1996年，一群水务公司成立了西部地区水务公司基准小组，以寻求有意义的基准结构和实践。这篇文章描述了研究中使用的过程、研究结果，以及小组使用这些结果的计划。该小组在确定基准方法时遇到了许多挑战。在操作定义、定性和定量协议、数据可用性、数据管理实践、维护规划实践和自动化使用方面，讨论了使用的方法、经验教训和基准模型测试。 主要发现包括参与的公用事业公司在维护策略和策略上的意外差异，以及在访问和使用收集或存储的组件数据进行决策时的总体无效性。本文最后给出了未来使用基准数据和调查结果的计划，以更具体地评估实践、产出和结果的差异。包括6个参考文献、表格、图表。

In 1996, a group of water utilities formed the Western Regional Water Utilities Benchmarking Group to search for meaningful benchmarking structures and practices. This article describes the processes used in the research, its findings, and the group's plans for using these findings. The group encountered many challenges in determining a benchmarking approach. The methods used, the lessons learned, and the benchmarking model tests are discussed in relation to operational definitions, qualitative and quantitative protocol, data availability, data management practices, maintenance planning practices, and use of automation. Key findings included unexpected differences in maintenance strategies and tactics among participating utilities and a general ineffectiveness at accessing and using collected or stored component data for decision-making purposes. The article closes with plans for future use of the benchmarking data and findings to evaluate more specifically differences in practices, outputs, and outcomes. Includes 6 references, table, figures.