Productivity Initiative -- King County Wastewater Treatment Division

The Productivity Initiative is a
10-year program launched by the King County Wastewater Treatment Division to make sure that ratepayers are getting the best return for their investment in wastewater treatment services.

2006 Balanced Scorecard Report

Click on image for larger view.
Also available as PDF (page 24 of 2006 Annual Report).

Our Vision:
Creating Resources from Wastewater

Balanced Scorecard

Overview

2006 Balanced Scorecard

At a Glance...

•

Green indicates target was satisfactorily met. A green rating is only achieved when performance is at 100 percent of target.

•

Yellow indicates performance was within 90-99% of established target. For environmentally critical measures, such as NPDES permit compliance and Number of Sanitary Sewer Overflows, there is no yellow rating. For those measures, a rating of red is given for any performance falling below the target.

•

Red indicates performance has fallen below an established threshold and is of a critical nature in need of attention. Beginning in 2006, this threshold has been standardized across all measures as any performance falling below 90% of established target. For critical measures in which performance must be maintained at or above 100% of target, red indicates failing to meet 100% of target.

NPDES = National Pollutant Discharge Elimantion System

The WTD uses a Balanced Scorecard, a performance measurement tool often used in private business, to measure its overall performance. Balanced Scorecards were developed in the 1990s as tools for businesses and organizations to evaluate performance beyond just financial measurements by providing performance feedback from multiple perspectives. WTD uses the Balanced Scorecard as a management tool to monitor how well the programs and strategies developed as part of the Productivity Initiative are working. The Balanced Scorecard ensures that program decisions take into account different perspectives, including employee management, finance, business practices and customer focus. These four areas of performance are measured by four corresponding quadrants of the Balanced Scorecard.

In 2001 WTD management identified performance indicators in each of the four quadrants, and began collecting data so that year-to-year comparisons could be made during the ten years of the Productivity Initiative. The targets are set to be very aggressive and comparable to results reflecting the performance of the best wastewater programs in the nation.

A performance measurement system, such as the Balanced Scorecard, allows a public utility to align its service levels with operational and financial performance. It permits real deployment and implementation of strategy on a continuous basis. With it, a utility can get feedback needed to guide planning efforts. The four quadrants and their key measures are described on the following pages.

How Ratings are Applied to Measurements

In 2003, the program began using specialized software (“pbViews”) to help automate the process of gathering and displaying data. Beginning in 2006, the methodology of color ratings was standardized so that green is achieved when the performance-to-target ratio is equal to or greater than 100%; a measure is rated yellow when the performance-to-target ratio is 90-99%; and a measure receives a color rating of red when its performance-to-target ratio is less than 90%. However, any performance for environmentally critical measures or permit compliance that falls below 100% of target will receive a color rating of red.

2006 Summary of Overall Results

In 2006, two of the four quadrants, Financial Performance and Business Practices, were rated green overall. The Customer Focus quadrant was rated red overall. Individual measures in this quadrant also dropped to red in several areas. This was not unexpected, as WTD continues contract negotiations with component agencies. Employee Management’s yellow rating was unchanged from 2005. The number of individual measures that dropped from yellow to red, however, increased. For details, see Pages 25-28 of the 2006 Annual Report.

Want to know more?

View the latest annual report.

For questions about the Productivity Initiative or this Web site, please contact the productivity communications coordinator by e-mail or at 206-684-1161.