Clarity Brings Efficiency and Savings

When Russ Munro joined the Water Treatment Plant as a Maintenance Engineer in 2008, he was interested in clarifying more than water.

“We saw an opportunity to take a fresh look at our businesses processes at the plant, from preventative maintenance to procurement,” explained Russ. “By breaking down processes and eliminating redundancies, we knew that we could work more efficiently, do more with the resources we have and improve the reliability of the service for citizens.”

One area targeted for improvement was the plant’s approach to purchasing and procurement – which resulted in immediate savings. Instead of purchasing materials and supplies “as needed” the team identified those items that were routinely required and explored “bulk buy” contracts with local suppliers. The benefits were immediate: cost savings through volume discounts and increased productivity by having materials on-hand when they need them.

“We also implemented an electronic maintenance management system which allowed us to bring the procurement and inventory pieces into our planning. It meant that planning was integrated with procurement, eliminating the time involved in writing up requisitions and finding parts.”

The plant’s approach to equipment maintenance has also resulted in savings and improvements to service. Russ and the team set a goal of moving from a “reactive” to more “preventative” approach to maintenance – to focus on doing regular checks and repairs on equipment instead of doing bigger fixes when it breaks down. A more proactive approach to maintaining our equipment, and getting to the root cause of issues, is the focus now.

Before the change, 80% of the plant’s maintenance work was reactive. While there are mechanical issues that pop up occasionally, Russ says the amount of time spent working on these fixes is down to 28%; a 65% reduction. He points to issues involving one of the plant’s water clarifiers as a great case in point.

“For years, this clarifier would run, fail, run, fail. We would get it going again and then it would fail again. Rather than continue this cycle, we conducted an in-depth failure analysis to get to the root cause of the issue.”

“It was important to get this right from an engineering and service point of view. When a clarifier goes down, you lose capacity, you lose flow and you lose the confidence of our citizens. In this case, we got to the heart of the issue and since we’ve taken a more preventative maintenance approach, this piece of equipment is performing better and more reliably than ever. This clarifier used to fail about every six months. Since our change in approach, it’s been running for four years without an issue.”

To implement the change, Russ drew on asset management tools and best practices through his Maintenance Management Professional (MMP) training. But he credits the plant’s team with the ultimate success of the new program.

“The shift required both a change in approach and attitude. We had operated in a certain way for a long time and, for some of our people, this was a huge shift in thinking. But over time, people started getting onboard with the new approach. We became more organized and less reactive with ultimately more time to plan things out, do the work and get it right the first time. I think people here have really owned this change and it’s something we can all be proud of.”

In July, Russ became Engineering Manager of Procurement and Logistics with Public Works. He continues to watch changes unfold at the plant and reflect on some of the lessons he learned through the process.

“My advice to anyone travelling down this road would be to focus on people,” says Russ. “It’s a change in approach but more importantly it’s a change in culture.”

“Start with the low-hanging fruit, get some small victories and then champions will start to emerge, others will come along and bring ideas forward, and before too long you will realize that you’ve shifted the way people approach work and how it gets done.”

“Focus on people. If you want to make a change, it starts with them.”