Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/976659
T he importance of the rela onship between u li es and the supply chain has long been recognised, but is now more vital than ever, or as Andy Clark, head of procurement and contract management at Yorkshire Water puts it, "the challenges faced by and expecta ons placed on supply chain management have never been greater." Cost and effi ciency pressures on u li es are being passed on to the supply chain. Combined with a fast-changing regulatory and policy environment and the evolving needs of customers, it's clear that tradi onal models of opera on will no longer cut it. But through these changes, Richard Hepworth, director, digital transforma on at PwC says there is a huge opportunity for u li es and plant owners to embrace technology, and par cularly, he says, the internet of things (IoT). He sees that poten al manifest to a great extent in the supply chain, notably with regard to predic ve maintenance for cri cal assets such as wires, pipes, meters and pumping sta ons: "GE have produced their own IoT pla orm, Predix, for example. If you get into that automa on of devices around the supply chain, it saves millions of pounds and enables people to be much more predic ve in theory, extending asset lives, improving designs through clever analy cs like digital twins and the like." But GE isn't alone in crea ng tech that will prove disrup ve to the supply chain. He also points to BoilerIQ from Bri sh Gas, which enables the boiler to be managed more eff ec vely and prevents breakdowns with condi onal services instead of boiler breaks that necessitate sending an engineer out: "It enables be er scheduling of engineers and be er customer service to end user. Every part of the u lity supply chain will be aff ected by IoT in one way, shape or form." The supply chain will be a key focus of the ongoing disrup on debate and insight at U lity Week Live 2018, as well as in the build up to it. In the latest of a series detailing the responses of more than 700 u li es execu ves to our disrup on survey, we reveal the top fi ve disrup ve future supply chain trends. Interes ngly, although Brexit appeared heavily in our key fi ndings, it was not deemed one of the top fi ve disruptors to the supply chain by our survey respondents – perhaps because while it is acknowledged it will have a poten ally high impact, there is so li le clarity over the Brexit deal yet that the outcomes remain uncertain. As we approach U lity Week Live 2018, we look at the trends, technologies and factors that are set to disrupt u lity business models in the years to come. In this issue: The supply chain. D I S R U - P T I O N P R E S E N T S NETWORK / 30 / MAY 2018