GETTING CONTROL OVER OPERATING BUDGETS: METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING PRODUCTIVITY ALTERNATIVES

Productivity improvements have become a key element in the struggle to preserve the integrity of transit service in an environment of diminishing public funding. The need for increasing operating efficiency through productivity improvements is not unique to transit operators in the United States. Transit systems in the United Kingdom are also being pressed to realize operating savings by reductions in funding from the central and regional governments. One agency, London Transport-Rail, has incorporated productivity improvement programs as a fundamental element of daily operations. In doing so, they have encountered a number of problems related to productivity project development, analysis, and control. These problems provided the impetus for conducting a study that developed a standardized process and analytic technique for preparing a productivity program. The methodology, detailed in this paper, allows for consistent analysis and evaluation of a wide variety of productivity tasks that require varying degrees of capital or operating expenditures, or both, and savings over incongruent time periods. The analytic technique is simple to apply and uses net present value analysis to compare diverse projects. The standardized productivity development process allows anyone in the organization to present a "good idea" for improving efficiency and provides a consistent evaluation of these ideas to facilitate sound decision making by top management.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1985/1013/1013-008.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=GETTING+CONTROL+OVER+OPERATING+BUDGETS%3A+METHODOLOGY+FOR+EVALUATING+PRODUCTIVITY+ALTERNATIVES&author=J.+Purdy&author=D.+Carter&author=W.+Steinmetz&publication_year=1985
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309039029
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Purdy, Jeffrey E
  • Carter, Douglas W
  • Steinmetz, William R
• Publication Date: 1985

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures;
• Pagination: pp 58-67
• Monograph Title: Improving utilization of transit resources
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1013
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Administration; Analysis; Decision making; Economics; Evaluation; Finance; Financing; Operating costs; Productivity; Public transit; Rapid transit
• Identifier Terms: London Transport
• Old TRIS Terms: Analytical method
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics; Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00453109
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309039029
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 31 1988 12:00AM