MCP delivers a 'water tight' process for Aquatera
Aquatera is the leading water, wastewater and solid waste business, serving more than 80,000 customers in the fastest-growing region of Canada.
Aquatera provides essential services which include the supply of clean drinking water, wastewater treatment, waste management and recycling and building, operating and maintaining the pipes, sewers and other related infrastructure.
In 2016, the Treatment Operations Manager at the Water and Waste Water plant embarked on The AMIS Journey and an initial AMIS Assessment took place in January 2016.
This initial AMIS Assessment revealed that the plant scored just 21 % which placed them just above the chaos category of The AMIS Assessment benchmarking process. After the AMIS Assessment, an agreed forward journey was generated that indicated that if the plant obtained buy-in and a high level of engagement with the process. The result of such actions is indicated in the chart below.
This initial predicted AMIS Journey shows that the site could reach the AMIS World-Class category of the AMIS process within 48 months.
From this initial output, a plan was developed and agreed to move the site forward in all categories of The AMIS Journey process including; general maintenance, workplace organisation, work planning and control, cost management, productivity and effectiveness, failure analysis and continuous improvement, materials management, training and safety.
In February 2017, the first follow-up AMIS Assessment took place. It was found that the site had made significant progress and had surpassed the predicted target by 44%. Part of every revisit includes reviewing the strategy and making further plans and agreements for the next stage of The AMIS Journey.
The most recent assessment took place in June 2018. This third assessment found that the site was now operating above the predicted progression curve and achieving an overall score of 62%. This result confirms that the plant has moved into the innovator category of the AMIS Journey process.
The feedback received from the AMIS Assessment in June 2018, is that the shop floor personnel now considered the maintenance team to be providing a good standard of service. These improvements benefit the business because the equipment is now demonstrating a high level of reliability. All assets have been recorded on the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and this has ensured that the cost data is readily available for analysis.
Strong Teamwork
The icing on the cake has been that the plant received an internationally recognised award for its continuous improvement process. Skilled stable teams are in place demonstrating strong teamwork values. The maintenance stores are clean, tidy, well laid out and well organised. The plant is able to record a strong safety process.
Most importantly, the results are compelling as the cost of the exercise to achieve their goal is that the AMIS Journey exercise has been self-funding. In fact, maintenance costs to date have dropped to 42%. The plant can now demonstrate significant chemical savings through continuous improvement initiatives and improved equipment performance.