INTEGRATION OF COMPUTERIZED O&M MANUALS AND COMPUTERIZED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AT SEVEN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK

Abstract

Westchester County has completed a project that improves the efficiency of the operations and maintenance of their wastewater collection and treatment facilities through the implementation of information technology. The purpose of this program was to improve the information available to the staff responsible for the operations and maintenance of the wastewater facilities, provide a system to better track maintenance information for the County's equipment, and to standardize data recording and reporting procedures for all of the plants.Operation and maintenance information available at the wastewater treatment plants needed to be organized. The County wanted to organize resources to help train new plant operators and maintenance workers. Reference information was difficult or impossible to find, and there were no consistent methods to track and store maintenance records for equipment. Maintenance history information needed organization, and there was no system in place to track inventory. The County's goal was to develop a program to track maintenance information with a systematic technique for prioritizing maintenance tasks and scheduling maintenance staff.The objectives of the program were to enhance the efficiency and improve the operations and maintenance of the wastewater treatment plants with information technology tools. The scope incorporated three separate implementation projects: development and implementation of computerized operations and maintenance manuals, implementation of a computerized maintenance management system, and implementation of an operations database.