Development of Robust Empirically Implementable Benchmarking Methodologies to Better Inform and Target Managerial Efforts to Improve the Cost

制定强有力的经验可实施的基准方法，以更好地为管理层提供信息和目标，提高水和废水系统的成本和环境可持续性。该博士项目将专注于内部分解成本基准，以确定Anglian Water应针对其绩效改进工作的内部活动和单位，因为它旨在应对2021-25监管期间大幅降低成本津贴的挑战。成功描述Anglian Water运营的基准模型将与其他英国水务公司共享，以获得全行业的利益。潜在地，这可能允许通过盲目汇集多个公司的结果来制定绝对和相对效率措施。 总之，该项目将开发和实施严格的经济和工程信息的分类成本评估和性能基准模型，目的是：-为运营经理和工程师提供关于如何以及在何处提高现有系统的成本效率的可操作见解。 - 确定不同处理厂和运营区域的运营特征差异如何影响提供水和废水服务的成本，从而为旨在重新配置Anglian Water的废物和废水系统的运营和工程决策提供信息，以提高其运营的长期经济可持续性。 - 促进安联水务公司的持续努力，以有效地减少水的消耗和提取鉴于气候变化和日益严重的水资源短缺，同时也满足日益严格的环境标准，废水处理，以及监管承诺，以改善消费者的结果。 该项目与EPSRC的研究战略和优先事项保持一致，特别是与环境变化主题以及水和基础设施子主题保持一致，这些子主题强调提供可靠的水基础设施以及环境变化对供水可持续性的影响。 此外，预期的基准方法和项目目标与EPSRC的业务研究领域保持一致，涉及“开发和应用先进的分析方法，以支持改进决策，特别是在复杂和不确定系统的运作方面。“考虑到工程的重要作用。地理，空间和环境决定因素解释水和废水系统成本，以及上述项目的概念方法，该项目也与水工程研究领域保持一致，该领域支持重点研究水系统的长期管理，并支持整体系统方法，以确保英国基础设施具有弹性。

Development of Robust Empirically Implementable Benchmarking Methodologies to Better Inform and Target Managerial Efforts to Improve the Cost and Environmental Sustainability of Water and wastewater systems. This PhD project will focus on internal disaggregated cost benchmarking so as to identify those internal activities and units where Anglian Water should target its performance improving efforts, as it aims to meet the challenge of substantially reduced cost allowances during the 2021-25 regulatory period. Benchmarking models which successfully describe Anglian Water operations will be shared with other UK water companies to enable industry-wide benefits to be gained. Potentially, this may allow absolute as well as relative efficiency measures to be developed through the blind pooling of results across multiple companies. In sum, the project will develop and implement rigorous economically and engineering informed disaggregated cost assessment and performance benchmarking models of Anglian Water's water and/or wastewater systems with the objective of: - providing actionable insights to operations managers and engineers about how and where to improve the cost efficiency of existing systems. - identifying how differences in the operating characteristics of distinct treatment plants and operating regions influence the cost of providing water and wastewater services, and thereby inform operational and engineering decision making aimed at reconfiguring Anglian Water's waste and wastewater systems so as improve the long-term economic sustainability of its operations. - facilitating Anglian Water's continuing efforts to effectively reduce water consumption and abstraction given climate change and increasing water scarcity, while also meeting increasingly stringent environmental standards for wastewater treatment, as well as regulatory commitments to improve consumer outcomes. The project is well aligned with the EPSRC research strategy and priorities and particularly with the Living With Environmental Change theme, and its Water and Infrastructure sub-themes which emphasise the provision of reliable water infrastructure and the impact of environmental change on the sustainability of water provision. In addition, the intended benchmarking methodologies and project objectives are well aligned with the EPSRC's Operational Research area, related to the "development and application of advanced analytical methods to support improved decision-making, especially in relation to the operation of complex and uncertain systems." Given the significant role of engineering. geographic, spatial, and environmental determinants in explaining water and wastewater system costs, and the conceptual approach for this project discussed above, the project is also well aligned to the Water Engineering research area, which supports research focused on the long-term management of the water system and supports a whole-systems approach to ensuring that UK infrastructure is resilient.