Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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"I think there is an awareness that things have got to change," Cowell adds. "The uncertainty of margins and work- load for the supply chain community is quite a challenge." Digital transformation Collaboration and better decision-making are two of the core values of Project 13. As such, digital transformation is fundamen- tal to the success of the enterprise model. As ICE director general Nick Bavey- stock has said: "When we started this Pro- ject 13 programme, digital was in there as a strand, but now I think it is absolutely the second part of this." Data is valuable for many reasons. For one thing, it enables the vari- ous parties in the enterprise to share information, with everyone relying on a single source of the truth, and as Steve Kennedy, MWH Treatment's head of digital transformation and innovation, says: "Better decisions come from data, from sharing information, from using the insight that the information has and putting it into action." One of the major shiŒs in the use of data is the realisation that it can offer greater value in asset management than delivery – the BIM4Water group has suggested that as much as 80 per cent of BIM's benefit should come in the opera- tional phase. "We're talking about asset creation being a very small part of the industry and shiŒing focus to the operation of the existing assets that we've got," Cow- ell says. "We can use data to be much more effective in terms of predictive maintenance and to work out where our interventions need to be, whether that be asset management or larger capital projects." With Project 13 placing a clear focus on overall value, and with enter- prises commonly operating long-term, the model is well suited to yielding the full benefits of digitisation. "Digital transformation can facilitate and enable a lot of elements of Project 13, but Project 13 can also enable a lot of digital transformation," Mark Enzer, chief technical officer for Mott MacDon- ald, said earlier this year. "Sometimes I think as an industry we focus in on the delivery of new assets and talk about the industry as being 'the construction industry'. The bigger picture is not just the delivery of new assets but the operation, maintenance and use of existing assets, and they're not just individual assets but connected into a system, and then those systems are connected into a system of systems. "When we talk about digital transfor- mation, it's digital transformation of the whole thing." Moving forward While the initial onus was on asset own- ers to kickstart Project 13, there have been notable efforts from other parties to help take things forward. In May, Mott MacDonald, Stantec and MWH Treatment joined forces to promote an event at ICE's headquarters in London. Titled 'An Enterprising Future for Water', it was created to raise awareness of the in- itiative and help the sector make informed decisions on its implementation. The idea had emerged aŒer discus- sions between Cowell, Enzer and Kennedy last year about how data and digital transformation were facilitating a differ- ent way of working by making informa- tion readily available to all parties in a more visual way. "Towards the end of 2018, we'd started thinking more seriously about organising an event to raise awareness and create momentum in the water sector," Kennedy says. "With collaboration being one of the key strands, we thought it would be really powerful if Mott MacDonald, Stantec and MWH Treatment put on an event together." The event brought in around 100 attendees, including water companies, contractors and suppliers, and featured speakers from the water sector, contrac- tors, regulators and the wider infrastruc- ture sector. Polls over the course of the day showed that attendees' understanding of Project 13 had increased by the end of the event, along with their apprecia- tion for the role that it could play both across infrastructure and within the water sector. "Feedback was very positive," Ken- nedy says. "The general feeling in the room was that it was very applicable to the water industry. "The goals of Project 13 are great customer service, increases in productiv- ity and improvements in sustainability, which definitely align with the challenges we face in AMP7." Implementation In 2018, four organisations became offi- cial early adopters, agreeing to imple- ment Project 13 principles in all or part of their programmes. Along with Anglian Water's capital de- livery alliances, the Environment Agency's Next Generation Supplier Arrangements, www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 13 • PROJECT 13 PRINCIPLES The P13 Blueprint set out the following key principles: • The asset owner is central and leads the enterprise • Suppliers have direct relationships with the owner • An integrator actively engages and integrates all tiers of the supply chain • The owner, key suppliers, advisors and integrator work as one team • Reward/profit in the enterprise is based on value added to the overall outcomes, not time spent • There is greater understanding of cost drivers and risk across all organisations in the enterprise, with commercial incentives for collaboration to jointly mitigate risk, not transfer it • Establishing a high performing enterprise requires a fundamental shi in leadership, governance, behaviours and skills to succeed