What We Do

Risk informed budgeting

MCR reduces and controls O&M costs by working with budget owners to justify all budget expenditures from a baseline of zero. We risk-rank every budget line item by evaluating the risk incurred if not funded and then comparing risk in the context of complete budgets. Our “challenge process” uses a peer review method to assess each budget line item and determine the ability to adjust the amount and timing of each expenditure.

Click here to read our client story, Achieving cost reduction through risk informed budgeting for a top-10 municipal utility.

Process improvement

MCR’s approach to process improvement models core processes for the entire organization. We model core processes, such as equipment reliability, work management and business planning, to a detailed, individual contributor level, where every process step, hand-off and deliverable are documented in a work breakdown structure format. Every process step, as well as every organization’s participation within the step, is evaluated and scored, allowing a rollup of performance valuations. The rollups then allow drilldowns from high-level processes or organizations to identify where processes and organizations need improvement.

Capital portfolio optimization

MCR’s consultants analyze existing capital plans and apply a short-form business case approach for every proposed project. This enables a risk valuation for every project to contrast against proposed investments. MCR’s Portfolio Dashboard summarizes the effectiveness of portfolio investments and identifies opportunities to reduce, delay or reallocate capital funding.

Capitalization policies and procedures

MCR experts review, analyze and benchmark capitalization policies to ensure management is capitalizing all allowable costs. We also assess the retirement unit catalog and make recommendations for additions, deletions, or modifications to ensure the catalog is aligned to the most recent industry capitalization practices. The MCR unit of property catalog and database provide clear capitalization guidance, which reduce staff time spent on analyzing capital funding requests.

Read our related client stories:

Capital project evaluation

MCR optimizes capital project spending by developing robust business cases with creative alternatives and quantifying reliability and safety risk. Our exhaustive research to determine equipment failure probabilities combined with consequence scenarios allow us to correctly value project alternatives when considering investments to avoid equipment failure. We also establish and facilitate a client Executive Review Team to review the business cases and make the final spending decisions.

Click here to read our client story, Optimizing capital spending for a large nuclear fleet.

Life cycle management planning

MCR’s experts develop life cycle management (LCM) plans, which help maintain the long-term health of key plant systems. We accomplish the complete discovery of the “known or knowable” issues surrounding equipment to ensure our plans are complete and without surprises. The plans improve management’s ability to achieve safety and reliability objectives, while optimizing long-term expenses and instilling confidence in the capital plan.

Click here to read our client story, Determining and managing long-term costs and reliability with life cycle management plans for a nuclear operation in the south.

Long range planning

MCR develops and implements strategies for improving long range planning processes and supporting information systems with a focus on equipment reliability, work force planning, outage planning and budgeting. The implemented processes ensure equipment reliability processes are integrated with work management, business planning, budgeting and staffing processes.

Click here to read our client story, Improving long range planning processes and systems for the operator of a large nuclear fleet.

Management reporting

MCR develops and implements improvements to management reporting processes and reporting systems to provide management with greater visibility and understanding of O&M, capital and outage costs, and cost drivers. In every case, we focus on creating views with actionable information and a focus on ownership and accountability.

Staffing optimization

Often conducted in concert with risk-informed zero-base budgeting, MCR conducts a detailed task analysis for every staffing resource to determine the criticality and risk-rank for every task across the organization. We create consolidated profiles across the organization to determine where staffing resource opportunities lie. This information is then used to create a staffing optimization plan incorporating expected attrition for integration with the risk-informed budget.

Click here to read our client story, Creating significant cost reductions at a Pacific Northwest generating station.

Implementation of Copperleaf Suite of asset optimization tools

MCR works with Copperleaf Technologies and large utilities to implement the Copperleaf Suite of asset optimization tools:

Copperleaf Asset: Forecast sustainment needs and manage risk and manage risk in your critical infrastructure
Copperleaf Portfolio: Make the highest value decisions and create the optimal investment strategy
Copperleaf Value: Increase business agility and transparency across the enterprise

MCR’s implementation roles include data conversion and integration, reporting, training, and value framework application to investment request valuations. We apply our deep utility experience and asset specific knowledge to integrate business case development with Copperleaf value frameworks. We work directly with utility clients and Copperleaf Technologies from kickoff through implementation and rollout to users to sustained use by clients.

Click here to read our client story, Achieving optimized funding through a value-based decision-making process.