Sewer Construction
Process benchmarking sewer construction
The methodology of the sewer construction process benchmarking was developed by a working group of German cities in 1997 and has been applied continuously by the participants since the survey year 2002. With a participation in the sewer construction process benchmarking various objectives are being pursued by the firms. These range from the derivation of improvement potential for the processes of planning and construction supervision, the presentation of the productivity of the engineering services through the support with product costing analysis and budget planning up to provision of ammunition for argument in discussions with politicians and the public.
Courses of action
The recognition of optimisation potential and the derivation therefrom of courses of action and the implementation and/or integration in operational practice are an important component part of a process benchmarking. Therefore the documentation of the courses of action based on the results of a survey year takes place within the scope of the final report. The aquabench GmbH summarises the courses of action of all participants for the purposes of mutual information on introduced courses of action and key activities. Through this, the exchange between the participants with similarly oriented questions on operational practice are further supported and promoted.
[Frontispiece and contents list of “Process Benchmarking Sewer Construction – Overview of courses of action, Survey Year 2009” (Not available in English).]
Object of investigation
The formulation of courses of action concerns the developed system for the comparison of performance indicators at a company level and at a process level.
- At the company level the complete construction and investment activities as well as the overall engineering performances of a company are considered. Here the focus lies on long-term strategic decisions.
- At the project level a consideration of the annual sewer construction projects of the firms placed in the aquabench online platform takes place, in particular with regard to project costs and duration of the project, including the respective influencing factors as well as aspects of compliance with the budget and award of contract. Here the focus lies on short-term realisable operative decisions.
How can sewer construction projects be compared?
The philosophy of sewer construction process benchmarking consists of not indicating in the data acquisition which conditions of the project have to be met. Rather, constraints and influencing factors are recorded on each project (for example, type of project, method of construction, diameter, depth, class of soil, ...). In the evaluation clustering according to certain criteria can then take place so that only comparable projects end up in the evaluation.
.jpg)
The participants each year on average place just under 50% of their completed construction projects in the database and can, in the meantime, access data on 1,600 sewer construction projects on the aquabench online platform for evaluations. The overall project volume of the projects placed since 2002 amounts to € 625 million with a total length of 500 km.
Situation assessment and cause analysis
The situation assessment and the cause analysis are necessary in order to be able to develop concrete courses of action from the results. The situation assessment shows, for example, the positioning of the participants with regard to the composition of the project costs according to the cost components construction work costs, engineering costs and other costs for the renewal in open construction in the diameter range ≤ DN 1200. Within the scope of the cause analysis both the influenceable and also the non-influenceable factors are investigated for the amount of the cost components. Thus, for example, for a certain depth, the effect of various types of shoring can be investigated for excavations as part of the construction work costs.
.jpg)
Course of a project
The timely course of a project is, as a rule, configured as follows:
| Was | Wann |
| Preparation of data collection, Instruction of new participants | I. Quarter |
| Data collection | II. Quarter |
| Quality assurance of the data, “Quality assurance“ workshop for new participants, Draft report | III. Quarter |
| “Evaluation and analysis” workshop for all participants, Formulation of courses of action, Final report | IV. Quarter |
| Contact | Phone | |
| Michael Zentner | +49(40) 47 11 24-33 | m.zentner@aquabench.de |
Reference Customers for the Sewer Construction Product
| Name | Participant | Phone | |
| Schmidt, Martina | Berliner Wasserbetriebe | +49(30) 8644-5357 | martina.schmidt@bwb.de |
| Menze, Horst | SE Hannover | +49(511) 168-47312 | horst.menze@hannover-stadt.de |
