Level of Service

 

The Level of Service component drives every part of Asset Management. It is the foundation for which all components are considered. Utilities, ask yourselves, “What do I need to do to provide the safest, most reliable clean drinking water to my community?” The answers guide the rest of your planning. 

Level of Service (LoS) defines the types and amounts of service the system wants their assets to provide to their customers relative to the capabilities and limitations of the assets. Additionally, Level of Service indicates how a system will operate and maintain its assets to meet customer expectations. The level of service provided depends on the purpose of the system, how it is operated and maintained, and the environmental factors impacting the system. 

Drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems have levels of service specific to the outcomes desired by the customers (e.g., safe, reliable delivery of drinking water, consistent removal of wastewater treated and disposed of in an environmentally protective manner, or stormwater handling that prevents flooding and protects the waterways).  

Developing a mission statement for your community can serve as a starting point for understanding community needs and can assist with determining the quality of services a utility seeks to provide. Small communities may not need a formal mission statement; however, a guiding statement can provide direction for daily operations and maintenance as well as support for future planning. 

Establishing Level of Service goals, which will help inform policies and procedures, can be developed within the context of the mission statement or guiding purpose. Implementing level of service goals provides many benefits, including: 

• Providing a means of assessing overall system performance 

• Providing a direct link between costs and service 

• Serving as an internal guide for system staff 

• Communicating with customers 

Goals should match community needs. When setting utility goals, staff can consider several characteristics and metrics, such as: 

• if the community is considered rural, suburban, or urban 

• whether it is growing or losing population 

• unique geography or topography 

• various community economic factors 

• source water availability/quality 

This approach to developing and applying level of service goals applies to all types of assets, including those relying on natural processes to meet LoS goals, such as watershed and wellhead protection efforts. Regardless of the characteristics, it is important for these goals to be meaningful, consistent, useful, unique, and most importantly, measurable. Utility staff will need to work together to set key performance indicators for goals to determine their level of success. System staff should use data collection and analysis to track the performance of most goals. The goals need to be reviewed and revised annually or as regulations, funding, and asset conditions significantly change. The ability to meet the level of service goals in different ways is at the heart of optimizing Asset Management. 

Systems should regularly communicate their goals with their community and announce when they successfully meet key performance indicators. The more transparent the operation is, the more likely the utility is to get community support. Overall, level of service goals shape management, operations, and investment decisions at each level of the system.