Water & Wastewater Treatment

6 | AUGUST 2015 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Comment P ipelines of various sorts are a theme of this month's WWT. But while Wessex Water's supply grid (see P13) and Severn Trent's Birmingham Resilience Project (p17) both involve lengthy new conduits and are mighty impressive, the pipeline that has grabbed my attention this month was of a different type. When I visited Ian Kirkaldy, chief engineer of Southern Water, for this month's Industry Leader interview (p10) his thoughts were more on a pipeline of talent. As the utility builds up its in- house engineering capability as part of efforts to become an 'intelligent client', hiring graduates and apprentices at the start of their careers is very much on the agenda. Kirkaldy admits that the biggest recruitment challenge so far in his 18-month recruitment drive has been attracting experienced, mid-career In the pipeline engineers to the south coast; however, if this is a short-term headache, he feels that the long-term answer to the conundrum lies in the next generation. The reason for this is simple. Southern, in common with some other water companies, has over the years taken the decision to outsource more and more engineering and technical functions; this might have resulted in efficiencies but one negative effect has been fewer new graduates and others coming into the industry. It takes several years for this effect to be felt, as today's new entrants are the experienced professionals of a decade's time. By turning on the talent pipeline again, Southern will hope to create a thriving cohort of engineers who are at home on the south coast and want to work on their projects for years to come. Of course, there is no guarantee that any individual will stay with one employer for their whole career – such a person now would be an exception rather than the rule – but a renewed talent stream would benefit the industry as a whole. Much has been said, and will continue to be said, about the rewards available for engineering as a profession in the UK and how engineering skill James brockett eDItor JamesBrockett@fav-house.com Twitter: @wwtmag sets are not sufficiently valued to retain talent. An analysis this month from the Association for Consultancy & Engineering (ACE) and EngTechNow revealed that engineering in this country suffers from a £9.5BN "retention gap", when engineers leave and then their companies struggle to replace them, adding up to sizeable productivity costs on each occasion. But retention will arguably look aŸer itself if a healthy pipeline of talent is there in the first place. The temptation to work in other sectors, and other countries, will always be present, but this is a two-way street: the sector can itself benefit from engineers from different backgrounds coming in, or people who have started in UK water broadening their experience and then returning. Getting young people interested in becoming engineers, and hiring up-and-coming engineers to work in water, is the best long-term solution to the sector's perceived talent shortage. Being in the business of creating assets that last 80 or 100 years, the water sector is accustomed to thinking long- term in its plans and projects: today is the right time to take steps to prevent the talent pipeline drying up in the future. Industry view sponsored by alex Lloyd, managing Director, Jacopa Ltd Today's business environment demands more competitive outturns for projects, and for the UK's regulated water companies the drive to deliver more effectively and efficiently is ever more prevalent. It is therefore imperative that the supply chain should align to this challenge with a focus on productivity and skills. We have already come a long way. As an industry we have fewer skilled people doing more. Higher productivity cannot simply come from an expectation that individuals will work still harder and longer, and not even that they should work smarter, rather we need more game changing collaboration within organisations and the wider business environment. Productivity is, rightly, associated with innovation and development; yet Productivity is not accidental our industry is mature, meaning radical advances in product and process innovation are unlikely. Nevertheless, improvements are coming through technical innovation, perhaps not in giant steps but in smaller incremental changes that together become materially significant by enabling reduced capital and operational costs. O en these changes come about by better organisation of product and solutions data and information which identifies inefficiencies and waste leading to rationalised product ranges and selection of better components and more suitable suppliers. Productivity improvement is constrained by the availability of skills, but with government initiatives now promoting and delivering apprenticeship schemes, the supply chain can help rebuild skills, knowledge and experience to serve the industry. Productivity can also be improved by 'one time engineering'; organising the industry and supply chain around building solutions that are less bespoke. Complete standardisation isn't feasible but driving for more standardisation means procurement effectiveness is o en improved by enabling greater volumes of standard components to be purchased. More opportunities emerge to build off-site and for the operator parts are more accessible, quicker to deliver and better value though a more standardised approach. More standard equipment becomes easier and safer to maintain and repair. Another potentially more important aspect of productivity improvement is more about the connectivity of one business process with another. Here the opportunity to innovate around enterprise resource planning systems that use workflow templates, connect business information across workflows, have remote input and ready access and use of data for user and management information can all play a part. As Paul J Meyer said: "Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort." www.jacopa.com

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