What MES can do for the water and wastewater industry

SCADA/HMI

April 2006 SCADA/HMI

In the water and wastewater industry, MES meets the senior management's need for increased visibility of operations. Speaking of the MES solution - 'Ampla' - supplied by Citect, Ryan McGowan, Operations IT Co-ordinator for Goulburn Valley Water in Australia, says: "Ampla will give us the 'big picture' that is critical in an operation such as ours that covers 20 000 square kilometres. It allows us to do more with less people. And we can expect improvements in operational efficiency especially in terms of maintenance."

MES also aids management in fulfilling their reporting requirements by creating, housing and transporting data, as well as bringing in the benefits of traceability and recall of stored data. The critical requirements of quality, safety and reliability of water supply are better met when effective use is made of MES. Efficiency improvements are realised across various facets of plant operation including more effective use of labour (through reduced manual intervention time to monitor processes and gather data), better control of chemical dosing, shorter response times to contingencies and more effective preventative maintenance.

Summing up the proactive character of MES, McGowan says: "Ampla will help us find the problem before the customers do".

Getting the best out of MES

There are a number of factors which contribute directly to maximising the benefits of an MES implementation in the sector:

Critical success factors for effective MES useage:

* For any migration path to MES, the desired results can be achieved only by bringing together a multidisciplinary team of technical, managerial and financial staff and empowering them with an unqualified mandate to achieve those results.

* Successful plant-to-ERP linkage cannot be achieved or sustained without senior management commitment and involvement (preferably at the CEO/COO/CFO level).

* It is critical that MES be user-friendly. Commenting on the decision to go with Citect's Ampla, McGowan says: "We wanted an easy-to-use, off-the-shelf product. This saves us set-up costs as well as training costs (because familiarity with the user interface will help reduce our training costs)."

* Finally, continuous benchmarking of asset and risk management practices against best-in-class practices will help water companies and municipalities to continuously improve efficiency and outcomes by setting ever-higher standards.

The picture shows a simplified MES solution architecture for a water or wastewater facility.

For more information contact Deon Engelbrecht, Citect, 011 699 6600, [email protected]

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SCADA/HMI

What MES can do for the water and wastewater industry

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