As a result of the successful use of the MAXIMO Work and Asset Maintenance Management System, Rand Water has extended the utilisation of the software extensively over the past year, ensuring continued reliability of its water supply operations.
Rand Water has also recently transferred the management and control of the maintenance and related functions of its diverse fleet, to MAXIMO.
Purchasing a MAXIMO license for 22 concurrent users from the Pretoria based high technology software company MST in 1997, Rand Water did the pilot implementation at its Central Depot Distribution south of Johannesburg.
Subsequently the solution was rolled out to its pumping stations at Vereeniging, Zuikerbosch and Zwartkopjes as well as to the Emhlangeni Pipe Plant at Central Depot and Rietvlei Head Office to improve overall plant reliability and availability.
Dirk van der Merwe, Maintenance Systems Manager at Rand Water, says the MAXIMO solution is an integral part of Rand Water`s strategy to ensure a reliable water supply to more than nine million people.
"As a result of the success of the MAXIMO implementation and roll out we decided to use it as a business tool for the effective utilisation and maintenance of our large fleet as well," he added. Rand Water`s fleet consists of sophisticated repair and construction vehicles, such as cranes, earth moving equipment, forklifts, trucks, compressors, as well as ambulances, buses, and passenger and delivery vehicles.
Rand Water contracted MST, the African agent for MAXIMO, to provide the solution. MST expanded the functionality of the MAXIMO software, already purchased by Rand Water. The solution developed by MST captures and allocates costs of fleet asset trip sheets, is used for satellite vehicle recovery as well as for the management of internal lease, driver licenses, vehicle registration, traffic offences, daily tasks and maintenance of the whole fleet.
Van der Merwe says MAXIMO`s data capturing and querying capabilities give management visibility on labour utilisation and plant performance. "MAXIMO enables us to measure the effectiveness of our maintenance department and our IT support desk on issues such as response time, back log and utilisation of human resources. We can then accordingly track progress and address problem areas and constraints." Rand Water has interfaced MAXIMO with its Walker financials system and is also using it for inventory control.
Several custom functions have also been delivered as part of the MAXIMO solution, as Rand Water had very specific requirements for tracking equipment statuses and history. The development of specialised reporting on equipment reliability and availability is also nearing completion, giving Rand Water a finger on the pulse of its operations.
Bernie Kruger, MST Consultant, says Rand Water has recently enhanced the whole MAXIMO deployment by "upgrading, migrating and integrating". Rand Water has upgraded to MAXIMO 4.0.1, the native 32 bit version; migrated from SQLBase to MS SQLServer; and integrated the various site databases into one central database at its Head Office.
Kruger enthuses that the effort and commitment of Rand Water`s maintenance personnel ensures the optimal utilisation of the MAXIMO solution.
MST Senior Account Manager Danie van Vuuren says MAXIMO is internationally the most widely used maintenance management software system for water utilities. "Other large water utilities using MAXIMO successfully include Thames Water International in the UK, Newfoundland Labrador and Hydro in Canada, Lyonnaise Des Eaux in France, Sydney Water Corporation in Australia and the Virgin Island Water and Power Authority."
According to Van Vuuren MAXIMO is one of only two enterprise asset maintenance systems world-wide of which the system development processes and methods have also been certified Y2k compliant by the Information Technology Association of America.
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Rand Water
Rand Water distributes water to more than nine million people, approximately 25 percent of South Africa`s population. Its area extends over 17,000 square kilometres, reaching as far north as Rustenburg and extending to Bethal in the east, Carletonville in the west and Sasolburg in the south. This area includes Johannesburg, Pretoria, Germiston and Roodepoort and some 50 towns.