The Planning and Preparation GAP Focus Area assessment team looked in detail at resource utilization and milestone adherence in the on-line work management process. The team focused on fleet performance in several key areas and improving station alignment on critical work and work priorities. A USA Standard was developed based on industry excellence and best practice, and created an assessment tool to assess against that standard. Formal assessments were conducted earlier in the year, combined with follow-up reviews this summer that reviewed each sites specific progress, status of action items and completion details.

During the September USA Board of Directors meeting, members were briefed on progress being made by the fleet. We have seen an improvement in on-line scope and schedule stability and better adherence to milestones in the T-Week process. Our deficient critical backlogs and total preventative maintenance tasks in second half of grace have reduced significantly, and our weekly completion rates improved.

As a fleet, we achieved forecasted performance levels in eight of 10 key indicators and are on track to achieve our 2017 business goal targets in six out of the seven key areas. Recent weather related events challenged third quarter completion rates and schedule adherence performance at some individual sites so the USA team continues to monitor and provide support as requested.

Specific results achieved through August of 2017 include:
• Improved schedule stability by more than 5 percent
• Improved alignment on critical work priorities
• Critical scope completion rate improved by 2 percent
• Reduced DC backlogs by more than 40  percent
• Reduced critical preventative maintenance tasks in second half of grace by more than 40 percent
• Reduced total preventative maintenance tasks in second half of grace by 20 percent
• Improved performance standards and thresholds to align with industry peers
• Reduced the number of milestone exceptions and improved milestone exceptions behaviors

Improving station alignment on critical work and work priorities makes us more efficient and predictable. With our efforts to reduce backlogs in both corrective and preventative maintenance we have reduced risk and are improving reliability across the fleet.