AWWA JTMGT64431

These are challenging times for water utilities thanks to regulatory demands, customer expectations, and changing technology. The push for continuous improvement has been facilitated, in part, by programs like QualServe. Designed specifically for water and wastewater utilities, QualServe is a voluntary continuous improvement program started in 1996. Its primary objectives are to help individual utilities improve overall operations and enhance customer satisfaction and create a culture of continuous improvement among utilities. By providing self-assessment, peer review, and performance indicators (metric benchmarking), QualServe offers utilities the tools for continuous improvement - to assess, measure change, and repeat. QualServe has been recognized as a very valuable program by all who have participated. However, to date, it is estimated that the program has just 2% market penetration. So why are so few utilities taking advantage of it? Could QualServe itself be ready for improvement? That was the question posed in AwwaRF project 3138, "Enhancement of Water Utility Self- Assessment Tools to Improve Utility Operations." The project was created to critically evaluate existing QualServe tools to: identify opportunities to enhance the tools based on current standards of practice; improve utility awareness of, and access to, the tools and improve the delivery mechanism; and, overcome barriers to utility participation. This paper examines the results of this research that evaluated existing tools and considered the overall programmatic approach. This research showed that the QualServe program has been a valuable tool for utilities seeking continuous improvement but its potential remains largely untapped. The paper discusses how QualServe is being updated to more fully integrate performance indicators and the self-assessment and peer-review process. Includes figure.