Water companies are currently facing unprecedented levels of criticism and scrutiny, particularly on issues surrounding wastewater treatment and sewage discharges from storm water overflows. The supply chain has a key role to play in helping them to deliver a sustained and consistent operational performance with partnership and collaboration increasingly seen as the best way forward to achieving their goals.

In an interview with Elaine Coles, Managing Editor of WaterBriefing, Dale Foster and Paul Blackoe from HUBER Technology discuss how Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), partnership and collaboration can really help the water companies get the best out of the companies they work with to keep the UK’s water and wastewater infrastructure running well.

HUBER: Like many companies in the water sector supply chain, we’re aware of the massive pressures all water companies and publically owned authorities in the British Isles are under to meet regulatory and environmental performance targets.

It’s interesting to see that the water companies, our clients, are increasingly turning to pre-contract market engagement with suppliers to source market intelligence and insight into market trends, supply chain capabilities and solution availability ahead of going out to tender with formal contract notices. Supply chain engagement in advance of procurement, followed by ECI after contracts have been signed offers major benefits to both sides in helping our clients achieve the outcomes they’re looking to deliver.

The latest example of this is United Utilities’ call for input from suppliers ahead of launching the procurement process for their upcoming multi-billion pound AMP8 capital programme for 2025-30.

It’s not just the big capital schemes where ECI plays a key role,it’s equally relevant on smaller specialist schemes and projects and can deliver the same benefits in terms of time, cost and carbon savings.

So what type of process can deliver the exemplar partnership and collaboration with the supply chain to ensure the best solutions can be found to help water companies deliver the outcomes they’re looking for?

We’d like to talk about a framework agreement for standard sludge thickening solutions which was awarded to HUBER as a sole supplier by Yorkshire Water in October last year following a rigorous process, which formally started back in November 2020.

The HUBER S-DISC sludge thickeners are already widely used across the UK and Ireland, in fact they have become the sludge thickening solution of choice for other water companies.

Prior to awarding us the contract, Yorkshire Water’s own team had already seen and discussed the benefits of the S-DISCwhen they visited another water company’s end user sites. The water company concerned had separately decided to use the S-DISC sludge thickener wherever possible in its own operations and we invited Yorkshire Water staff to see our machines in operation.

Following contract award and as soon as the standstill period ended, we came together with all the key stakeholders involved in the project. We can only describe it as the best example of collaboration we have been involved in.

Awareness by all parties of the need to work in tandem with the water company and their service providers, contractors etc. was part of the framework from the outset. Building on already strong relationships and quickly forming relationships with other stakeholders in the framework, we worked very well together to bring a standard, fully costed solution to the process.

There are always challenges in understanding the essence of what the water companies are looking for in the framework award process. Framework tendering is about benchmarking to find the best technical and costed solution. Often it’s only after the award that through discussions relating to actual projects we are able to define the optimum solution.

It’s true to say that this requires a lot of work which takes time but is undoubtedly an investment for the long term. At this point a lot of unknowns are clarified where glitches and potential obstacles can be effectively addressed at an early stage – which ultimately helps to ensure the framework operates as effectively as possible.

It helped us and other stakeholders involved in the project to understand more about how Yorkshire Water works, its key partners, and how we could fit in and work together. This upfront commitment delivers great benefits, including streamlined procedures, quicker delivery, dovetailing our own workloads to fit with the client’s upcoming schedules, to mention just a few.

As the contractor we also like to ensure we have the latest guidance and standards to take into account/ considerations on discussing the project.

The Water Industry Mechanical and Electrical Specifications (WIMES) define the requirements for a wide range of mechanical and electrical equipment used in the UK water industry.

Separately, individual water companies may have their own WIMES with specific amendments which generally consist of relatively minor changes. Beyond that there is also the interpretation on a project by project basis by the delivery partners, typically Tier 1 and Tier 2 contractors and sometimes end users, which can extend through the lifecycle of delivering the project.

If we are awarded frameworks or projects we are always keen to standardise because of the benefits to both parties in terms of cost, production times and familiarity when operating the machines. The challenge is in having multiple delivery partners who may interpret the specifications/standards differently.

While all the water companies have their own asset standards, for us it is important to ensure that we are not excluded because our technology is not referenced. When asked for our input we would simply say that a more broadly worded standard, which talks in terms of a technology that will fulfil a particular purpose, rather than specifying a particular technology, offers the water company more options.

A key part of early stage collaboration in our new framework agreement with Yorkshire Water has been the development of a suite of standard documents which is available to all stakeholders via their own SharePoint platform. However, this wasn’t simply a case of “off we all go with a ‘standard product’ - the fact that the bulk of documentation required to back things up is readily available to all parties will significantly streamline the overall delivery process creating further efficiencies within the supply chain.

At the first meeting following the award of the framework agreement, development of the documents was addressed and discussed by all the stakeholders involved, including Yorkshire Water’s Tier 1 contractors, to understand the practical implications. Developing good relationships with all stakeholders enabled us to work very well together to bring a suite of standard, fully costed solutions forward.

From a supplier perspective, this provides an excellent platform for cost effective repeatability of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly solutions (DfMA) i.e.to simplify the design of a product to improve ease of manufacture and efficiency of assembly.

From that initial meeting and subsequent meetings, we developed a strong relationship where we were able to have open and frank discussions about the most appropriate solutions to deliver the outcomes Yorkshire Water were looking for.

Yorkshire Water updated all their asset standards and turned them into design guidance documents which effectively sets a minimum standard. This undoubtedly provided a better environment to discuss issues and get other things approved via a process that delivers the required outcomes, rather than being prescriptive in terms of technology. It also makes it a lot easier to reach mutually agreed decisions.

In our view, setting standards which are focussed on outcomes and are technology agnostic provide the client with much better scope to achieve their aims. When there are competing technologies on offer, the outcome should be the key driver, rather than being driven by a specific technology choice which effectively limits the client’s ability to consider a broader range of options.

Knowledge transfer is a two way process

In our experience, it's only post framework award when you start having the in-depth conversations needed about what projects will actually look like.

For example, at Yorkshire Water’s specific request a dedicated ‘hot wash’ system has been incorporated into the design of the S-DISC to facilitate cleaning of the stainless-steel woven mesh disc.This has allowed sustained, optimum performance and the removal of a hazardous task from their own operational AO&M plans.

As the sole supplier, this enables us to be quite candid in our discussions and say “this is what you've asked for and this is what we've costed you for”.And while elements we suggested that we believe might work better weren't always adopted we were able to raise them and talk them through. From a supplier point of view, this is one of our key strengths – understanding what a showstopper is, and what will open the door for discussions.

Knowledge transfer is a two way process- crucially, the discussions also allowed us to raise technical queries, ask forclarification and enabled us to demonstrate that we understand their brief. As a general rule, between us we have agreed a standard which is broadly going to fit everywhere and get stakeholder agreement that this wouldfit the majority of Yorkshire Water sites.

Agreed standardisation means we can provide the key components from our company’s production line batch manufacture and also accelerate the timescale for delivery, affording a real cost benefit to Yorkshire Water. Of course where the water company agrees to a change in the standard we will look at the cost implications, we’ll do the design work, and we'll make it happen. However, with the correct behaviours created by this collaborative partnership we're never going to respond in the negative, but everyone can see the benefits of avoiding changes if possible.

Getting agreements via collaborative working with the water company which the contractors have access to and which can then be referred back to, also provides the significant benefit of everybody knowing exactly where they stand. We are also in turn less beholden in timeframes to approvals, because they're already in principle agreements, which means we can put things into manufacture early.

As part of the framework agreement, we also had to factor in key drivers like carbon emissions, energy use and whole life costs – all very important issues for Yorkshire Water. Other important requirements included maintenance, replacement parts, service loads, access and lifting movements, and health and safety.

Going forward, what they've done with this framework is to develop a standard product that allows them to streamline delivery of the projects.

All of our documents are also on Yorkshire Water’s SharePoint platform, including 3D models, cable schedules which their delivery partners can access and use in order to start developing the solution and preparing layouts etc. These include:

• Generic thickening plant description which refers to all relevant YW design guidance documents, specifications etc.
• Generic sludge thickening user requirements specification complete with integrated HUBER control Philosophy
• Template P&ID’s for duty & duty/duty solutions.
• Skid 3D models & GA drawings including electrical drawing for the junction box details.
• Scope of supply documents that are effectively standard quotations for duty only & duty/duty scenarios.
• O&M risk assessments.
• Equipment schedules

In essence, from our perspective this is what we have always envisaged a framework should look like - early contractor engagement and excellent collaboration. It provides an exemplar of how partnerships in a proper collaborative framework can really work to the benefit of all parties, in contrast to what is a more traditional supplier-customer based relationship.

So while the initial projects might involve the usual “to-ing and fro-ing” this will reduce over a period of time as the framework agreement beds in.

Where an approved design and drawings are already in place as part of the framework agreement, projects can then be built and delivered in a shorter timescale without the need to go through the same approval processes each time – an approach we’re rolling out to the other water companies we work with.

We also place a significant level of emphasis on developing good individual personal relationships - we see this as absolutely key to delivering the benefits and outcomes our customers are looking for.

For example, we run lunch and learn sessions for customers and their delivery partners who can see the advantage of raising the level of awareness for key members of the teams.

We don’t try to cover the entire portfolio and every issue in a single session - we break them down into different streams. We recently held a lunch and learn session which covered storm overflows and then moved on to preliminary treatment. In this way we can discuss our capabilities and technologies in greater detail in a more technical presentation which addresses the hydraulics, sizing and engineering involved.

Effective communication is key to making partnerships and collaboration work

It goes without saying effective communication is key to making partnerships and collaboration work – sometimes it’s simpler and quicker to pick up the phone and have a conversation rather than exchanging a series of emails. Of course, while we won’t always get exactly what we suggest, we will try to achieve a satisfactory solution which is acceptable to all concerned.

Quite often it’s simply a matter of interpretation and generally, as engineers we enjoy the interesting discussion around the technical elements with our engineering and non-engineering counterparts.

Looking ahead, and in light of the scale of the challenges the water companies are facing to deliver a large number of projects, in our view we’re likely to see greater use of frameworks in areas where there is a high level of demand for specific solutions - for example, storm water overflows is an obvious place. We should also mention that in the current economic climate where prices are rising and we’re seeing cost inflation, the ability to have an informed and objective conversation about these issues is key.

To sum up, in the run up to AMP8, it is more important than ever to have these partnerships in place – the water companies are facing increasingly tough challenges at a time when we are all entering choppy economic waters and facing ongoing supply chain disruptions.

Early contractor involvement is fundamental to ensuring the collaboration works well for the client and their suppliers. Real partnerships based on mutual trust and a thorough understanding of the aims, potential solutions and operational issues are essential ingredients in a truly collaborative process.

www.huber.co.uk