News

In response to member needs identified by its Board of Directors, the Utilities Service Alliance (USA) will realign its operational improvement efforts to better integrate with current industry, economic, and INPO improvement initiatives.  These changes to USA’s Governance, Oversight, Support and Perform (GOSP) model will allow USA to concentrate fleet focus on specific performance gap areas, reduce administrative burden, and provide an overall net reduction in indirect costs to member stations. USA’s Board of Directors approved the plan Oct. 6. Implementation of the new model is expected to begin prior to the end of 2016.

“While several of the changes reduce indirect costs and burden to station members, our mission to improve operational performance remains as strong as ever.  We are not turning away from our Strategic Objectives to ‘Improve Plant Safety and Performance,’ ‘Provide Economic Benefit,’ and ‘Provide Industry Leadership,’ which is the foundation upon which the USA fleet was established more than 20 years ago,” said John Christensen, USA Vice President Operational Performance.

The changes mean USA’s Corporate Functional Area Manager (CFAM) role will move from monitoring and identifying subtle signs of decline to fixing specific fleet gaps. Core Peer Teams will transition to networking teams with reduced travel requirements, but will continue to share lessons learned and provide benchmarking opportunities. Gap Focus Teams will be created using one expert from each member station, and will address the four specific gap areas USA identified as needing additional oversight and support.   The initial gaps we will be focusing on are Reactivity Management, Weekly Schedule and Scope Stability, Human Performance and Industrial Safety, and Sustaining Training Excellence.

The USA KPI suite will be reduced to better align with INPO and Nuclear Regulatory required KPIs and the key metrics to monitor Gap Focus Areas.

USA will continue to provide: Benchmarking, assessment support, sharing of lessons learned; USA Mid-Cycle Assessment Process; USA Nuclear Safety Culture Assessments; the Personnel Sharing Program; the Equipment Sharing Program; Recovery Assistance; and select USA projects as approved by the Site Leadership Team and the Board of Directors.

Because the changes are broad, USA staff has produced a list of questions and answers to help members understand their impact locally. Additional questions can be submitted via USA’s Online Contact Form or directly to your station’s Site Representative.