Improving Business Processes for More Effective Transportation Systems Management and Operations

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Managing Congestion with Transportation Systems Management and Operations

Congestion and delay on the road network are common attributes in today's transportation systems, particularly in urban areas and often during peak driving times such as morning or afternoon commutes. When travel conditions are worse than expected (from random or unusual circumstances like a crash, work zones, planned special events (PSEs), or bad weather), these conditions directly affect the networks' reliability that travelers may have come to expect. An important focus for many local and state transportation agencies, as well as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), is to better manage and operate a transportation system to improve travel reliability.

A strong link exists between how the transportation system is managed and operated, and how reliable it is to the users of the system (for example, motorists and shippers).¹ To fully appreciate and build on this link, decision makers and agency managers must understand that the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of any Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) strategy depends on the supportive nature of the agency’s business processes devoted to implementing TSMO programs.

TSMO is focused on actively managing and improving the transportation network by bringing together partner agencies, systems, and operational strategies as part of an integrated program and overall operational philosophy. Examples of TSMO strategies include traffic incident management (TIM), road weather management, and freeway traffic management.

Many agencies are shaping their TSMO programs to more effectively address those planned and unplanned events that affect road and travel conditions and can have an effect on overall system reliability. Through improved business processes, practices, and policies, agencies can collaborate and implement more effective operations strategies that help minimize the effects of those events on the transportation system. This Primer, which has been developed under the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) L01 (Businesses Processes for Reliability), provides information on these business practices as they relate to the aforementioned TSMO strategies.

Operational strategies alone will not solve the congestion management challenge. Effective business processes must be a key part of the institutional environment.

1.2 Business Processes

1.2.1 Why Focus on Business Processes?

Effective business processes are essential in supporting an effective and sustainable TSMO program. They reflect leadership support, internal and external cooperation, and fiscal efficiency and responsibility, as well as placing a priority on an overall ''customer service' approach. Business processes for TSMO are different than for traditional transportation agency functions of design, construction, and maintenance. Many agencies today face budget challenges, staffing and resource shortfalls, increased competition for project dollars, and potential customer satisfaction issues because of increasing travel delays experienced on transportation networks.

The key to innovative partnering strategies, purposeful strategic planning for short- and long-term system management needs, identifying resource requirements and how those resource needs could be addressed is through effective business processes. Research shows that agencies with strong commitments to business processes—such as programming, procurement, staffing, planning, and collaboration—have demonstrated benefits of improved system management and operations.²

1.2.2 The Role of Business Processes in a TSMO Program

Business processes, in the context of TSMO, refers to activities such as planning, programming, agency project development processes, and those organizational aspects that govern various technical or administrative activities (such as training, human resource management, or agreements). Business processes get at the heart of many of the organizational issues that can influence TSMO. In many cases, the business process elements go beyond the day-to-day operational activities, and require broader institutional support and involvement. Aspects such as training, contracting, and procurement, or information technology policies, might be well outside of the sphere of influence or control of the groups that are involved in the hands-on, daily transportation system operations and management.

Business processes, like planning, programming, training, or establishment of partnerships and agreements, are fundamental to the success of operational and management activities.

The lack of effective business processes for TSMO can also hinder an agency's ability or readiness to advance to more complex and proactive operational strategies (such as variable speed limits, advance traffic management and information systems, and dynamic parking management). Without the right procurement processes, partnering commitments, sustainable funding, internal awareness and support, an agency would have limited capacity to implement more complex TSMO programs and activities.

1.2.3 Benefits of Improved Business Processes

The following are several benefits in implementing improved business processes into transportation systems:

• Developing an integrated TSMO Program Plan that addresses key business processes can enable the identification and prioritization of key needs, projects, partnerships, implementation strategies, and planning level costs, which can be used to quantify TSMO budget and resource needs, as well as leverage planned capital improvements.
• Allocating resources, both funding and staff, can be more effectively targeted to priority operation needs.
• Creating procurement processes and strategies that respond to the unique needs of TSMO can streamline acquisition and implementation and result in cost savings to agencies and operations programs.
• Procuring improved and sustainable alignment of equipment, staff, and resources can help to more effectively manage and operate the system over time.

1.2.4 Impacts of Ineffective Business Processes

The following are ineffective business processes that can impact transportation systems planning:

• Limiting or having no business plan for TSMO will result in ad-hoc and incremental implementation of technology and equipment, with little consideration for longer-term needs.
• Lacking a defined or sustained budgeting process limits the ability to deploy needed solutions.
• Providing unstructured training programs can overlook key partners and result in uncoordinated responses to incidents on roadways.
• Not integrating system or strategy performance information into operations can limit the effectiveness of equipment and staff investments.

1.2.5 Business Process Improvement Examples from Other Industries

Two case studies—United Parcel Service (UPS) and Charleston (South Carolina) Water Systems (CWS), a water utility company—provide a successful example of how improved and integrated key business processes helped them reach their goals. Both case studies provide evidence that considering and analyzing underlying business processes can and do work to improve operations and produce monetary and efficiency benefits to the organization.

1.2.5.1. United Parcel Service

In 2011, UPS underwent a business processes transformation to shift from being a primarily U.S.-based, small package-focused business to becoming an end-to-end global operation that can handle the needs of companies worldwide. UPS took a variety of approaches to ensure that their business and management processes were compatible with their new vision and goal. One initiative was to create a centralized process group called the Program Management Group – Process Center for Excellence, whose task was to ensure that the company stayed process-oriented. This group also was tasked with documenting, reviewing, and standardizing processes. They also worked with the American Productivity and Quality Center to become experts at benchmarking. As a result, they developed a framework known as the Core Process Framework. Their goal for this framework was to have metrics and scorecards available so they could benchmark UPS process management against what other companies were doing, so they may continually improve and elevate their process maturity. UPS changed their business plan and approach by implementing a 'We Love Logistics' campaign to emphasize that the company was explicitly aware of the full set of logistics behind their end-to-end process of package transport in the global arena.

As a result of these efforts to become—and be seen as—process-oriented, UPS now operates in 200 countries and has vastly expanded their shipping capabilities. They have established their process analysis as a core value in the company and trained more than 700 of their employees worldwide in creating process maps for analysis and process improvements. Overall, their focus on business process improvements has allowed them to outgrow the confines of the small-package business and become a truly globalized company.

1.2.5.2. Charleston Water System

CWS oversees one water treatment plant and two wastewater treatment plants in South Carolina that serve approximately 400,000 customers. CWS was treating excess water in its wastewater collection system because rain and groundwater were entering the system through cracks and cross-connections. CWS set out to address the problem by improving predictive maintenance and investigations so that effective infrastructure improvements could be made. To achieve this goal, CWS used a combination of management frameworks and business practice tools to analyze their water treatment system and ultimately reduce waste and improve their operations' overall efficiency and effectiveness.

CWS applied different components of Lean Six Sigma process and project efficiency toolkits.³ For example, they implemented mentoring and training programs for a multidisciplinary project team to ensure the team properly understood the Lean Six Sigma processes. They also established process goals and metrics—including value stream mapping, statistical process quality control and variation analyses, cause-and-effect diagrams, and root-cause analysis problem solving—to measure progress and results of their process changes. By using these process tools and analyses, CWS recommended improvements that were implemented and subsequently adopted within CWS operations. After CWS implemented the recommended improvements, the company was able to increase its wastewater treatment capacity by 2.62 million gallons per day and see a savings of $1.3 million per year in operations and maintenance costs. CWS also realized a $9.17 million fee savings from their increased treatment capacity. The efforts to provide their operations with better performance data has helped CWS reach its goals of reducing waste and improving overall efficiency and effectiveness, which resulted in large-scale annual savings.

1.3 Primer Focus and Audience

This primer is focused on helping transportation agencies accomplish the following goals:

• Understand the importance of creating and developing sustainable business processes to effectively advance TSMO as a mainstream, core agency function.
• Assess agency business processes related to TSMO, and identify their unique requirements.
• Identify constraints and gaps within agencies' current business processes.
• Engage the right stakeholders to identify needs and develop actions and strategies that can improve business processes to support more effective TSMO programs.

This primer will help readers understand the context and role of business processes in a TSMO program. The primer differentiates supporting business processes—including program planning, procurement, and resource allocation—from those operational activities typically associated with TSMO, yet it makes a firm connection between business processes and operations functions.

The following audiences will benefit from the concepts presented in this primer:

• Agency transportation operations managers—These managers have programmatic authority to prioritize reliability-focused strategies within operations programs and budgets, assign and supervise staff responsible for operations, and coordinate with agency and partner peers to evaluate broader business process issues and work toward solutions.
• Agency traffic engineering managers—These managers are close to the day-to-day operations, systems, and staff that operate various traffic management programs. They can identify gaps and deficiencies, facilitate collaboration, and help elevate issues that require funding, resources, or departmental approval for changes.
• Transportation planners—Planners typically focus on broader regional issues and longer term transportation system needs. This important audience can help effect change by modifying planning and programming processes to better support longer-term operational needs. Planners often coordinate with multiple groups, entities, or agencies and can help identify cross-jurisdictional business process gaps.

Because this primer highlights different nonrecurring congestion business process issues, it also benefits multiple stakeholders within an agency. The primer also benefits agency partners, including transportation system maintenance managers, regional planning organizations, senior law enforcement representatives (particularly those involved in TIM and PSE programs), and those entities involved in agency administrative functions, including contracting and procurement, information technology, and training.

1.4 Primer Organization

This primer is organized into the following key sections:

• Chapter 1: Introduction—This chapter defines business processes in the TSMO context and sets the stage for their role in supporting the institutional components of TSMO activities. This chapter also provides examples of companies from other industries that improved or better coordinated their own business processes.
• Chapter 2: Business Process Development—This chapter provides some guidance and methods for agencies to begin to identify business process issues, as well as strategies for stakeholder engagement in the process.
• Chapter 3: Traffic Incident Management; Chapter 4: Work Zones; Chapter 5: Planned Special Events; Chapter 6: Road Weather Management; and Chapter 7: Traffic Management. These chapters outline business process issues in the context of specific operational activities. Each chapter presents case studies of agencies or regions that have helped elevate the effectiveness of their TSMO programs or activities by addressing certain business processes to promote more effective system operations. Each chapter also provides example questions to consider in identifying specific business process issues, as well as stakeholders who could or should be involved to help address them.
• Chapter 8: Checklist for Getting Started—This is a one-page quick guide for agencies to use to begin evaluating their business processes. It provides recommendations for assembling available plans and documents, guidance on identifying the right stakeholders, types of forums that are conducive to business process discussions, and recommended steps in the process.
• Chapter 9: Available Resources to Support Business Process Improvements—This chapter provides information on related tools, guidance, and publications to support agencies in their business process analysis and improvement strategies.