Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/971076
www.wwtonline.co.uk | MAY 2018 | 11 Horses for courses "Previously we would have had a small number of very high-value arrangements, and that's the really efficient thing to do from a company perspective, but we've found that we've over-consolidated by doing that," he says. Clark says the process of identifying supply-chain partners is now more "hors- es for courses". There is a marked differ- ence in the process of identifying those who will carry out solution-based tasks and those who will take on contracts that involve more independent thought, such as the Stantec strategic planning partner deal, or the ongoing search for two part- ners to form a £1.1 billion alliance for the next 11 years. "Where we are making the most straightforward contract arrangements with people and we're specifying the solu- tions, we're specifically trying not to over- complicate that with a complex process," he says. "It is really about adherence to standard planning ability and cost. "If you look at the areas that are more interactive – so the alliance – what we've put out to market there is that we really want to test people's ability. It's testing people's behaviours through workshops, it's asking people to come in and perform actual work for us so we can really test their quality. If we look at the strategic planning partner, we brought the final bidders in for a period of three months to work at their own cost so we could test them with real solutions in-play, embed- ded in our business. We really tested their ability to innovate and show engineering expertise." Clark says those carrying out solution- based contracts must show they can oper- ate to Yorkshire Water's high standards and demonstrate strong programme-plan- ning capabilities, while alliance partners must score well on technical ability, innovation and ability to cooperate. He adds: "We're very keen to assess people's health-and-safety and envi- ronmental performance. We've moved away from having a fairly simple view of accident performance – it's much more about asking people to declare to us the way their management system works, and we'll then go and audit that and want to see it in practice." Process safety is an area of concern. "We've found a lot of the suppliers in the water industry are not as advanced in this area as you would find in other high-risk industries," he says. "We've really invested in our own capability here and we're challenging the supply chain in water to do the same thing." A conversation with Sweco's chief executive also led to Yorkshire Water giving preference to companies that have strong apprenticeship and future skills programmes. "We have to value organisations that invest in young people and development because if we don't value it, they'll get outcompeted by companies that don't value it, so we've explicitly made that part of our selection criteria," he says. "Certainly for our larger contracts, we will be focusing on organisations that share our ambition in this area. We think clients need to be doing that rather than us all wringing our hands about future skills." Clark says procurement is "absolutely huge" if Yorkshire Water is to meet its targets. "We've had to consciously take the view with procurement that we've made our life more complicated," he says. "There is no one standard approach and that's one of the things that I think's important about how we've made the change we've made – not to do something that's convenient for procurement but to take a series of different approaches where people are tested for what is the best arrangement for our business." Andy Clark is speaking at the WWT Water Industry Asset Management Conference at the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre on 10 May. For more information, visit: https://event.wwtonline.co.uk/asset/ Yorkshire Water recently chose Stantec as its strategic planning partner. Pictured are Nevil Muncaster (Yorkshire Water) and Cath Schefer (Stantec) Yorkshire Water recently brought in eight new partners in an IT framework worth £50 million