Case studies / Energy and Utilities
Case studyMaintenance and critical spares control for a utility
A utility operating plants and networks brought maintenance, spares and regulatory reporting together in SAP, guided by asset criticality, raising planned work and spares availability.
Overview
A regulated water and wastewater utility serving a mixed urban and rural region, operating treatment works, pumping stations and an extensive pipe network with in-house field crews and specialist contractors.
Scale. A large asset base of treatment plant, pumps, valves, telemetry and pipework, about 8,000 spare parts held across four regional stores and a small number of truly critical items with long lead times.
The challenge
When a critical pump failed at a treatment works one winter night, the replacement seal kit was listed as in stock. It was not. It had been used months earlier and never recorded, and the works ran on standby equipment for a week while a kit was flown in.
That incident captured a wider problem. Maintenance records and spares sat in different places, the maintenance team in one system and the stores in another, with little connection between them.
Planned work was missed. Maintenance plans existed for many assets, but work orders were generated inconsistently and crews were frequently pulled away to reactive jobs. Overdue planned work accumulated quietly.
Critical spares were not available when needed. Stock levels were set by habit rather than by the consequence of a failure, so the stores held plenty of common items and too few of the parts whose absence could take a works offline.
Regulatory reports on asset condition, performance and expenditure were compiled from several sources each year, and reconciling them took weeks of specialist time.
The solution
Every asset sits in an SAP hierarchy from site to system to equipment, with its criticality rating, maintenance strategy and history. Engineers can see the condition and work history of any asset in one place.
Maintenance plans generate work orders automatically, with frequency and depth set by criticality. Scheduling gives priority to critical planned work, and overdue planned work is visible to managers every week.
Spares are linked to the assets they support. Stock levels for critical items are set by the consequence of failure and the supplier lead time, and using a spare against a work order updates stock immediately.
Field crews receive work orders on mobile devices, view asset history and drawings from GIS, record work and parts used and close jobs on site. Sensor data from key assets feeds condition monitoring and can raise work orders when readings drift.
Regulatory reports are produced from the same asset, work and cost records, and finance integration ensures maintenance spend is classified consistently between operating and capital budgets.
The engagement
- Ten months
- Eight specialists
- Process mapping and criticality rating, SAP asset and maintenance management, spares and procurement, work order scheduling, regulatory reporting, finance integration, mobile crew apps, asset history migration and a regional rollout.
Integrations
- Asset sensors
- Mobile crew apps
- Supplier catalogues
- GIS
- Regulator portals
How we delivered it
- 01
Map and rate criticality
Ten weeks
We mapped maintenance and spares processes with operations, engineering and stores, and rated every significant asset for criticality based on the consequence of failure for customers, the environment and compliance.
- 02
Configure and connect
Fourteen weeks
We configured asset and maintenance management, spares, scheduling and regulatory reporting in SAP, and connected mobile apps for field crews. Criticality ratings shaped maintenance strategies, stock levels and scheduling priorities.
- 03
Migrate hierarchies and history
Eight weeks
Asset hierarchies and maintenance history were migrated and checked against site surveys. Gaps in the hierarchy were filled before go-live rather than left for later.
- 04
Regional rollout
Ten weeks
The system rolled out region by region, with crews trained on the mobile app in their own depots and stores teams trained on the new spares rules.
Results
- More planned and less reactive maintenance
- Critical spares available more often
- Regulatory reporting from one source
- Criticality-based investment planning
The share of maintenance that is planned has risen. Crews spend more of their time on scheduled work, and the backlog of overdue planned maintenance on critical assets is now reviewed and kept under control.
Critical spares are available more often when they are needed. Parts are recorded as they are used, and the items that matter most are held at levels that reflect the cost of being without them.
Regulatory reports are now produced from one source. The annual submission takes far less specialist time, and the figures reconcile with the operational and financial records behind them.
Criticality ratings now inform investment planning too. The engineering team uses them, together with work history, to decide which assets to refurbish and which to replace.
Once every asset had a criticality rating, the arguments about what to stock and what to fix first mostly settled themselves.
What made the difference
Asset criticality ratings guided every design choice.
