roles at two Fortune 500 companies, serving as a Town Manager for a unit of local government, and serving as chairman of a statewide environmental rule-making body. JD's niche specialties include reliability assessments, risk management, root cause analysis, and communicating complexity and uncertainty to decision makers. JD is the author of the book "Communicating Reliability, Risk, and Resiliency to Decision Makers: Getting Your Boss's Boss to Understand.

Titles from this speaker

Description: Getting The Money That Your Utility Requires: Key Approaches for Forecasting Capital...

Getting The Money That Your Utility Requires: Key Approaches for Forecasting Capital and O&M Needs

Abstract

All facilities and infrastructure assets deteriorate with time and use. To maintain the effectiveness and value of an asset, renewal work should be performed periodically, and when the asset has reached the end of its functional useful life, it should be replaced. At the heart of any life cycle management program is the effort to preserve the existing system's performance and reliability by anticipating future renewal and replacement (R&R) needs and to ensure that adequate and timely funding is planned. The session will provide key tips and best practices for getting capital and O&M funding from senior decision makers. The presentation is targeted at the intermediate level and assumes basic experience by the attendee in the areas of utility management, asset inventory, condition assessment, and determining replacement asset value. The learning objectives of the session are: 1.Appreciate the need for a renewal and replacement forecast 2.Understand the primary elements and data requirements 3.Apply the provided best practices via a checklist at any utility 4.Understand the tradeoffs with basic and more advanced approaches 5.Effectively communicate renewal and replacement funding needs Five case examples from the water and wastewater utility sector will be used to show the practical application of the highlighted tips and good practices. The case examples will include treatment facilities, collection and distribution systems, and general facilities. The case examples will highlight where different technical approaches and communication approaches were effective and where they were not. Ten best practices will be covered. Seven of these practices are considered foundational: the basic purpose and need of a lifecycle forecast; limitations as a failure prediction model; use of asset inventory and condition; considerations associated with replacement asset value (RAV); stated limitations of a basic forecasting model; variability as an expression of risk; and consideration of insights gained as important as first-generation forecasts. These foundational best practices apply to every utility, regardless of its size or scope. Three additional best practices will be provided for more intermediate participants. These include a discussion of maintenance repair strategies (ranging from 'good as new' to 'better than new'; the role of different approaches to asset rebuild frequencies and magnitudes; and the use of point estimate inputs versus probabilistic methods. The case examples are intended to keep the session practical and understandable for most conference attendees. The presentation will conclude with a practical checklist that will be useable for all attendees, regardless of their experience level or the size/scope of their utility. The presentation will not focus on a propriety software but will instead highlight Excel-based tools so that attendees can self-develop their forecasts if preferred.

This paper was presented at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference, February 21-24, 2022.

SpeakerSolomon, JD

Presentation time

08:30:00

09:00:00

Session time

08:30:00

10:00:00

SessionAsset Management: The Crucial Fundamentals

Session number15

Session locationHyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida

TopicAsset Management, Asset Management Plan, Capital Planning, Performance Indicators, Strategic Plan, Utility Management

Author(s)

J. Solomon

Author(s)J. Solomon1

Author affiliation(s)JD Solomon, Inc. 1; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Feb 2022

DOI10.2175/193864718825158196

Volume / Issue

Content sourceUtility Management Conference

Word count16

The Long Road: CMMS Lessons Learned from a Former Town Manager

Abstract

A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is an essential part of a utility's ability to manage, maintain, and operate its facilities, assets, and equipment. For Maintenance, an effective CMMS tracks the work necessary to re-establish a system's designed reliability as well as to maintain and document the required processes and procedures to do so. For Operations, an effective CMMS informs equipment availability and compliance challenges. Also known as Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAMS), an effective CMMS enables asset managers and financial planners to make planning and budgeting decisions. Unfortunately, over half of new CMMS implementations fail. Even worse, industry research has shown that most organizations use only a small portion of their CMMS capabilities. The good news, if there is a silver lining, is that water and wastewater utilities are not isolated in their CMMS shortcomings. This engaging session will be presented from the perspective of a seasoned CMMS consultant turned local government Town Manager. The session will be primarily from the vantage of the 8-year story of assessment to implementation through several years of use will highlight both the positives and negatives as well as the expected outcomes and surprises. The CMMS lessons learned from other utilities, from large to small, will be used to highlight commonalities and differences with the case example. A CMMS can be ineffective or underutilized for many reasons. Gulati (2012) describes eight reasons that CMMS projects fail to reach their potential. Benson and Solomon (2017) cite 11 primary reasons for CMMS shortfalls: 1.Incorrect/Incomplete/Inappropriate requirements assessment 2. Lack of management support 3.Failure to limit vendor participation 4.Developing an in-house custom system 5.Inadequate vendor research 6.Inadequate pilot testing 7.Poor implementation planning 8.Insufficient training/documentation 9.Underestimating data collection effort 10.Poorly defined maintenance work processes 11.Failure to prioritize, optimize, and limit maintenance tasks Oldach, Solomon, and Benson (2016) have shown that these reasons are often made worse when multiple departments use the same CMMS or when a centralized department (such as Finance or Information Technology) dominates over front-line operating divisions. In the case example, the water and wastewater utility led the successful Town-wide implementation and ultimately served as the key link to restoration when the CMMS fell on tough times. Seven key observations from the case example will be provided in the session: 1.Do a formal Needs Assessment 2.Pause to make sure you have the needed Organizational Capacity 3.Do a formal Implementation Program 4.Find your CMMS champion(s) 5.Success must be driven from the top 6.The system should be integrated with Finance, Purchasing, and Customer Service 7.An organization will not be effective until all operating divisions participate The scope of the functionalities of the CMMS in the case example will also be compared to other utilities. Leading CMMS software applications allow labor and expenses to be tracked at the asset level or the functional location. Ultimately any CMMS can provide computerized tracking and reporting related to asset inventory, physical condition, maintenance activity, replacement asset value, failure codes, and link to accounting and insurance systems. One fundamental question that should be simply 'just because it can do it, should we try to do it?' Scope and context also have much to do with the effective utilization of a CMMS. The learning objectives of the session are: 1. Understand how and why a CMMS fails or is underutilized 2. Apply practical lessons learned from case example to attendee's utility 3. Appreciate the dynamic nature of any CMMS in the context of organizational changes 4. Understand the importance of formal Needs Assessments and Implementation Programs. 5. Apply different organizational perspectives to communication at home utility The session is unique in that there are limited examples of a CMMS consultant eventually serving as the ultimate end user of a CMMS that he helped select and implement. It is also unique from the perspective of being able to provide a practical, 'does it work' perspective over a full timeline of use. The session will be presented at the beginner/intermediate level, with the primary underlying assumption that attendees have a general awareness of a CMMS/EAMS. The session applies to a full range of UMC attendees.

This paper was presented at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference, February 21-24, 2022.

SpeakerSolomon, JD

Presentation time

11:30:00

12:00:00

Session time

10:30:00

12:00:00

SessionData Management

Session number2

Session locationHyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida

TopicAsset Management, Business Intellligence, Business Process Optimization, Condition Assessment, Data Analytics, Data Management, Management Systems, Risk Analysis