A 'Call to Arms'

We have also made a significant investment in AVK Academy facilities on our UK sites. The AVK Academy exists both to upskill our employees and to provide access to dedicated training for water company personnel in areas such as smart water networks, pressure management, and valve specification and selection. 

The new Academy facilities at Glenfield Invicta’s site in Kilmarnock are amongst the best, and the biggest, I have seen in the industry. The emphasis is real-life 3D, with a smart water rig, a control valve testing rig, and the opportunity to get hands-on with multiple valves and penstocks. Academy visitors can also see pressure management valves being configured and tested, and the refurbishment of legacy valves, some over 100-years old. 

I extend an open invitation* to water companies, contractors and consulting engineers to take advantage of our Academy facilities and to tap into the expertise of our engineers.

I am aware we are not alone amongst water companies, contractors and major manufacturers in making such commitments to grow the water sector workforce over the coming years. I am concerned, however, that the knowledge residing in the supply chain may be under-recognised and underused by water companies and framework contractors. 

In summary, I feel we require a sea change in the way all parties in the water industry work together to unlock value and ensure we are all able to deliver the solutions required to satisfy our respective stakeholders.

*To accept our invitation click here and book your visit.

Collaboration and Engagement

I first became Managing Director of a major water industry supply chain business, Biwater, back in 1990. Consequently, I have managed manufacturing businesses through every Price Review since privatisation. 

In my experience, at times in the past the focus during supply negotiations has focused too strongly on lowest price rather than unlocking value. I appreciate that even in PR24 with Ofwat’s emphasis on competitive markets it is challenging for water companies to focus as much on value-added, as opposed to ‘cost’, as I believe is warranted.

There is a need for all parties across the water industry, including water companies themselves, to invest to create additional capacity for AMP8. It is my contention that a move towards a procurement model of engagement and collaboration would facilitate the delivery of the AMP8 investment programme whilst ensuring the UK retains a significant indigenous product manufacturing and service supply chain base. 

To achieve such an approach, the manufacturing and service supply chain needs more face-to-face engagement with water company influencers and shakers; to share how we can, collaboratively with all parties, develop solutions to the challenges the water sector is facing. 

One of the AVK Expect Promises is that we deliver solutions, not just products. At the heart of this promise is a focus on solving product and project challenges faced by water companies, contractors and consultants in the most technically effective and cost-efficient way possible. We believe that if we continuously deliver on this promise, we create value for our partners way above product cost.

An ongoing example of how collaboration has delivered benefits is Anglian Water’s complex, challenging and exciting SPA (Strategic Pipeline Alliance) project. One of the largest infrastructure projects for a generation, SPA’s success - in Anglian Water’s own words – draws on the experience, new mindsets, thinking and innovation of those involved. AVK’s engineers have, to date, advised on the specification of over 1,500 valves and hydrants up to DN800 in size. The hands-on site support we have provided has included the sizing of hundreds of air valves to help ensure pipeline, efficiency, safety and security. We have also fitted bypasses and installed gearboxes and actuators. 

Surely, one of the industry’s objectives in AMP8 should be to apply the collaboration benefits gained from headline projects like SPA to smaller projects and everyday applications. The supply chain is resourced and ready to deliver.

Trust us. Use us.

Innovation

Another significant way in which the product and service supply chain can deliver value for water companies is through innovation: AVK in the UK has already committed monies to an extensive product development programme for AMP8. For example, we are investing in our digital smart water platform. One of the goals of the smart water platform is to enable water companies to tackle leakage by optimising pressure management based on real-time data. This data is collected and transmitted by low-cost sensors, including retrofit sensors, on valves located across the network. Smart water technologies can also contribute to a greater understanding of asset health, a key driver for Ofwat and, I believe, the new regulator recommended in The Cunliffe Report.

Smart water innovation is a prime example of a real-time, added-value system solution. The success of such solutions requires water companies and innovators like AVK and others to work together to develop and fine tune them. The outcome will be the ability to optimise operations on a daily basis and to collect and analyse data for better asset management and asset health decisions in the future.

The five years of AMP8 will, in my opinion, see AI solutions come of age in areas such as network design and management, non-revenue water and customer service improvements. AVK has several AI projects in the pipeline with the first to be operational likely to be a project to speed up the customer journey from enquiry to delivery.

All of the outcomes from innovations and investments, such as those outlined above, will be enhanced if they take place within a supply chain relationship founded on collaboration and engagement.