Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/929831
to create their own unique designs. This cultural resistance might be linked to insecurity about mechanisation and robots taking jobs; if so, the fears are unfounded. An analogy could be drawn with the car industry, where having a standardised design for the basic workings of a motor (and many other aspects of a vehicle) has meant that human ingenuity does not have to be applied to the basics, but can be be employed to make individual car models faster, more fuel efficient, longer lasting or better looking. Greater standardisation within water would be welcome news for the supply chain, which would be able to sell with greater confidence and efficiency across multiple clients; but in order to make factory thinking a reality, suppliers of different kinds will need to collaborate on how their kit could fit together into modular units. Moreover, getting the approach off the ground may mean that the first projects in particular product types will not be any cheaper than traditional construction – so a degree of faith and determination in the direction of travel is required from all concerned. Reaping the benefits of factory thinking will require effort across the board, but the potential rewards are immense. The Talk: opinion JAMES BROCKETT EDITOR, WWT Raising the standard Instilling factory thinking in the water sector will bring a host of benefits, but requires a great deal of collaborative work to establish suitable standards S pying the picture of a factory on the front page of this issue of WWT, you may be forgiven for wondering why manufacturing principles are something that the water industry would want to aspire to. Surely solving the water challenges of today and tomorrow requires creative thought, technical innovation and bespoke engineering expertise, rather than the mass production of identical units? However, if you read further into our Works feature on offsite build and the standardisation of products (p12), you'll discover how 'factory thinking' can in fact promote innovation and problem- solving, as well as unlocking a host of benefits on cost, productivity, worker safety and reduced customer disruption. Standardised designs for products and assets which answer a common need across the industry can both spread best practice and allow a platform for further innovation and improvements to take place, with the help of the supply chain. There are already some great examples of this thinking permeating the water sector: we hear from members of the Buildoffsite Water Hub about the work they have underway across the industry, and share the details of a pumping station project which used offsite build. However, there's also a lot of work still to be done if the maximum gains are to be extracted from the potential of standardised products in particular. Each water company has its own, o'en differing standards, and unpicking the reasons for these differences in order to arrive at a consensus for a standardised product is a daunting task. Standardised designs may meet with resistance in some quarters – not only from engineers who believe that their local way of doing things is the best, but from anyone involved with a project who has a professional tendency to want 10 | FEBRUARY 2018 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Tertiary Multi Disc Deep Pile Cloth Filters in a Stainless Steel Tank Evergreen Water Solutions, Unit 7B Lakeside Court, Maple Drive, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 3BF T: +44 (0)1455 639760 E: info@evergreenengineering.ie W: www.evergreenengineering.ie BOD <5mg/l TSS <5mg/l <0.1mg/l Total Phosphorus Design: 100PE up to 500,000PE l TSS www.mitabiorulli.it