Extending SAP from Financial Reporting to an Operational Tool

For the past 20 years, Christchurch City Council (CCC) has used the internationally recognised software program known as SAP. (SAP is a product from a German software company whose products allow businesses to track customer and business interactions.) CCC primarily uses SAP as a financial transaction tracking tool. For the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant (CWTP), this includes linking operational costs to assets. In 2016, an informal feasibility study identified that SAP could be a cornerstone of a two year ‘Effective Operations & Maintenance’ (EO&M) program.

A review of the asset database within SAP identified only 1455 individual assets at the CWTP. This number was deemed very low, particularly as the CWTP is the second largest in NZ and has a replacement value of ~$0.9 billion. A desktop study found that this data base had captured approximately 90% of the assets at the CWTP when based on asset value. This is because the granularity of asset breakdown was at a high level (e.g. an asset identified simply as ‘Sludge Digester’ included not only the digester structure, but also all the sludge/gas pipework, handrailing, level sensors, valves, flow meters etc.).

Capturing 90% of the total value of CWTP assets allows CCC to accurately depreciate assets and forecast of capital expenditure (CAPEX). This provides a robust foundation for planning of CAPEX projects, especially those of larger value. However, for planning and timing of regular preventative maintenance and small CAPEX projects, it makes it much more of a challenge. This is because operational and maintenance activities cannot be assigned to individual assets (i.e. individual valves, flow meters, pumps). The EO&M program subsequently identified and uploaded into SAP an additional 4,625 individual assets (a 76% increase in the number of assets).

This means that 76% of the assets were not included in the maintenance and spares program and can be considered essentially “invisible” the systems and process in place. CCC must rely on the knowledge and experience of plant operators and the maintenance engineers to independently schedule maintenance and assess essential spare requirements. This make forecasting of operational expenditure (OPEX) difficult to achieve and, at best, is inconsistent The specific issue was that lower value assets can have a critical function. Thus it is important that such assets are included in a program of planned maintenance and, where appropriate included in the critical spares. Such a program would facilitate the accurate planning of OPEX on a daily, weekly, annual, bi-annual and 5 yearly basis.

CWTP’s approach was to embark on a project to capture the maintenance requirements of all the assets on site, with a priority of identifying assets with a critical function, regardless of capital value. This involved a series of four facilitated workshops to explore the operation and maintenance of the CWTP. A multidisciplinary team was formed for the workshops which included representatives from operations, maintenance, CWTP management, process engineering, maintenance planning and CCC asset planning. The aim of the workshop was to identify all assets regardless of value and capture the criticality of each asset.

The project has realised significant improvements to CCC in the OPEX planning for CWTP. This has included an increase in preventative maintenance, driven by both scheduled maintenance and operational checks. The operation of the CWTP has become more consistent and as a result the treatment process has shown improved stability. The methodology applied in this case study project is relevant to WWTPs across Australia and New Zealand and provides a platform for consistent operation and preventative maintenance that is targeted.