WET News

4 WET NEWS january 2016 News+ CONTRACT WINS Good monthT- Bad month Cranfield uni has been awarded £8.2M invest- ment for research into water treatment and infrastructure. For domestic customers in England, who could be able to choose their water supplier by 2020. For South West Water, which incurred a £300K fine and £14,421 costs from Plymouth Crown Court for polluting a Devon watercourse. For the Water Framework Directive, which IMechE claims is driving up car- bon emissions. More needs to be done • Early engagement, collaboration and innovation are high on the industry's agenda but are they being delivered? not quite. Maureen Gaines reports. " The heart's willing but is it happening as well as it should do?" Early engagement is happening in the supply chain, but more needs to be done. These were the clear messages emanating from the water sector's supply chain at our recent Water Industry Supplier conference in Birmingham. According to Simon Wright, partner, business advisory at Arcadis, early engagement needs to be "planned really, really early". It also needs to be more enjoyable for staff. The use of behavioural assessments in the industry's tendering process is on the increase, although Wright told delegates these need to be refreshed. "You don't just procure technically, you procure behaviourally as well." Reinvented He said: "Behavioural assessments are becoming very mature. They need to be either stopped or reinvented – I think it will be the latter." He added that they should also focus much more on real life assessments, rather than abstract ones. The skills shortage continues to be a problem for the industry's supply chain and there is no reason to think that • Mott MacDonald is to design a £13M flood defence scheme near Scunthorpe for north Lincolnshire Council (nLC). The deal is part of the £1.2bn Lincolnshire Lakes scheme, a strategic regeneration project that will see six new villages created on a flood plain. • Black & Veatch is to help protect Welsh communities against flooding having won a place on the Welsh government's construction consultancy framework. It will focus mainly on flood alleviation (Lot 6), mostly for natural resources Wales (nrW), and also undertake site supervision including environmental and landscaping clerk-of- work roles that come under Lot 9. • Gee & Company has been awarded a framework contract for chemical dosing systems for united utilities. The framework, which will last five years with an option to extend to seven, covers both chemical dosing skids and packaged chemical dosing systems. will change anytime soon. There is an ageing workforce, and jobs are also impacted by the five-yearly regulatory cycles. And Wright said there was another challenge in that staff are moving jobs much sooner to seek new challenges. "The employment cycle is getting shorter. You should be looking to write that into your plan. "There is is a war on talent." David Smith, chief strategy officer at MWH, told the conference that collaboration is the "new essential". Integration, behaviours and incentivisation are critical in order for collaboration to work. He told the conference, sponsored by Danfoss and Marsh Industries, that repeat work, such as five plus five contracts, are good incentives. However, the sector was not yet good at incentivising around totex. "We're still living in a capex world." Mott MacDonald's group practice manager, Mark Enzer, added: "If outcomes are what we want, then outcomes are what should be rewarded, not outputs." He said the key themes for AMP6 are efficiencies, customers, outcomes and totex. "These are spot on for the water industry," said Enzer. 'Counts for nothing' Chris Gray, director, water at AECOM, said there have been real improvements in project delivery but that all "counts for nothing" if the industry does not communicate. "People have become afraid to do the right thing," said Gray. "Better planning and communication will ensure getting things right." Gray said the supply chain needed to ask the following questions: • Are we there yet? • Do we have the right skill base? • Would we be prepared to share? Dale Evans, director of Anglian Water's @One Alliance told delegates that "alliances are good at bringing people together", as well as being really challenging places to be. No logic Commenting on the boom and bust aspect of the AMP cycle, Evans said it is getting better each time a new AMP starts. He felt the water companies' 25-year plans mean workflow from one AMP cycle to the next will be less restricted. "It was better this time, and will be better next time," he said. MWH's David Smith told delegates that there is no logic to a boom and bust. "Everyone's got to do it. Asset maintenance- based solutioins will help resolve the situation." Clive Deadman, chairman of the Energy Innovation Centre Investment Forum and a council member of the Institute of Asset Management, told delegates that "the challenge for us, as much as the water companies themselves, is understanding what and why operating costs are being incurred in very disparate and sometimes Victorian assets". Deadman continued: "They need to understand that the supply chain can help them resolve these issues. We need to get underneath the bonnet of that 90% of the network that sometimes isn't touched for a decade." www.z-tech.co.uk 01223 653500 engineers@z-tech.co.uk Complete one-stop in-house solutions from dig to data: • Flowmeters • PRV's & Needle Valves • Burst Detection • Pumping Sets & Stations • Pressure & Level Monitoring Complete one-stop in-house Problem Solvers 24/7 EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICE "If outcomes are what we want, then outcomes are what should be rewarded – not outputs" Mark Enzer, Mott MacDonald Delegates heard that the sector is not yet good at incentivising around totex

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