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

制定可靠的经验上可实施的基准方法，以便更好地为改善水和废水系统的成本和环境可持续性而进行的管理工作提供信息并确定目标。该博士项目将侧重于内部分类成本基准，以确定盎格鲁水务应针对其业绩改进努力的内部活动和单位，因为该项目旨在应对在2021-25年监管期间大幅减少成本津贴的挑战。成功描述盎格鲁水务运营的基准模型将与其他英国水务公司共享，以使整个行业都能受益。潜在地，这可能允许通过盲目汇集多家公司的业绩来制定绝对和相对效率衡量标准。总而言之，该项目将为盎格鲁水务公司的水和/或废水系统开发和实施严格的经济和工程知识分类成本评估和性能基准模型，目的是：-向运营经理和工程师提供关于如何以及在哪里提高现有系统成本效率的可行见解。-确定不同处理厂和运营区域的运营特点的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盎格鲁水务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。-促进盎格鲁水务在气候变化和日益缺水的情况下继续努力有效地减少用水量和取水量，同时还满足日益严格的废水处理环境标准，以及改善消费者结果的监管承诺。该项目与EPSRC的研究战略和优先事项，特别是与环境变化共存的主题及其强调提供可靠的水基础设施和环境变化对供水可持续性的影响的水和基础设施分主题非常一致。此外，预期的基准方法和项目目标与EPSRC的运筹学领域很好地保持一致，该领域与“先进分析方法的开发和应用，以支持改进决策，特别是与复杂和不确定系统的操作有关”有关。鉴于工程的重要作用。除了在解释水和废水系统成本方面的地理、空间和环境决定因素，以及上面讨论的这个项目的概念方法之外，该项目还与水工程研究领域保持良好的一致性，该领域支持专注于水系统长期管理的研究，并支持全系统方法，以确保英国的基础设施具有弹性。

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.