USING SIMULATION FOR IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY OF DRAINAGE OPERATIONS

The City of Edmonton, Drainage operation Section oversees the inspection, maintenance, and repair of the city's drainage network. The network covers an area of 700.6 km 2 to serve the city's population of 626,447. The activities performed by the section consume a large amount of funding and, therefore, are sensitive to any improvement in productivity. This study was conducted to develop improved work methods and engineered productivity standards for the different drainage operations. This study uses work simplification, work measurement, and simulation analysis to capture current work methods, generate and test alternative methods and develop new standards. This paper discusses the methodology followed in that study. It describes the procedures followed for analyzing and improving the work methods of the Low Pressure Flushing (LPF) crews as an example. It also illustrates the use of simulation as an analysis tool for modeling and evaluating alternative work methods for LPF operations. As a result of this study, an increase in the efficiency of crews has been realized and quantified and the City managers are able to develop time standards, baseline, and target performance levels for drainage activities.