Special Solution-Supplier Spotlight: Water Services Giant Expands Its View Of Reliability

Veolia Water North America partners with RCM pioneer Mac Smith to improve the company’s water and wastewater services.

Veolia Water North America (Veolia) has entered into an exclusive support-service agreement with well-known reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) expert Anthony M. (Mac) Smith, doing business as AMS Associates. By teaming with Smith, Veolia—a Chicago-based provider of water and wastewater services to municipalities and industry—gains access to his industry-leading experience in successfully applying the reliability-centered maintenance process to more than 75 projects over the past 30 years. This partnership will allow Veolia to expand its use of RCM methodology throughout its operations, and enables the company to implement additional asset-management strategies for its clients.

Smith is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of RCM and advanced maintenance practices. He is the author and co-author, respectively, of the books Reliability-Centered Maintenance and RCM: Gateway to World-Class Maintenance, which have become standards for defining and implementing the classical RCM process. A frequent speaker at professional conferences, including Applied Technology Publications’ annual Maintenance and Reliability Technology Summit (MARTS), he’s responsible for directing and contributing to a wide range of consulting projects in the energy, aerospace and industrial sectors. These include both technical and program aspects related to areas of reliability, availability, maintainability/maintenance and systems engineering for the U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD) and Energy (DoE), NASA, their prime contractors and private industry. Smith sees working with Veolia as a natural partnership of two entities committed to ensuring reliability through world-class maintenance.

“Looking at companies in the water and wastewater treatment industry, it is clear that Veolia Water places great importance on maintenance,” says Smith. “The RCM methodology is the foundation of Veolia Water’s maintenance philosophy, and it has proven to be a highly effective risk-mitigation tool where it has been applied. I look forward to working closely with the company to enhance its RCM capabilities.”

Veolia Water North America (www.veolianorthamerica.com) serves more than 14 million people in approximately 650 North American communities. Part of the Veolia Environnement organization, the company and its 30,000 North American employees work to provide sustainable environmental solutions in water management, waste services, energy management and passenger transportation. For public water authorities, it handles every step in the water cycle, including withdrawing water from nature and producing and piping drinking water. It collects, conveys and treats wastewater to recycle (through irrigation, watering and groundwater recharge) or release back into the environment. Veolia conserves water resources upstream and protects release environments and ecosystems downstream.

To address the needs of industrial clients, Veolia offers specific technological solutions such as the supply of process water, cooling water and ultra-pure water, effluent treatment and recycling, reclamation and more. Throughout its operations, Veolia Water has a primary responsibility for maintaining client assets. The company’s business strategy includes providing world-class maintenance programs
to ensure asset reliability on a life-cycle-cost basis. Properly applying the RCM methodology is a key element in this program.

“We are very pleased to partner with someone of Mac Smith’s stature and expertise in all facets of RCM,” says Frank Benichou, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Veolia Water North America. He adds that his company has had great success over the years applying RCM, and that it views this partnership with Smith as recognition of the value in such methodologies.

Under terms of the agreement, Smith will work with Veolia on a priority basis to provide RCM services to its client base while continuing to accept, via AMS Associates, selected projects that are not a part of Veolia’s business plan.

AMS Associates
San Jose, CA

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