Student No. 6659 Dissertation submitted in partial ...

CAPTURING CRITICAL PIPELINE FAILURE DATA FOR OPTIMAL MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OF A WATER SUPPLY NETWORK: A

RAND WATER PROPOSITION By

FAROUK KHAN

Student No. 6659

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for degree Master of Science in Management of Technology and Innovation

At

The Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management (Pty) Ltd

Academic Supervisor: MG De Kock, DLitt et Phil

Field Supervisor: M Haffejee, MSc Eng

2015

DECLARATION I, Farouk Khan, declare that the research project, Capturing critical pipeline failure data for optimal maintenance management of a water supply network: A Rand Water proposition is my own work and each source of information used has been acknowledged by means of a complete reference. This dissertation has not been submitted before as part of another research project, degree or examination at any university.

...............................................

Farouk Khan ......................... Date Johannesburg, South Africa

Da Vinci copyright information This dissertation/thesis may not be published either in part (in scholarly, scientific or technical journals), or as a whole (as a monograph), by the researcher or any other person unless permission has been obtained from The Da Vinci Institute

I agree that I have read and that I understand the copyright notice. ……………………………………………………………………….

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I am thankful to Almighty Allah, most Gracious, who in His infinite mercy has guided me to complete this MSc study and research. May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him).

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my very knowledgeable academic supervisor, Dr M.G. De Kock (DLitt et Phil), for her continuous support, encouragement and her insightful comments and questions for my MSc study and research.

I want to also thank Mr. M. Haffejee (MSc Engineering) for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge, and most of all for taking time off from his busy work schedule to help me make this study a success. His guidance helped me throughout the process of researching and writing this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better field supervisor and mentor for my MSc study.

I would also like to thank my thesis participants, Andrew Meintjies and the maintenance planning team for their input and support.

I am also exceedingly grateful to Rand Water for making this study possible.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family: My parents, my children, Junaid, Nasrene, Shahzaadee, and my selfless wife Ibtissem, for their support and continuous encouragement.

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ABSTRACT This research study sought to create a platform to collect and capture pipeline failure information that addresses the current re-active maintenance strategy applied by Rand Water in terms of pipeline failures. Increasing incidences of failures concerning the Rand Water pipelines demonstrate that these ageing pipelines, many of which have been underground for more than 50 years, confirm their vulnerability and tendency towards failure. Rand Water has not been able to predict which pipelines would fail as the lack of critical data has made it difficult to make pipeline management decisions. It is generally accepted that a reduction in pipeline leakages will contribute to the improvement of water supply to the community.

This study assessed the technologies available internally at Rand Water to obtain accurate pipeline information, with particular emphasis on obtaining information about the challenges faced regarding pipeline failures and their exact location. The literature review identified that Rand Water did not have consistent information captured on one central database, although Rand Water has two well-known systems; namely, GIS and Maximo. These systems were not used to their full potential. It was found that currently Rand Water has 12 districts in the area of supply and each manager has his area‟s information captured on his personal computer that enables him to make decisions regarding the water pipelines. Although there are operations reports available, these reports are compiled with information from 12 districts that each have their own individual database in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Rand Water has not been able to make short- and long-term strategic decisions with such information as the integrity and accuracy of the incomplete information was questionable.

The researcher selected to use an action research methodology for this research as he wanted a local solution for Rand Water including the very personnel who have been involved with maintaining and repairing the pipeline failures on the

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ground on a daily basis. These participants had a clear understanding of the problem in the field. The researcher determined that obtaining a local solution to a local problem by involving the local people would provide the best chance of success when implementing the solutions determined from this research study.

The research findings from Rand Water, Nam Water and CSIR revealed that there was a definite need to improve data collection methods on pipeline failures in Africa and South Africa. Rand Water could not make long-term decisions on pipeline failure management due to the lack of information concerning critical failures in the pipeline network. Although Rand Water has software systems to support the data collection and reporting, these systems are not utilised to enhance the data collection and recording practice. The lack of implementing available technology has created a very re-active environment within Rand Water, where Operations and Maintenance teams have no pro-active plans in place to reduce pipeline failures.

The researcher and participants used various problem solving techniques (cause and effect analysis, SWOT analysis, and Elliot‟s Action Research model) to identify improvement opportunities and solutions to enable an easy-to-access critical data collection platform to improve pipeline management decision-making. Australia and New Zealand have made great strides in terms of making long-term pipeline management decisions whilst in South Africa and in Africa, it has traditionally

been

challenging

to

obtain

information

on

pipeline

failure

management.

Solutions identified through this research study were innovative and user-friendly for both Rand Water and other African utilities. The significance of the research study demonstrated that the findings and recommendations can be applied throughout the entire water sector for the betterment and transformation of South African society and is also applicable to the African continent. An unexpected outcome of this research was that the researcher found that Rand Water had not

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given any thought regarding a formal decision-making process to include certain critical data. As such, questions concerning the reasons for collecting data, as well as questions about the type of database that should be used to gather the data still remain unanswered.

The innovative idea of the development of a software application used from a mobile device now makes it possible to capture critical pipeline data in the field that can be downloaded to any Android device. This solution is user-friendly and prompts the user to collect the predetermined data required to make informed decisions on pipelines.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ...................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE CONTEXT OF WATER DISTRIBUTION ................................................................................. 1 1.1

Introduction ....................................................................................... 1

1.2

Rand Water Sources & Supply .......................................................... 1

1.3

Responsibilities of Researcher .......................................................... 3

1.4

Global Water Supply Issues .............................................................. 7

1.5

Summary of Global Water Problem ................................................. 10

1.6

Background to the Research Problem............................................. 11

1.7

Statement & Aim of the Research Problem ..................................... 12

1.8

Research Questions ........................................................................ 13

1.9

Primary Research Objective ............................................................ 14

1.10

Research Constraints ...................................................................... 17

1.11

Research Design & Methodology .................................................... 18

1.12

Data Collection Methods ................................................................. 21

1.13

Data Analysis .................................................................................. 22

1.14

Outline of Study ............................................................................... 22

1.15

Significance of the Research ........................................................... 23

1.16

Conclusion ...................................................................................... 24

CHAPTER 2:

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK & LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 26

2.1

Introduction ..................................................................................... 26

2.2

Background ..................................................................................... 26

2.3

Reality of Research Project ............................................................. 29

2.4

Rand Water: Reports Received ....................................................... 30

2.5

Maintenance Reports Obtained from Maximo Maintenance Management System ...................................................................... 32

2.6

Cape Water ..................................................................................... 33

2.7

Umgeni Water ................................................................................. 34

2.8

CSIR................................................................................................ 34

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2.9

Africa: Nam Water ........................................................................... 34

2.10

New Zealand ................................................................................... 38

2.11

Australia .......................................................................................... 39

2.12

Current Data Collection & Recording Practice in Water Utilities ...... 40

2.13

Conclusion ...................................................................................... 46

CHAPTER 3:

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................. 48

3.1

Introduction ..................................................................................... 48

3.2

Research Approach......................................................................... 48

3.3

Research Design: Action Research Group Techniques .................. 49

3.4

Research Methodology: Action Research ....................................... 49

3.5

Researcher‟s Role ........................................................................... 50

3.6

Data Collection & Analysis .............................................................. 50

3.7

Validity & Reliability ......................................................................... 53

3.8

Ethical Considerations..................................................................... 54

3.9

Conclusion ...................................................................................... 55

CHAPTER 4:

RESEARCH RESULTS ............................................................. 57

4.1

Introduction ..................................................................................... 57

4.2

Rand Water Findings....................................................................... 57

4.3

Findings of the Research ................................................................ 58

4.4

Findings Regarding Other South African Utilities ............................ 61

4.5

Findings from Nam Water ............................................................... 62

4.6

Findings from Australia & New Zealand .......................................... 63

4.7

Summary of Findings ...................................................................... 64

4.8

Conclusion ...................................................................................... 65

CHAPTER 5:

APPLICATION FRAMEWORK & CONCLUSION ..................... 67

5.1

Introduction ..................................................................................... 67

5.2

Cause & Effect Analysis .................................................................. 68

5.3

Technology: MAXIMO & GIS ........................................................... 69

5.4

Limitations ....................................................................................... 81

5.5

Revision of Improvement Opportunity ............................................. 81

5.6

Re-Revision of Improvement Opportunity ....................................... 83

5.7

No Field Devices to Capture & Record Failure Data ....................... 85

5.8

Identification of Improvement Opportunity ....................................... 86

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5.9

People, Procedures, Processes, and Resources ............................ 92

5.10

Explanation of Results..................................................................... 93

5.11

Key Limitations ................................................................................ 95

5.12

Solution 1: Mobile Application: Testing Complete ........................... 98

5.13

Solution 2: Activate Email Alert: Implemented New System ............ 98

5.14

Solution 3: Integrate Maximo and GIS systems: Recommended as Medium-Term to Long-Term Action Plan ........................................ 99

5.15

Conclusion .................................................................................... 102

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 103 APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 110

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1:1:

Rand Water area of supply source (Rand Water, n.d.)...................... 2

Figure 1:2:

Primary pumping and distribution elevations (Khan, 2010) ............... 3

Figure 1:3:

Water pipelines often cross over each other (researcher‟s own photograph) ....................................................................................... 5

Figure 1:4:

Pipeline leak seeping through the road (researcher‟s own photograph) ....................................................................................... 5

Figure 1:5:

Shortage of water due to leaks and lack of infrastructure in Ghana (Source: Myjoyonline.com, 2014) .................................................... 10

Figure 1:6:

Primary objective: improved capturing of pipeline failure data ........ 14

Figure 1:7:

Typical example of a pipe leak ........................................................ 15

Figure 1:8:

Significance of research objectives ................................................. 16

Figure 1:9:

Change Management (Adapted from Kemmis (2014) ..................... 19

Figure 1:10: Model of action research (Adapted from O‟Leary, 2004) ................. 20 Figure 1:11: Elliot‟s action research model (Adapted from Koshy, 2005) ............ 21 Figure 2:1:

From Source to Customer (Rand Water, 2014) ............................... 28

Figure 2:2:

Strategy to improve pipeline asset management (Molia, 2006) ....... 40

Figure 3:1:

Rand Water districts & distances from Bulk Water Distribution ....... 53

Figure 4:1:

GIS view of Rand Water pipelines (Coovadia, 2014) ...................... 61

Figure 4:2:

Strategy to improve pipeline asset management in Australia & New Zealand (Molia, 2006) ..................................................................... 63

Figure 4:3:

12 Rand Water districts & distances from Bulk Water Distribution (Meintjies, 2014) .............................................................................. 65

Figure 5:1:

Cause & effect diagram (Mind Tools, 1996-2015) .......................... 69

Figure 5:2:

Maximo & GIS Features .................................................................. 70

Figure 5:3:

Elliot‟s Action Research Model 1991 (as cited by Koshy, 2005; Lessem & Schieffer, 2010) .............................................................. 71

Figure 5:4:

Data from Maximo is emailed to GIS ............................................... 72

Figure 5:5:

Plant Status on Maximo (Aarle, 2014) ............................................. 75

Figure 5:6:

Service request on Maximo (Aarle, 2014) ....................................... 76

Figure 5:7:

Work order tracking: send email to GIS with details of failure & GPS coordinates (Aarle, 2014) ................................................................ 77

Figure 5:8:

GIS view of Rand Water pipelines before failure is captured (Coovadia, 2014) ............................................................................. 78

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Figure 5:9:

View of B6 pipeline before failure is plotted on GIS (Coovadia, 2014) ........................................................................................................ 79

Figure 5:10: GIS view of failures plotted on map (Coovadia, 2014) .................... 80 Figure 5:11: Improvement model for data collection and decision making (adapted from Molia, 2006) ............................................................................ 82 Figure 5:12: Synchronised GIS & Maximo systems for easy excess by users .... 84 Figure 5:13: Main menu (Prinsloo, 2015) ............................................................ 90 Figure 5:14: Pre-defined list (Prinsloo, 2015) ...................................................... 90 Figure 5:15: Summary screen ............................................................................. 91 Figure 5:16 Improvement model for data collection............................................ 96 Figure 5:17 Data sources improvement ............................................................... 98 Figure 5:18: Pipeline failure information captured ............................................. 100 Figure 5:19: Primary objective of the research .................................................. 101

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LIST OF TABLES Table 2:1: BWD Pipeline Leak Report 001 ........................................................... 30 Table 2:2: Rand Water potable water pipeline leaks (from Maximo Maintenance Management System) ..................................................................... 33 Table 2:3 Systems used in utilities ....................................................................... 44 Table 4:1: Bulk Water Distribution Pipeline Leak Report 001 ............................... 58 Table 4:2: Portable Water Pipeline Leaks Report (from Maximo Maintenance Management System) ..................................................................... 59 Table 5:1: Questions asked by Manager in relation to pipeline failure improvement process............................................................................................ 68 Table 5:2: Action Plan Start Date 14/10/2014: End Date 23/10/2014 (Aarle, 2014) ........................................................................................................ 74 Table 5:3: Data sources, management and strategic planning of pipeline failure 82 Table 5:4: Action Plan for application (Franco Jansen Van Rensburg, 2014 -2015) ........................................................................................................ 88

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LIST OF ACRONYMS AND EXPLANATION OF KEY WORDS ADS

Assistant District Superintendent.

Asset Management

A process of decision-making, planning, and control over the acquisition, use, safe-guarding and disposal of assets to maximise their service delivery potential and benefits, and to minimise their related risks and costs over the entire lifespan of the asset.

CMMS

Computerised Maintenance Management System.

DS

District Superintendent.

DSS

Decision Support Systems.

GIS

Geographical Information System.

GPS Co-ordinates

Are commonly displayed as latitude(x) and longitude(y) to determine the precise geographic location on earth.

GWOPA

Global Water Operators Partnership Alliance.

Maximo

A computerised asset management system.

PARMS

Pipeline Asset and Risk Management Software. (A Decision Support System (DSS) specially designed for water utilities to support the decision-making process)

UN-Habitat

United Nations Habitat

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CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION TO THE CONTEXT OF WATER DISTRIBUTION

1.1

Introduction

More than one billion people in the developing world lack safe drinking water due to deficiencies in the distribution systems (NAP, 2006). The distribution system is a critical component of a water provision utility‟s infrastructure as its primary function is to supply the required water quantity and quality to the consumers. Not meeting these requirements causes serious problems for the system (NAP, 2006).

Throughout the world, water distribution networks have for many decades served the purpose of providing water for human consumption, which, according to Payment and Robertson (2004:1-15) often accounts for less than 2% of the volume supplied. These authors debated that the remainder of piped water is used for washing, manufacture, sanitation, irrigation and other applications. For the purpose of this study, „piped water systems‟ can be explained as, „generally buried complex reticulations which are designed to meet peak demands and are usually difficult to operate and maintain‟ (Payment & Robertson, 2004:2).

The primary impetus for managing piped water distribution systems is to effectively meet both current and future water supply demands. However, this is a major challenge due to the ageing asset base of Rand Water‟s water pipeline distribution system and the inability of determining the actual physical condition of this buried asset. The combination of these risks makes the Rand Water pipelines susceptible to failures and leaks.

1.2

Rand Water Sources & Supply

In rare cases people settle in areas where water is very scarce. This is the case with

1

the Witwatersrand area. At the end of the 19th century, many people came to the Witwatersrand in search of gold. As the mining town of Johannesburg grew, there was not enough water in the area to meet the needs. Rand Water was established in 1903 to address this need in Johannesburg and in the growing gold mining industry, and was also required for the development of surrounding towns and cities. Rand Water is the largest bulk water utility in Africa, and is one of the largest in the world. The utility provides bulk potable water to more than 12 million people in Gauteng, parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West provinces; this service area stretches over 18 000 km2 (Rand Water, n.d.).

Rand Water‟s distribution network includes over 3600km of large diameter pipeline, feeding approximately 60 strategically located service reservoirs. Its customers include metropolitan municipalities, local municipalities, mines and industries. Rand Water supplies, on average, 4200 million litres of water to these customers daily in four provinces; namely, Gauteng, North West, parts of the Free State, and Mpumalanga.

Figure 1:1:

Rand Water area of supply source (Rand Water, n.d.)

2

Rand Water is an organ of state, reporting to the Department of Water and Sanitation (Formerly the Department of Water and Forestry). Throughout its long history, Rand Water has remained financially self-sustaining (Rand Water, n.d.).

The Katse Dam situated in the kingdom of Lesotho augments the Vaal river system. Raw water from the Vaal dam is then purified at the Zuikerbosch and Vereeniging stations and is pumped over a distance of 70km to the hilltops of the Witwatersrand to high lying storage reservoirs, and then distributed via a pipeline network and booster stations to the end-consumers (Rand Water, n.d.).

Figure 1:2:

Primary pumping and distribution elevations (Khan, 2010)

1.3

Responsibilities of Researcher

The researcher, a manager at Rand Water, is responsible for maintenance management support service. The researcher‟s main responsibility is to ensure that Rand Water has mechanisms in place to ensure the continuous supply of water to its customers. To do this, the section managed by the researcher provides the operations division with a support service in maintenance management to ensure that the plant is available and reliable to extract, purify, and pump an average of 4200 million litres of water each day.

3

The graphic in Figures 1.1 provides an overview of Rand Water‟s area of supply. It is noted that Rand Water‟s area of supply is presently being expanded due to governmental mandates.

There are three strategic factors that make Rand Water a unique organisation. First, if the pumping, distribution levels, and distance covered by the Rand Water operations are considered, as shown in Figure 1.2, raw water is imported from Lesotho and channelled to the Vaal river system, and is then pumped up 300m high and 70km away to Johannesburg. Unlike other water utilities, where water is treated and pumped mostly by gravity-feed to the customers, Rand Water relies on a network of pipelines, totalling 3600km in length for the transportation of the water to the consumers. This also requires special attention, as the pipelines are mostly underground. Second, Rand Water‟s electricity account is approximately R1.328 billion per annum. This equates to approximately R110.72 million per month, which alludes to the energy intensive nature of the large Rand Water pump sets (Rand Water Integrated Annual Report, 2012-13).

Third, Rand Water has developed an extensive network of pipelines (totalling 3600km) that traverse beneath many towns and cities in its area of supply. The images in Figures 1.3 and 1.4 demonstrate that these pipelines are hidden and many pipelines are under roads and buildings. The pipelines‟ locations can become complicated when a failure occurs under existing infrastructure. Pipeline leaks not only cause loss of water supply but can be dangerous to the population, as well as motorists who are in the vicinity of the leaks, as illustrated in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.3 shows that that there are not only water pipelines running under several roads and buildings, but there are other service pipes that cross each other, which do not necessarily belong to Rand Water.

4

Figure 1:3:

Water pipelines often cross over each other (researcher‟s own photograph)

Figure 1:4:

Pipeline leak seeping through the road (researcher‟s own photograph)

According to the American Water Works Association (AWWA) (AWWA, 2011), on average, the design lifespan of a typical steel pipeline system is 70 years, roughly the same lifespan of a human being, before corrosion creates the need for replacement (AWWA, 2011). It was discovered that many water utilities would prefer to set the replacement age of steel pipelines at 50 years, to be ahead of the

5

replacement and refurbishment trajectory (AWWA, 2011). Replacement can be costly, therefore having reliable, accurate data about the pipelines can inform Asset Management on the timing of these replacements. However, many of the pipelines at Rand Water have been in operation well beyond the 70 year time frame, and data to support the exact condition of the pipelines is not available (Rand Water, 201112).Recent failures of pipelines at Rand Water demonstrated that these ageing pipelines are vulnerable to failure. To predict which pipelines will fail, and when, is far more challenging. As cited by Baird (2011), one thing is certain, a failure in any pipeline system will have financial, environmental, and social impacts; not just for Rand Water but for the entire Gauteng Province and surrounding areas of supply (Brent & Haffejee, 2008).

Moreover, such failures can cause an interruption of water supply to certain areas, depending on the location of the pipeline; redundancy in the hydraulic system; and a compromise in the configurability of the hydraulic network and water storage capacity (reservoirs) in the affected areas. When a water pipe bursts in the basement or bathroom of a house there is not much that can be done about it, except to stop the leak and fix the pipe. When a long Rand Water pipe develops a slow leak underground, millions of litres of water can seep away over many years and can go unnoticed. Failing to act and correct the problem impacts the safety of society, and also has

environmental, structural damage and water loss

repercussions.

Rand Water has lost between 4% and 5% of all water pumped; this equates to 210 million litres of water being lost somewhere in the system each day (Rand Water Operations Report, 2014). A loss of 210 million litres of water is equivalent to 88 Olympic size swimming pools, or is the same amount that is supplied to the entire Vereeniging area. The concern, however, is that the exact location of these losses is not known due to the lack of available information, and/or due to the pipeline leaks not being accurately recorded.

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1.4

Global Water Supply Issues

Research has confirmed that the effective management of piped water systems and/or water infra-structure is a worldwide problem. For this reason the study garnered information from five cities on different countries to gain a more profound understanding of similar international problems concerning this scarce resource. The cities selected globally for comparison with Rand Water were, Accra, Ontario, London, New York and the Manila.

1.4.1

Ontario; Canada

All across Canada, pipeline leaks are a common occurrence. It is estimated that water loss across Canada can be as much as 35% to 45%. According to Davison (2011), Canadians are also the largest consumers of water. A report in 2009 stated that Ontario (a province in Canada) had lost over 25% of its drinking water due to pipeline leaks; enough to fill 131 000 swimming pools. However, Davison (2011) reported that rather than only reacting once a pipe break is known, the Canadian water authorities are methodically trying to ascertain exactly how healthy their ageing pipes and systems are, and the Canadian government is trying to find and fix leaks long before these develop into more significant problems.

1.4.2

London; England

The river Thames is the main source of water for London. According to reports commissioned by the Thames Water Authority there is also an increase in leaks in the water supply infrastructure. The Thames Water Authority has a major corrosion problem in its pipelines as these lines run through clay areas (London Assembly‟s Public Services Committee, 2003). The Thames Water Authority has consistently lost 28 000 litres of water for each kilometre of pipeline (South West Water, n.d.). The British government is of the opinion that it is unacceptable to have these leaks as customers are paying for lost water. The Thames Water Authority has thus set

7

performance targets for all UK utilities to continuously reduce leaks in their water distribution system.

This has forced utilities in the UK to reduce the number of water pipeline leaks by improving the management of the water supply systems (South West Water, n.d.).

1.4.3

New York; United States of America

The water network in New York covers an area of 5179.976km². Some 97% of water reaches New York homes by gravity-feed only (NYC Government, n.d.). A water pipeline system making use of gravity to maintain the flow o f water known as gravity feed (Oxford Dictionary, 2012). In New York, the Rondout-West Branch tunnel (aqueduct) is 137 km‟s long, 4.1 metres wide, and at some points it is more than 184 to 240 metres below ground; and is responsible for supplying half of New York City‟s water supply from reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains and is the longest continuous tunnel in the world. It has been losing an average of 20 million litres of water daily, some days increasing to 136.275 million litres (NYC Government, n.d.). The problem is different to South Africa‟s, as this water is supplied using aqueducts. A project is presently underway to upgrade these aqueducts to address the water loss through leakage by proposing a bypass. The work on the tunnel and internal repairs commenced in August 2009 and completion is planned for October 2018 at an approximate cost of $1.2 billion dollars.

1.4.4

Manila; Philippines

When Manila‟s water provision was analysed, the researcher found that this city‟s problem is also different to Rand Water‟s problem. Manila‟s challenge is that the city is running out of water due to the lack of resources and infrastructure. Most people in rural areas still do not have piped water. Therefore, the main problem in Manila may not be leaks at the current time, but rather that the city requires piped water for the entire rural community. The problem can be attributed to poor management of water

8

sources and a lack of adequate infrastructure. It is estimated that within the next ten years, the Manila metro will use up the existing water supplies due to a lack of infrastructure and population expansion (Paulo, Anonuevo & Cuevas-Miel, 2013).

1.4.5

Accra; Ghana

It is common practice for the residents of Accra, Ghana to not have water supply for up to four hours each day, due to the lack of infrastructure and the existence of many leaks in the system. At times, the water does not even reach Accra, the largest city and capital of Ghana, because it is depleted along the way.

The researcher‟s personal experience in Ghana is that there is a lack of maintenance of infrastructure and sub-standard equipment that results in leaks. Maintenance work and additional infrastructure relies heavily on donor aid and the World Bank. The problem is not necessarily the shortage of water, but the reliance on donor aid, and most importantly, poor management of infrastructure and lack of information and knowledge about the country‟s

water distribution system

(Myjoyonline.com, 2014).

In Accra, the maintenance team is heavily reliant on utilising all the resources at their disposal, even if these are sub-standard or limited, to create a “bandage” in an emergency situation. These quick fixes and emergency solutions are not sustainable. Furthermore, most of Accra‟s water-supply problems are also leakrelated due to the ageing infrastructure that is not being maintained (Ghana Water Company Ltd., 2014).

9

Figure 1:5:

Shortage of water due to leaks and lack of infrastructure in Ghana (Source: Myjoyonline.com, 2014)

1.5

Summary of Global Water Problem

While the developed countries like the United States of America, Canada, and England have piped water, the developing countries have little or no piped water to supply to their communities. South Africa is unique, as the country has developed cities with an uninterrupted water supply; while many rural areas have very little or no access to piped drinking water. It is the researcher‟s ontological assumption that the current trend in the increase of failures/leaks will eventually capitulate and there will be interruptions in water supply to the developed parts of South Africa too.

Water consumption in the rural areas of South Africa is generally restricted to surface water which is not purified; similar to the situation in Ghana. While this situation continues, there is a surge in pipeline failures and an increase in the population which places an escalating demand on the water supply. This requires Rand Water and other utilities within South Africa to increase their capacity, which consequently requires additional infrastructure. Rand Water may learn from the Canadian situation where a programme to reduce leaks commenced a decade ago

10

(US Air Force, 2013) and the UK, where specific targets are being enforced to reduce pipeline leaks.

1.6

Background to the Research Problem

The researcher was seconded to the Rand Water, Bulk Water Distribution site for four months from January 2013 to April 2013 to act as Maintenance Manager of the Bulk Water Distribution Division (BWD). BWD is responsible for distributing water to all Rand Water customers and is also responsible for the maintenance on the 3600km pipeline network.

On the first day on the job, the researcher‟s first experience was to react to a pipeline failure where the maintenance team was called to repair a burst pipe. During the next few days the researcher realised that pipeline leaks are a regular occurrence at Rand Water. It was also realised that the site was working reactively, waiting for failures and then repairing the leaks. Re-active operations cause the maintenance team to work under pressure on a daily basis to repair leaks before the reservoir levels become too low.

If the reservoir level drops too low, Rand Water runs the risk of not being able to supply water to certain high lying customer areas. The researcher learned from actual experience that the largest problem as Acting Maintenance Manager was repairing pipeline leaks, and these incidences increased each week. The maintenance Planning office was requested to supply the researcher with the following information in reports that could be analysed:



Where are most of the leaks reported?



What is the exact location of the failures?



How many failures occur on a monthly basis?



Which pipelines need the most attention?



Is there a plan to reduce leaks?

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

Is there any performance measurement in place for pipelines?

The reason these informative reports were required was to gain knowledge of the extent of the problem, and to turn the reactive situation into a proactive situation. The feedback received is presented as Appendix 1: Reports Received.

On receiving the required information it was found that the reports did not answer any of the queries regarding the six questions mentioned above. The researcher realised that pipeline failures are so common that the maintenance and operations teams have reverted to a habitual and repetitive reactive mode, where they wait for a failure to occur and then react with corrective actions.

The only information captured on the maintenance management system was the work orders and statements that work was done on a specific pipeline. The data received did not include any valuable information regarding objective decisions that could be made regarding pipeline failure and failed to answer the above questions after a leak was fixed.

1.7

Statement & Aim of the Research Problem

Research data from 132 (of 237) South African municipalities affirm that the current level of non-revenue water is estimated at 36.7%, of which 25.4% is considered to be losses through pipeline leakages (Hes, 2013). South Africa is the 30th driest country in the world, and water losses are estimated to cost the economy R7.2 billion each year (South Africa, n.d.). According to estimates in the South African National Treasury's 2012 Budget Review, South Africa's water demand will outstrip its supply by 2030 (National Treasury, 2012).

For Rand Water to start addressing the leakage problem, it requires information to identify where in the pipeline network the 4% to 5% of water is being lost. Consequently, Rand Water is experiencing difficulties in making objective decisions

12

regarding pipeline failures due to the lack of information on critical failures in the pipeline network. In terms of reducing failures in the system, it is imperative that Rand Water has vital information on pipelines that shows the extent of the difficulties that the maintenance and operations teams have to overcome to ensure a continuous long-term supply of water to the consumers.

This aim of this study was to assess technologies available for obtaining accurate pipeline information, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced in the case of failures and their exact location. The reporting of failures and the exact location of these failures need to be improved to obtain better information. The researcher‟s intention with this study was to yield a solution and application to optimise the use of technological systems, namely Maximo (a computerised maintenance management system) and GIS (Geographic Information System) at Rand Water. The significance of the research study lies in whether the findings and recommendations can be applied throughout the entire water sector for the betterment and transformation of the entire South African society.

The assumptions on which the research was based included the belief that an internal solution can be found to solve the current pipeline failures and that preventive measure can be taken to address the current problem. It was also accepted that improving pipeline leakages would contribute to the improvement of water supply to the community.

1.8

Research Questions

The research study sought to answer the following questions:



How can the availability of critical pipeline data enable Rand Water to better manage its pipeline infrastructure?



How can the use of existing internal systems be optimised to improve water pipeline failure recording?

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1.9

Primary Research Objective

By its very nature, it is difficult to determine exactly what is going on inside, or even outside, a pipeline as it is buried underground. The consequences of not knowing, however, can be catastrophic. The fact that the exact location of pipeline failures at Rand Water is unknown exacerbates the problem as it does not allow an analysis of or trending of this critical data set as demonstrated, in Figure 1.6 below.

Figure 1:6:

Primary objective: improved capturing of pipeline failure data

When a failure occurs in a Rand Water pipeline, the leak/failure is repaired and covered as quickly as possible. No records are kept concerning the actual leak location as field workers do not have devices to capture and report this vital information. Maintenance records provide the general area where the leak occurred but the actual leak or failure could be anywhere in a stretch of pipeline. Accurate pipeline condition/failure information is vital for the development of a cost-effective and efficient pipeline maintenance and replacement programme. It is imperative that pipeline failures are plotted and tracked.

The aim and outcome of this research study was to optimise the use of existing systems at Rand Water. To reach such an outcome the study assessed the technologies available internally for obtaining accurate pipeline information with

14

particular emphasis placed on the challenges faced in the case of pipeline failures and these exact locations. Experience has shown that reporting failures and the exact locations of these failures needs to be improved to obtain better information. From Figure 1.7 below, it is evident that typical leaks can be considerably large.

Figure 1:7:

Typical example of a pipe leak

1.9.1

Significance of Research Objectives

An improvement in capturing pipeline failures could impact on informed decisions for the below-mentioned strategic processes in Rand Water. The researcher accepts that the accurate capture of pipeline failure location, failure history, and visual information on clusters of failures will not only improve decision-making concerning maintenance of the problem areas of pipeline failures to plan for emergency work, but will also enable controls to be implemented and to develop preventive maintenance plans, and thus, make an enormous impact on reducing failures.

15

Safety compliance

Design

Water Balancing Corrosion management

225 Ml Nonrevenue water per day

Repairs and replacements of existing infrastructure

Pipeline Failure Information

Long term strategic plan

R200 M per yr

Figure 1:8:

Significance of research objectives

The following secondary objectives were believed to positively influence the outcomes of the research after a discussion with pertinent stakeholders was conducted:

Repairs and replacements of existing infrastructure: Prioritise projects according to risk assessment of pipeline networks. The information obtained from the maintenance and operations teams would be vital.

Water balancing: It is estimated that Rand Water loses approximately 4% to 5% of water supplied daily. Rand Water supplies an average of 4200 million litres of each day, and 5% of daily water loss equates to 210 million litres of these commodity being lost. The reduction of pipeline failures and prioritisation of pipeline projects would reduce water losses where water losses occur through pipeline leaks and/or pipeline degradation.

Pipeline design: The researcher was of the view that the outcomes of this research

16

would enhance and improve future pipeline designs that would result in, for example, more robust pipelines that are better suited to their environmental and terrain conditions.

Safety compliance: The researcher anticipated that the outcomes of this research will improve safety compliance, especially regarding conducting of repairs to burst or ruptured pipelines.

Corrosion management: The researcher would use information obtained from failure locations to identify which environmental conditions are most corrosive to specific pipelines. When this is known, preventive action can be taken for pipelines that are failing primarily due to corrosion.

Long-term strategic plan: Finally, the outcomes of the research would improve the organisation‟s long-term strategic plan for replacement and refurbishments of Rand Water pipeline networks.

1.10

Research Constraints

Limitations pertaining to the research included the following:

The research excluded the development of the maintenance strategy but emphasised the importance of having one.

The contribution of the research consisted of creating a platform to collect and capture pipeline failure information that could address the reactive maintenance strategy (primary objective) applied in terms of current pipeline failures .The research study included technology, innovation, creative thinking and decision-making, and considered the people impact of the outcome/s.

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1.11

Research Design & Methodology

The research used a qualitative research approach. Applied research is considered the most appropriate research approach for this research study, as it was designed to produce findings that can be applied to a specific, existing problem as expanded upon in this research (Babbie, 2005:12-15).

Furthermore, the very essence of applied research involves the application of existing knowledge to ensure that pipeline failure information is captured in a system. For instance, Rand Water must have key information on pipelines that shows the extent of the difficulties pertaining to the lack of accurate pipeline leak data. This research study took place in the actual work environment, as it involved determining „how things are, and why‟, and also sought to understand the reality in which people operate‟ (Babbie, 2005:12-15).

South Africa is a multi-cultural democracy, with people from various diverse backgrounds, cultures and education levels. This complex environment requires a sensitive approach to problem solving which should be people-centric. Participatory action research is important in research in which human relations are very important. According to Koshy (2005), action research is about developing the act of knowing through observation, analysing, listening, questioning and being involved in constructing one‟s own knowledge. This new information and experiential knowledge guided the researcher in the epistemological direction and triggered an appropriate action.

Action research is an enquiry that uses practical methods. According to Koshy (2005), action research is an enquiry undertaken with rigour and understanding to constantly refine practice so that the emerging improvements are evidence-based. Thus, action research is concerned with acquiring new information on enquiries conducted within a specific and often practical context. Kemmis and McTaggart (2000:595) agree that action research includes participatory research. These authors

18

believe that action research involves change management or planning a change, acting and observing, reflection on the change, and then acting and observing until continuous improvement is achieved (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2000:595).

Figure 1.9 demonstrates the cyclical nature of action research and affirms how change management is critical for success.

Plan a Change, Research and Data colection

Act & Implement Change

Act and Observe

What is the consequence of Change?

Figure 1:9:

Observe the process

Change Management (Adapted from Kemmis (2014)

It must be noted that the researcher‟s aim was to garner a better situational understanding of the Rand Water problem. Therefore, O‟Leary‟s model (2004:141) of the cycles of research was applied (as shown in Figure 1.10), where emphasis is placed on experiential learning by continual change to improve processes; and by better understanding previous cycles through observation, critical reflexivity, strategic planning, and implementation.

The research was not limited to O‟Leary‟s Cycles of Research methodology (2004) but also used Elliot‟s Research Model (1991) as cited by Koshy (2005); Lessem and

19

Schieffer (2010) where needed.

Figure 1:10:

Model of action research (Adapted from O‟Leary, 2004)

Elliot‟s Action Research Model (1991) as cited by Koshy (2005); Lessem and Schieffer, (2010) places the emphasis on fact finding by observation and other methods. The figure above shows Elliot‟s Action Research Model, where an idea is identified, then fact finding and analysis is performed to determine the action plan. The plan is implemented; this is then monitored and the consequences are understood. The idea is revised, improved and refined until the goal is attained (Elliot, 1991 as cited by Koshy, 2005; Lessem & Schieffer, 2010).

20

Figure 1:11:

Elliot‟s action research model (Adapted from Koshy, 2005)

1.12

Data Collection Methods

This research study made use of semi-structured interviews with Operations and Maintenance staff, as well as maintenance reports for the collection of data.

Semi-structured interviews with operational and maintenance staff directly involved with maintenance were conducted. Approximately one hour for each interview was allocated. While certain core questions pertaining to the problem were asked, staff shared anecdotal evidence from actual experiences during the interview.

Reports were generated from the Rand Water Maintenance Management system, known as Maximo, for analysis (See the discussion of results in Chapter 4). An investigation was conducted to gain a more in-depth understanding of the geographical information system (GIS).

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1.13

Data Analysis

The following aspects pertaining to data validity and reliability were applied to this research study:



Reports from Maximo (Computerised Maintenance Management system): Information was assessed for integrity by exploring the source of information.



Rand Water Reports: Information was used to prove or disprove the researcher‟s claims.



Monthly maintenance reports were completed by Rand Water‟s Operations Division.



The pipeline leak reports were analysed.



Reports from the geographical information system (GIS) were investigated and analysed.

1.14

Outline of Study

Chapter 1 – Scope of the research: This chapter introduced the background of the project and the statement of the research problem. The primary and secondary research objectives were presented and the research questions were formulated. The delimitations were also addressed in this chapter. This chapter provided a methodological focus to the research. Different research methods were discussed, and it was also stated how the research was conducted. The validity and reliability of the data obtained for the research were also addressed.

Chapter 2 – Literature review: The literature review discusses the development of a platform to collect and capture pipeline failure information that addresses the current reactive maintenance strategy (primary objective) applied in terms of pipeline failures. This provides an empirical underpinning of the research problem. The literature review provides a practical context of the crucial issues that could mitigate the research problem.

22

Chapter 3 - Research methodology: Chapter 3 intrinsically analyses the research design and the methodology used to conduct this research. The preferred type of research method employed is applied research, and participative action research was utilised. The various data collection methods are also discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 4 - Presentation of results: This chapter presents the results and contributions of the research. From a qualitative perspective, this chapter reflects the approach to data collection. Furthermore, data obtained from the data collection process are analysed, interpreted and explained.

Chapter 5 – Recommendations, limitations and conclusion: In this concluding chapter, strategic issues pertaining to the research are verified. Research findings are brought into context of the overall research. Recommendations are made, and final recommendations are formulated for future research. The research problem is mitigated through the implementation of a problem solving mechanism/tool to the benefit of Rand Water and its employees and water utilities in other developing countries.

1.15

Significance of the Research

The research intended to uncover weaknesses in the capturing of pipeline failure history at Rand Water. It sought to identify areas of improvements as well as best practice areas. It was envisioned that key role-players would be assisted in maintenance, operations, and strategic asset management to determine the condition of Rand Water‟s water supply pipelines and to determine how these difficulties may be mitigated.

The benefits derived from this research hope to improve the availability and reliability for Rand Water pipelines while simultaneously ensuring that water as a basic need is made available to all of Rand Water‟s customers. Improvement of availability and reliability holds the possibility of lowered water tariffs, where profits can be utilised to

23

increase existing infrastructure to meet future demands as well as the secondary objectives noted previously in this chapter.

Ensuring that agriculture and industries have access to water will impact positively on the community and may even create employment opportunities in these sectors. A continuous supply of water of the required quality will ensure that products dependent on water both in industries and agriculture will not be compromised and/or put at risk. Ultimately, the significance of this research culminates in the fact that communities will have greater access to clean water, and in turn this will have a positive impact on health and lifestyle (Lessem & Schieffer, 2010).

1.16

Conclusion

This chapter emphasised the challenges being faced on piped water distribution systems. Comparisons were drawn between Rand Water in South Africa and some foreign water utilities. It was emphasised that water is a basic human right and that it is vital to the survival of humanity. Therefore, it is extremely important to use knowledge and expertise to ensure that this vital resource is taken to the people in the area of supply, without wasting it through unintended water losses due to premature ageing of the water supply infrastructure.

For Rand Water, knowing the actual condition of the water supply pipeline network is paramount to ensure that this infrastructure is well maintained and utilised for its designed lifespan. In some cases, good maintenance management can extend the lifespan of the asset, thus deferring replacement costs. More importantly, this can ensure keeping the cost of the basic need for water supply to customers at a minimum, whilst constantly improving services to meet the increasing water demand for a continuously growing population.

Globally, water issues present different challenges to countries that are either developed or developing; these range from the cost of water to the supply of this

24

scarce resource to all citizens. For Rand Water, despite managing to meet world standards in terms of water quality, supply, and cost, the increase in pipeline failures and the lost revenue from losing 210 million litres of water per day, as well as population growth, and an increase in areas of supply has placed Rand Water at risk of not meeting future water supply demands.

The pipeline information platform that the researcher aimed to implement will transform Rand Water from an operational (re-active mode) performer to a strategic planning (pro-active) organisation. From this change in operational management, the researcher believes that Rand Water can move from waiting for a failure to occur to a situation where maintenance teams can predict with reasonable certainty when and where the next failure will occur; this is only possible by having a knowledge base for all Rand Water assets.

Chapter 2 presents the literature review that was conducted on the development of a platform to collect and capture critical pipeline failure information that may address the reactive maintenance strategy (primary objective) as applied in terms of current pipeline failures, thus providing an empirical underpinning to the research problem. The literature review will provide a practical context for the main issues that mitigate the research problem.

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CHAPTER 2:

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK & LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

In this chapter literature concerning current data collection and reporting related to water pipeline failure is reviewed. The collection and recording of correct pipeline failure data as it occurs is critical for making informed, logical decisions regarding pipeline maintenance and replacement strategies. This review also examines the decision to utilise support systems and the failure recording methodology used by water utilities such as Rand Water, Cape Water and Umgeni Water that are based locally and Nam Water in Namibia. This research also reveals the good practices that water utilities in New Zealand and Australia have developed to help them make strategic decisions regarding pipeline management approaches.

2.2

Background

Water utilities worldwide have continuously battled to balance, or have adequate funding for, their capital and operating expenditure to meet water supply demands. In Africa, this problem is even more serious, as not only do utilities in Africa not have adequate infrastructure to supply water to the consumers but they also struggle to conserve water as the shortage thereof is mainly due to leaking pipes (Molia, 2006).

Most of the water supply problems are a result of ageing pipeline distribution networks and increasing pipe failures, including the financial burden associated with these failures. In certain parts of the world, especially in Australia and New Zealand, the water utilities have responded to these difficulties by improving their asset management practices. To improve asset management practices, it requires informed decision-making. Informed decision-making is based on collecting accurate data and managing this information effectively (Watson, n.d).

26

In Australia and New Zealand, the water utilities improved asset management practices as they have implemented decision support systems for their short-term and long-term planning and decision-making on pipeline maintenance and replacement (Molia, 2006).

Experience has demonstrated that in Rand Water, pipeline failure data is very limited as formal asset management is still at an infancy stage in comparison with utilities in Australia and New Zealand. The assumption is that Rand Water should first create a foundation for sound decision-making. Data should be collected and managed to enable accurate historical information on the pipeline network which is easily and readily available to support decision-making. To effectively manage Rand Water pipeline assets, it is paramount to collect and record all data associated with pipeline failures.

Until recently, Rand Water did not seriously consider the type of data that should be collected, and more importantly, determine ways to collect and record the required data. If information on pipelines is not recorded from time of installation and over its entire life cycle, it will be difficult to employ any effective strategy regarding the management of the pipeline asset. Inaccurate data and or lack of information can result in wrong decisions being made regarding the maintenance and replacement management of pipelines and can lead to reactive practices that will eventually lead to the non-supply of water to customers.

Australian and New Zealand water utilities have created a comprehensive database of pipeline failures. This historical data has enabled them to analyse the pipeline failures history with a built model that can inform maintenance teams of which pipelines that are most likely fail (Molia, 2006; Mewett, 2009).

At Rand Water, management has implemented asset management; this will not be successful for assessing and determining pipeline failures if Rand Water does not have data that can be explored for analysis and asset management decision-making.

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2.2.1

Rand Water Background

The sources of Rand Water raw water supply are from the Vaal/Wilge Rivers, the upper Tugela River (from foothills of Drakensburg) and Katse Dam in Lesotho (pristine). The Vaal Dam is managed by the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation.

Figure 2:1:

From Source to Customer (Rand Water, 2014)

Rand Water has an abstraction license and purchases this raw water from the Department. This implies that Rand Water abstracts water from the Vaal Dam intake and transports it eight kilometres to the Control Works in a pipeline. From the Control Works it is transferred to an open canal that transports it for 22km to the Forebay at Zuikerbosch Pumping Station. It is then treated through the process of coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, carbonation and chlorination. Thereafter, the potable water is pumped 70km to four booster stations; i.e. Eikenhof, Palmiet, Zwartkopjes and Mapleton.

28

Another similar process as described above takes place at the Vereeniging Treatment and Pumping Station. In this case raw water is taken from Lethabo Intake in the Vaal River weir system. Water is transported to the station via pipelines and the purification process takes place, similar to the process described at Zuikerbosch. The water pumped from Vereeniging supplies Eikenhof, Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg. From the booster stations, potable water is distributed to Rand Water reservoirs and to municipality reservoirs through pipelines and another 13 tertiary pumping stations.

Rand Water has a supply capacity of a current average of 4 200Mℓ/d, and achieved a maximum of 4 900Mℓ/d peak day demand in January 2014. Rand Water has 59 reservoirs, and pipelines of 3600 km. The sizes of the pipes vary, from 0,4m to 3,5m internal diameter of pipes, although on average, a pipe‟s diameter is 2m. Rand Water supplies the following areas: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, part of Northwest Province and part of the Free State Province (this excludes the new area of supply in Mpumalanga Province which is still at take-over stage). Rand Water services a population of approximately 12 million indirect consumers, including mines and industries.

2.3

Reality of Research Project

Through active on-the-job experience during his tenure as Acting Maintenance Manager at Rand Water‟s Bulk Water Distribution sites, the researcher quickly identified that pipeline repair was a major concern. It was clear that maintenance teams at the Bulk Water distribution were spending a large amount of time repairing pipeline leaks, and the incidence of these leaks were increasing weekly. The maintenance system personnel could not present the following information in documents and reports for analysis:



Where are most of the leaks concentrated on the pipeline?



What is the exact location of the failures?

29



How many failures occur on a monthly basis?



Which pipelines need the most attention?



Is there a plan to reduce leaks?



Is there any performance measurement in place for pipelines?

The documentation was required to ascertain the extent of the problem and to turn the reactive situation into a proactive situation to ensure that water supply to Rand Water consumers is not compromised due to pipeline failures.

2.4

Rand Water: Reports Received

The researcher received the following reports on pipeline failures from various sections in Rand Water.

2.4.1

Bulk Water Distribution Operations Report

This report was presented in Microsoft Excel, and obtained from the Operations Department. The purpose of this report was to capture all leaks that were identified and repaired by the operations team.

2.4.2

Pipeline Leak Report

This report captured the following information: Table 2:1: Pipeline Code

BWD Pipeline Leak Report 001 Size of pipeline

Date Of Leak

Location

Nature of Leak

Source: Zwane (2014)

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Remarks

Date of Repairs

Duration Of Repairs

Hours of supply interrupted

This report also provided a graphical view of the leaks in the last six months and included photographs of the leaks.

2.4.3

Analysis

Table 2.1 presents the pertinent information that the operations manager deemed important to manage and record regarding pipeline leaks. The pipeline code is the pipeline code on this report and is the pipeline‟s identification number, which is clear and the data captured is consistent.

Size of pipeline: The diameter of the pipe is required. The data are correct, however, the description could be improved. Instead of size of pipeline, this section could be called Diameter of Pipe (measured in millimetres).

Date of Leak: This refers to the date the leak was reported and this information was captured and was consistent. However the time that the leak was reported was not captured.

Location: The information here is inconsistent as in some cases the location of the leak is not captured, whilst in other cases the location is not specific. On page 1 of the report, pipe code A8‟s location of the leak was described as Hout Kop Road in Vereeniging, whilst the leak on pipe code A12 provides the location in degrees, minutes and seconds, which is used for latitude and longitude, and is normally required for geographical location. According to Rosenberg (2015), it is important to be specific about the type of location description that is required. A location can be absolute (specific) in terms of coordinates of a map using longitude and latitude, or it can be relative, e.g. next door, nearby, a short drive from x, or it can be in relation to another location e.g. next to the garage (Rosenberg, 2015).

Nature of Leak, which should be a description of the leak: Data here were not described well enough nor where these descriptions clear. The nature of the leak, in

31

the researcher‟s opinion, should be the type of leak and it should be categorised, for example, burst pipe, pin hole, leak on weld-joint.

Remarks: Basically, this section is for any general comments that are useful for analysis.

Data on date of repairs, duration of repairs and hours of supply interrupted were not recorded.

The operations report is not freely available; it is a record that only an operations departmental manager will use and it is not shared with other role players who also require this information. There are 12 districts and the operations manager has 12 reports to read on a monthly basis as each report is done by one of the 12 district superintendents; the information captured is not standardised or consistent which makes the exercise time-consuming and confusing (Zwane, 2014; Rand Water, 2014).

Although this report was not comprehensively completed, the positive aspect from receiving this information is that leaks data were captured. Images of leaks in some cases were captured; however, the report did not specify the exact location of these leaks in the pipeline.

2.5

Maintenance Reports Obtained from Maximo Maintenance Management System

Maximo Maintenance Management System is a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) which is used to manage all maintenance activities at Rand Water. This software programme is specifically designed to maintain a database for Rand Water‟s asset maintenance Pipeline leaks report from Maximo (CMMS).

32

The purpose of this report is to record all repair work done on pipeline failures by the maintenance team. The records in this report contain a list of work completed by the maintenance workforce. This report generated from the CMMS (MAXIMO) captures the following information:

Table 2:2:

Rand Water potable water pipeline leaks (from Maximo Maintenance Management System)

Work Order A work order generated for each repair with a work order number.

Description

Location

Status

Supervisor

Priority

Work Type

A clear description of the leak is captured.

Here the location is normally the pipeline code/ Identification number.

The status could be stated from waiting for material to job complete

This is the section responsible for performing the repairs.

High or low priority, high starting at 1 to low at 3.

Is it a failure or inspection or planned work?

This report is purely for the maintenance force, where all work is logged and recorded. From assessing both operations reports and the CMMS report, it has been noted that not all failures that operations record are captured on a work order on the CMMS.

2.5.1.1

Report 2 (003): specific pipeline report on pipeline described as K8.

This report deals with a targeted pipeline where a series of repair work was done by the maintenance workforce. The records in this report are a list of the work done on the K8 pipeline. The reason the researcher chose the K8 pipeline is that the operations report‟s graphical representation affirms that the K8 pipeline has a very high failure rate. The researcher selected this report to verify whether maintenance records and the operations records data support each other.

2.6

Cape Water

According to the asset manager of Mr Barry Wood Cape Water for pipeline failure

33

management information, Cape Water does not have a huge network of pipelines and pipelines are repaired as failures occur (Wood, 2014).

2.7

Umgeni Water

According to a telephonic discussion with the Asset Manager from Umgeni Water, it became apparent that Umgeni Water is not managing pipeline failure using either GIS or the Maximo systems. Furthermore, Umgeni Water does not have information on pipeline failures.

2.8

CSIR

The CSIR does not have technology for detecting pipe failures at this stage and stated that it is an opportunity for further research (Matji, 2014).

2.9

Africa: Nam Water

2.9.1

Background to the Water Situation in Namibia

Namibia is one of the driest countries in the world, and the water shortage in Namibia has a negative influence on poverty and economic stability. Namibia has a very complicated problem when it comes to drinking water. The main reason for this is the low annual rainfall. Water evaporation from dams and open canals is a serious problem in Namibia due to the severe climate. The sustainability of Namibia as a country depends on the water supply needs of the people, animals, and agriculture and must be efficient, safe, and most importantly, secured through conservation as up to 90% of rain evaporates in Namibia (Du Toit, 1995).

Nam Water, like Rand Water, is a bulk water supplier whose customers are mines, municipalities and the ministry of agriculture. Nam Water has a 3300km pipeline that supplies water to two million people who are the indirect customers. The utility has

34

300km of concrete-lined canals, and water loss in the canals is high due to evaporation. Nam Water has 3600 rural water installations; many rural areas are as much as 100km from the source of water, therefore supplying water to these communities becomes expensive.

Nam Water is in a difficult situation as there is no law protecting the utility from competitors. Some municipalities supply their own water as Nam Water service delivery has been severely constrained due to drought and long pipelines that supply small communities. The 3300km of pipelines needs to be managed efficiently if Nam Water to be sustainable (Du Toit, 1995).

The researcher was given the opportunity to be part of the Rand Water team that visited Nam Water in Namibia, initiated by the GWOPA/UN-Habitat. The Water Operations Partnerships (WOPs) are a mechanism initiated by the UN-Habitat to provide a win-win solution for capacity development by associating water operators to share experiences and expertise in a not-for-profit peer support arrangement. In August 2014, an agreement was signed between Rand Water and GWOPA/UNHabitat for the partnership with Rand Water and the Nam Water Project duration until April 2015 (GWOPA/UN-Habitat, 2014).

The researcher‟s responsibility was to lead the assessment and discussion of the operations and maintenance teams. This opportunity was used to research the pipeline failure reporting and information systems available at Nam Water. Important personnel from the Nam Water operations and maintenance teams were consulted to identify the improvement opportunities from which both Rand Water and Nam Water could benefit. A SWOT analysis was done to gain a better understanding of Nam Water‟s difficulties in terms of Asset management which included pipelines as no information was available on how Nam water manages its pipeline infrastructure.

2.9.2

Nam Water SWOT analysis

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2.9.2.1

Main objective

Ensure that plant and equipment of Nam Water is available and reliable to continuously supply safe drinking water to the Namibian people.

Introduction

The definition of operations and maintenance refers to all the activities needed to implement a water supply and sanitation scheme, except for the construction of new facilities. The overall aim of operations and maintenance is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of water supply and sanitation facilities (Nam Water, n.d.).

The Nam Water management team identified operations and maintenance as critical divisions that require improvement to ensure that Nam Water continuously meets the water supply demand of Namibia. The Nam Water Operations and Maintenance team identified the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that impact Nam Water.

Strengths



Nam Water has a CMMS in SAP.



There is financial asset register in SAP.



SCADA working well.



Good financial management processes in place.



Project management in place.

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Weaknesses



There is no engineering asset register.



Lack of skills for CMMS.



Lack of equipment history.



AM strategy has not been implemented.



No plant status recording – cannot measure plant availability.



No preventive maintenance.



No critical spares in stock.



No maintenance reports generated from CMMS.



No work order feedback.



No RCAs done on failures/breakdowns.



Lack of training for operators on SOPs.



No handover procedures.



Water quality is at risk due to unreliable and out-dated chlorination system.



No pipeline failure management system in place.



Ageing infrastructure.



Increase in breakdowns.



No pipeline failure recording system in place.



No system in place to capture pipeline failures.

Opportunities



To have an accurate up-to-date list of assets that is aligned with the Financial Asset Register.



Have adequate personnel with the right skills to ensure that the plant is available and reliable to meet water supply demands 24 /7.



Continually apply best practice principles.



AM implemented effectively with support from a steering committee that has taken ownership of the process.



Make informed decisions through standard management practices. 37



Having highly skilled operations and maintenance personnel.



All changes to plant are controlled in formal process.



Water supply complies with water quality standards.



Know the true condition of pipelines.



Have an accurate pipeline failure recording system.

Threats



Disruption of water supply.



Loss of income.



Loss of customers.



Premature replacement of assets.



Negative impact on reputation.



Not complying with water quality standards can results in health hazards to the consumers.

2.10

New Zealand

Similar to the rest of the world, New Zealand is also experiencing similar problems in terms of water supply as its infrastructure deteriorates. Not only is ageing or deteriorating infrastructure a concern in New Zealand, but the increasing population also impacts hugely on expansion and renewal of pipeline infrastructure and this obviously requires funding .

The aforementioned water supply challenges require a more efficient method to make informed decisions on pipeline maintenance, renewal and replacement. Currently decisions are made on the age of pipeline, the number of breaks failures and previous maintenance decisions. It is also a concern that in some cases decisions are made on an ad hoc basis (Watson & Christian, n.d.)

New Zealand has concerns regarding data collection for their assets but they are at 38

a stage where they want to provide a statistical model that does not only provide a single value of the useful life of a pipeline but also a range of scenarios. The New Zealand water utility‟s aim is to develop a decision support system to assist managers (Watson & Christian, n.d.).

2.11

Australia

Like New Zealand‟s water utilities and the rest of the world, Australian water utilities are also concerned about ageing pipeline networks and the rising costs to repair, replace or replace them. With ageing comes unreliability due to increased failures. A system called the Pipeline Asset and Risk Management Software (PARMS) has been developed and implemented, which is used for the forecast of pipeline failure rates, costing and other risk management strategies that these utilities deem necessary to make intelligent decisions on pipelines that will enable long term asset management plans (Molia, 2006). Figure 2.2 shows that having accurate data is the first step to making logical, strategic decisions. Figure 2.2 also demonstrates that Australian utilities have a clear strategy for pipeline asset management.



The PARMS system was developed to make analysis easy and to have a tool for data mining. This system uses risk-based methodology often used in engineering where a balance is created between cost and probability of failure (Molia, 2006). The key areas that the PARMS system was developed in Australia and New Zealand to determine include:



Analysis of current and future risk levels of specific and or clusters of pipelines networks.



Assessing scenarios for risk reduction and cost efficiency of pipeline failure mitigation

options,

thus

allowing

for

prioritisation

between

pipeline

replacement or pipeline management work packages. 

Exploration of pipe asset and failure data.



Reporting capabilities that allow water utilities to quickly collect data for reports (Molia, 2006; Mewett, 2009).

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Figure 2:2:

Strategy to improve pipeline asset management (Molia, 2006)

2.12

Current Data Collection & Recording Practice in Water Utilities

This section deals with the existing systems that Rand Water uses for planning and managing its infrastructure. The researcher intended to identify the systems that are used at Umgeni Water, Cape Water and Nam Water in Namibia. The purpose of this information is to use existing systems to improve data capturing for pipeline failures.

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2.12.1

Geographic Information System (GIS) Map View of Pipeline

The primary business of Rand Water and other water utilities globally is to plan and manage the utilisation of its infrastructure to ensure water is supplied to their customers or the consumers (CSIR Geoportal, 2009; Meyers, n.d.). Utilities, like Ghana Water and Nam Water have relied on hard copy maps to manage their infrastructure and still do so, while other utilities like Rand Water utilise the Geographic Information System (GIS). Other utilities that use the GIS are City of Johannesburg, City of Cape Town, and most internationally-based utilities. Nam Water still utilises hard copy maps, and no information was available from Umgeni Water regarding their system of infrastructure management.

The GIS system is intended to capture, manage, analysis, and display Rand Water pipelines as geographically referenced information (CSIR Geoportal, 2009). GIS allows the reader to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualise the Rand Water pipeline distribution system according to methods that expose relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts (ESRI, 2014).

2.12.2

Current GIS Use: Rand Water

According to the Rand Water GIS section, this system is used to provide spatial information on Rand Water assets. The information is based on the location, proximity, distance and area of the Rand Water assets. This information is only used as a reference point for assets. In some cases it is also used on an ad hoc basis to store information (Coovadia, 2014). GIS uses technology to visualise, manage, analyse and produce geographical knowledge and spatial data. Spatial data refers to all types of data objects or elements that are present in a geographical space or horizon. It enables the global finding and locating of individuals or devices anywhere in the world. Spatial data is also known as geospatial data, spatial information or geographic information (Technopedia, 2015).

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Currently, although the GIS system in Rand Water is used for the purpose of plotting the pipeline routes and the network of Rand Water, it was found that the system is not being utilised to plot the pipeline failures. This type of visual information on pipeline failures may emphasise the problem areas regarding leaks. This system can be a powerful tool for Rand Water to identify not only where the network of pipelines are, but if failures are plotted on this network Rand Water will have visual footage of its infrastructure that displays vital points or features, e.g. failures with latitude and longitude points that pinpoint key areas of supply to consumers.

GIS is generally used for input, manipulation, management, analysis, queries, and visualisation. Of the six key features of GIS, Rand Water uses the system to present the map view of the water supply pipeline network. The research study intended to improve the use of the GIS by capturing critical pipeline data that will eventually be analysed for better decision-making. According to Hixon (2015), GIS is used for planning, engineering, operations, maintenance in utilities (ESRI, 2014).

2.12.3

Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS)

Computerised Maintenance Management System is software that keeps a register of all assets/infrastructure that require maintenance. This software keeps records, tracks assets, keeps a maintenance history of all work that is performed, and generates reports for analysis. The history will include failures, costs, and all other types of maintenance tasks performed or scheduled.

One such programme is Maximo, which is widely used internationally and by Rand Water. Maximo, like GIS, can be utilised not only for above-ground assets but for pipelines too. Not all pipeline records are available as only the maintenance team uses the software for recording work done on pipelines, and not all failures are recorded. This is due to the maintenance and operations teams not having access to the system in the field.

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During the research it was found that although Rand Water has two systems, the GIS and Maximo, these systems are not fully utilised. According to the reports and records supplied by the stakeholders pipeline failures are only recorded on an ad hoc basis. Most information on pipeline failures is only available from individuals who use Microsoft Word or Excel for this purpose, when in fact there is a central database that can be utilised. The reason given by Rand Water District Superintendents for this was that they do not have access to the GIS or Maximo system in the field.

However, research has shown that Maximo and GIS software is widely used internationally; and more so the GIS system can be integrated to work with many different CMMS systems worldwide. According to Geonexus Technologies, the Geoworx sync supports ESRI and GIS, as well as a number of CMMS and enterprise asset management software packages such as Oracle‟s WAM and IBM‟s Maximo. In Australia, Hunter Water uses GIS and Ventrix Ellipse for Asset Management, although they are currently integrating the two systems to work in a synchronised manner. This will allow all maintenance work to be viewed on GIS and all GIS statistics to be viewed in their asset management system (Geonexus, 2013).At Rand Water, Maximo and GIS are stand-alone systems.

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Table 2:3

Systems used in utilities SOFTWARE SYSTEMS USED

Cape Water

Nam Water

Umgeni Water

Rand Water

Australia

New Zealand

SAP

SAP

Maximo

Maximo

PARMS

DSS

GIS

Hard Copies/GIS

Unknown

GIS

GIS

GIS

2.12.4

Rand Water Summary

From the documents and reports provided by Rand Water it is evident that the water utility still does not have consistent information captured on one central database. This happens although Rand Water has two well-known systems, namely GIS and Maximo, which if used to their full potential could very well be an effective decision support system.

Although there is an operations report, this report is compiled with information from 12 districts, each with its own database (Excel spreadsheet). It can be accepted that Rand Water cannot make logical decisions with such information as the integrity and accuracy of the information could be questionable.

The researcher received a total of ten reports.



Two reports from Maximo (CMMS) were analysed, and these reports contained only maintenance information, mostly reporting on work done by the maintenance teams. The purpose of these reports was for the maintenance teams to record the number of hours they work on a pipeline failure where the start date, time and details of pipeline failure was captured. These two reports were scrutinised to determine whether the work captured was pipeline-leak related as pipeline failures are typically classified together with other work performed by maintenance team.

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

Two reports that were specifically used by the operations team were analysed. These reports only reported on the total number of pipeline failures. This data was captured on a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. This information is not freely available and it is compiled from 12 reports submitted by different District Superintends on a monthly basis.



Six reports received were from different districts in MS Word format that had similar data to the two operations reports was discussed earlier.

2.12.5

Maintenance Challenges

District Supervisors (DSs) and assistant District Supervisors (ADS) do not always report pipeline leaks to the Planning office. Work is done without a formal work order.

In some cases, orders are created after the job has been completed. This only happens because the welders (maintenance artisans) have to provide feedback on the work performed. Accuracy of information is compromised as dates and times of failures are estimated.

Maintenance artisans‟ reaction times to a failure are slow as they do not get the GPS coordinates with the location of the failure (remember these pipelines are hidden and Rand Water has 3600km of them). Time is often wasted, because in many cases the maintenance team does not find the failure quickly. The DS or the ADS do not have mobile devices to capture the leaks and send detailed information to the Planning office from the field which could be anywhere in the Rand water area of supply.

2.12.6

Operational Challenges

District Supervisors and Assistant District Supervisors do not have Rand Water mobile devices to report leaks accurately and or as required. Although most supervisors have their own mobile phones, they do not use them for work-related matters and these phones would also require specific software to capture the

45

information required.

Maintenance teams only work with work requests, so operational staff must contact the Maintenance Planning Office to open a work request before a maintenance artisan is called out.

Very little evidence of leaks and excavations is available as the District Superintendents only keep evidence on their personal computers.

2.13

Conclusion

The significance of the research study lies in whether the findings and recommendations can be applied throughout the entire water sector for the betterment and transformation of South African society.

The assumptions on which the research was based are that an internal solution can be found to improve pipeline failure data collection and reporting, and that preventive measures can be taken to address the current problem. It is also accepted that reducing pipe breakages and leakages will contribute to the improvement of water supply to the community.

From executing the literature review, the researcher emerged with a clear understanding of the underlying problem of having a lack of information of pipeline failure management due to multiple factors, ranging from lack of tools to capture data to not knowing what type of data must be collected. The researcher realised that a solution can be found with minimum cost impact by using Rand Water‟s internal systems, Maximo and GIS more effectively.

This facet of the research study is evaluated in Chapter 3, where the primary focus is on the intricacies of the research design and the methodology used to conduct this research. Applied research was the preferred type of research method employed, as

46

well as participative action research. The various data collection methods are also discussed in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER 3: 3.1

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Introduction

Chapter 3 primarily focuses on the intricacies of the research design and explains the methodology used to conduct this research. Participative action research was the preferred type of research method employed. The various data collection methods are also discussed in this chapter. The researcher concludes this chapter with a discussion about the validity and reliability of the research design and methodology, and also emphasises the ethical considerations of this research study.

3.2

Research Approach

Action research, as a qualitative approach, uses experiential knowledge, observations, group discussions, interviews with voluntary participants and reports to collect data. The aim is to use group interaction to analyse realities on the ground, where information is acquired from vital role players who are experiencing challenges in the current situation (Patton, 2005). The aim is to involve the operational and maintenance personnel in finding solutions to the problems that Rand Water is experiencing in terms of pipeline failure data collection.

This study used action research by having group discussions with maintenance and operations personnel to determine how the availability of critical pipeline data impacts the effective management of pipeline failures. This research study was based on actual pipeline failure reporting and recording practices of the participants of the study, including assessing the reports generated from data captured. The participants identified current problems/improvement opportunities within the available internal systems and suggested possible solutions.

The researcher selected two research assistants who volunteered their support for this research as they are directly involved with implementing solutions to improve

48

current to avoid lack of independence practices. The researcher also conducted unstructured interviews with key personnel in terms of the reports that were received. The solutions were tested and improved by gaining an enhanced situational understanding of the Rand Water challenges pertaining to pipeline failures.

3.3

Research Design: Action Research Group Techniques

Action research is not merely about testing theory; it is also pragmatic and is concerned with solving problems. The researcher used O‟Leary‟s model (2004:141) of the cycles of research, where emphasis is placed on experiential learning. Continuous improvements of processes are achieved from a better understanding of the problem which is achieved through observation, critical reflexivity, strategic planning, and implementation.

Lessem and Schieffer (2010) placed the emphasis on fact-finding by observation and other methods. Elliot‟s Action Research Model, where an idea is identified and then fact-finding and analysis is conducted, is used to determine the action plan. The action plan is then implemented; after implementation, this is then monitored to ensure implementation was successful. The idea is then revised and continuously improved (Elliot 1991 as cited by Koshy, 2005; Lessem and Schieffer, 2010).The researcher found that action research cannot follow a standard format of presenting solutions and recommendations. Instead, it was found that the action research cycle requires ample time to test solutions (McDonald, 2012).

3.4

Research Methodology: Action Research

According to MacDonald (2012), qualitative research integrates the practices of observing, documenting and analysing patterns. Qualitative research uses methods such as case study, observation, structured and unstructured interviews, and focus groups (MacDonald, 2012). Action research focuses on change and collaboration amongst participants and stakeholders who are directly involved with the problem.

49

The researcher found that involving stakeholders as part of the problem-solving team could have a positive response to gaining an enhanced understanding of the problem at hand and their active participation as a team would likely improve the practicality of the knowledge and ensuing solutions.

3.5

Researcher’s Role

The researcher, an employee of Rand Water and an internal service provider to the problem owner, had a dual role as researcher and implementer of the solution. The involvement of both the problem owner and the researcher created a sense of ownership of the recommended solutions and the implementation thereof (Sandaunet, 2009). The chance of the successful implementation of the solution and the utilisation thereof is high when there is active participation and involvement of all stakeholders, especially the end user.

3.6

Data Collection & Analysis

The collection and recording of correct pipeline failure data “as it happens” is critical for making informed intelligent decisions on pipeline maintenance and replacement strategies. During collection of the data the researcher found that the available data collected from the field on pipeline failures were inadequate to make decisions on pipeline repair and replacement strategies.

The following Monthly Pipeline Failure information from the Maximo maintenance management system and operations‟ monthly reports provided in Microsoft Excel and Word format were collected:

1. Reports from internal systems.

o Maintenance reports from the CMMS (Maximo) were generated based on all work done by the maintenance team on pipeline repairs.

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o Operations reports in Microsoft Word format were obtained from District Superintendents and included information about all pipeline failures, specifying location of leaks, date, time and type of leak as a minimum.

2. Informal and unstructured interviews with operational and maintenance personnel were conducted to gain a better understanding of the purpose of current reports generated by the operations department.

3. Observation was performed, with the purpose to find the gap between people‟s words and their actions. Observation assists the researcher to gain knowledge of the work teams‟ experiences so that there is a verification of what is actually being done, as in many cases individuals cannot adequately express what tasks are actually performed.

As referred to in Chapter 1, the researcher, as the Acting Maintenance Manager needed to know the following details concerning the status of Rand Water pipelines:



Where are most of the leaks reported?



What is the exact location of the pipeline failures?



How many pipeline failures occur on a monthly basis?



Which pipelines need the most attention?



Is there a plan to reduce leaks?



Is there any performance measurement in place for pipelines?

The aforementioned questions were asked by the researcher (as Acting Manager) who was the responsible person for ensuring that the answers to these questions would lead to better understanding of the pipeline failure problem.

Once the data were collected, assessment and analysis of the collected data were performed to determine common themes, trends and patterns. The core of the assessment was based on whether the data obtained answered some or all the

51

researcher‟s questions when he was in the role of Acting Maintenance Manager. This was done by deconstructing and analysing the data to understand the content of the data.

The researcher found that understanding the logistics of obtaining data from Rand Water (Bulk Water distribution) is a challenge as there are 12 districts, and no IT network links these various districts together. Reports were obtained from operations districts and consolidated at Bulk Water distribution.

However, the researcher found that he needed to conduct informal interviews with operations personal and thus identified main areas of difficulty that the operations personnel have in terms of data collection.

Reports received from the CMMS (Maximo) were only used by maintenance personnel who captured their labour hours; tools used, and transport costs. The researcher then attempted to assess whether the reports obtained from CMMS (Maximo) could answer some or all of the queries he had when acting as Maintenance Manager.

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Figure 3:1:

Rand Water districts & distances from Bulk Water Distribution

The difficulty the researcher had in terms of data collection was that no data were obtained from local utilities like Cape Water and Umgeni Water. Data obtained from Nam Water was based on a SWOT analysis as the Nam Water team felt that this would add more value as the water utility did not have reliable information concerning its pipeline status.

3.7

Validity & Reliability

The researcher found that the aim of action research is to make a meaningful change to the current practice as recommended by the findings of the research. It was critical that the researcher ensured that the data collected were accurate to understand the reality of the pipeline failures. Reliability and validity, coupled with accuracy of the data, assists in making good decisions on the improvement initiative

53

that was identified. The quality and credibility of the research depends on the validity and reliability of the data analysed (Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson & Spiers, 2002:1)

According to Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson and Spiers (2002:1), research is only as good as the investigator. These authors maintain that the following crucial verification strategies must be used by the researcher to ensure validity and reliability (Morse et al., 2002:1):

1. Methodical coherence to ensure equivalence between research methods and mechanisms of the method. 2. Samples must be appropriate, involving participants who are knowledgeable in the field and who are close to the problem. 3. Collecting and analysing data concurrently is vital to achieving validity and reliability is the interaction between data and the analysing thereof. 4. Thinking theoretically; data that are analysed creates new data in the form of improvements and new ideas.

These strategies were useful during the research study that involved participants who are decision-makers and field workers who have knowledge of the problem and are involved in problem solving so that the success of the implementation can be sustainable in the long-term. The researcher also collected data that was relevant and measurable. The use of theoretical thinking was applied to make certain that the outcomes of this research improved the current practices at Rand Water regarding pipeline failures.

3.8

Ethical Considerations

The true meaning of ethics varies, depending on who one talks with. Some people would equate ethics to feelings, or the law, or different beliefs .University of

54

Witwatersrand, (2010). According to the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Witwatersrand (2010), the researcher‟s paramount ethical responsibility is to those who participate in the research and the information obtained therefrom. It is the researcher‟s responsibility to protect the participants‟ physical, social and psychological welfare, and respect their privacy and dignity

The researcher ensured that the following ethical standards were applied:

1. A description of the research environment was provided to the participants. 2. Participation was voluntary and could be ended at the participant‟s request. 3. A guarantee that all respondents would remain confidential and anonymous. 4. The researcher‟s name and contact details were available to all participants. 5. Information about the research would be available; e.g. a summary of the results upon the completion of the study.

The respondents‟ right to privacy was also observed by ensuring that all the obtained responses in the interviews and group discussions were strictly confidential, unless permission was provided by the participant to be referenced. Integrity was maintained as part of the research study‟s ethical compliance.

3.9

Conclusion

It was indicated in this chapter that the main research method was qualitative in nature, and other details discussed included the rationale for selecting the action research method. This chapter also provided descriptions of the data collection process, the data analysis, validity and reliability, and the ethical respects.

Chapter 4 presents the results and contributions derived from the research. From a qualitative perspective, this chapter reflects the approach of the data collection.

55

Furthermore, data obtained from the data collection process is analysed, interpreted, and the relevance thereof is explained.

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CHAPTER 4: 4.1

RESEARCH RESULTS

Introduction

This chapter presents the results obtained from the water pipeline failure reporting and data collection.

In terms of reducing failures in the system, it is imperative that Rand Water has crucial information concerning the pipelines to demonstrate the extent of the difficulties that the Maintenance and Operations teams have to overcome to ensure a continuous supply of water to the consumers.

The aim of this study was to assess technologies available within Rand Water for obtaining accurate pipeline information, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced in the case of failures and their exact location. The reporting of failures and the exact location of these failures need to be improved to obtain better information. The researcher‟s intention with this research was to optimise the use of Rand Water‟s existing systems; namely the CMMS (Maximo) and the Geographical Information System (GIS).

4.2

Rand Water Findings

Reports, specifically from Operations and Maintenance were analysed; namely:



Bulk Water distribution Operations Report (001): This report was in the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This report is updated weekly by the operations department with information received from District Superintendents of the 12 various districts.



Rand Water Potable Water Leaks Report (002): This report was obtained from the Rand Water Computerised Maintenance Management System (Maximo).

57

Work done by the Maintenance workforce is reported on this platform. 

Pipeline Leak (K8) Report: This comprised of a list of failures on a specific pipeline, e.g. the K8 pipeline. This report was selected by the researcher to determine whether information was duplicated; for example the K8 failures are reported on both the operations report and the maintenance report.

It is important to note that although the operations and the maintenance team report to the Bulk Water Distribution division, these teams work on different systems. Another important factor to consider is that not all failures on pipelines are repaired by the maintenance team; the maintenance team are only called out to repair major leaks. The operations team manages the pipeline network and repairs only minor leaks. Regarding leaks, the operations leak reports provide information on all leaks, including leaks repaired by maintenance team.

4.3

Findings of the Research

4.3.1

Bulk Water Distribution Operations Report (001)

The report template includes critical aspects of pipeline information needed to ensure that the Operations Manager knows the status of his pipeline in terms of number of leaks, as well as having information such as water supply interruption due to failures.

Table 4:1: Pipeline Code

Bulk Water Distribution Pipeline Leak Report 001 Date of Leak

Location

Nature of Leak

Remarks

Date of Repairs

Duration of Repairs

Hours of supply interrupted

Table 4.1 clearly shows that an attempt has been made to collect and report on critical pipeline information by generating a standard template where the latest information is captured. The analysis of the report demonstrated that not all data

58

were captured. Although the date of failure is recorded, the time of pipeline failure and the time of repair are not recorded. This information is critical to determine exactly how long it took for the pipeline to get back into service.

The report requires the location on the pipeline where the failure occurred. The information on the location field varies from absolute location (specific with GPS coordinates) to a relative description (e.g. under a road, near a service station) (Rosenberg, 2015). Important information such as the duration of repair and the hours of interrupted supply are not recorded.

4.3.2

Rand Water Potable Water Leaks Report (002)

Table 4:2:

Portable Water Pipeline Leaks Report (from Maximo Maintenance Management System)

Work Order

Description

Location

Status

Supervisor

Priority

Work Type

A work order generated for each repair with a work order number.

A clear description of the leak is captured.

Here the location is normally the pipeline code/identification number.

The status could be stated from waiting for material to job complete

This is where the section that is responsible to do the repair.

High Or low priority, high starting at 1 to low at 3.

Is it a failure or inspection or planned work?

This report is purely for the Maintenance Manager, where a record of all work done by Maintenance is recorded. This report can be generated at any time and is also available on an ad hoc basis. This report is effective for managing the maintenance teams for pipeline maintenance work and reporting.

4.3.3

Pipeline Leak (K8) Report

The pipeline leak report is a lower level report. Rand Water Potable Water Leaks (002) where any specific pipeline or maintenance information is required, e.g. the K8

59

pipeline. Here all maintenance work on K8 can be viewed. This report can be also be generated on an ad hoc basis. This report is only used by the Maintenance Manager.

4.3.4

Maximo

The Maximo system is widely used for maintenance management of Rand Water for above-ground assets/infrastructure, and only recently has it been used it for pipeline maintenance management. For this purpose it is not used to its full potential. This system is integrated with the financial information system where all maintenancerelated costs are available.

4.3.5

GIS

This system is only used by GIS support staff and is not available to maintenance and operations; the reason for this is that the operations and maintenance departments have not been made aware of the capability and benefits of using this system for mapping failures other than having the pipeline network mapped. The GIS system has the complete Rand Water network mapped and has very good capabilities that are not being used. Plotting of pipeline failure coordinates is definitely available in the system but this is not being utilised. This system is only being used on an ad hoc basis where operations and maintenance can supply GIS support staff with information to capture on that system, but it is not being done in a formal structured manner.

The GIS also has pipeline specifications listed, the date of installation, the age of the pipeline, the diameter of the pipeline, and thickness of material of the pipes. This information is very useful to make decisions regarding pipeline management. This information is only available on request and is not freely available to maintenance and operations. The aforementioned decision support software system is used internationally.

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Below is a map showing Rand Water pipelines and other features such as the areas the pipeline routes traverse, and the different types of terrain the pipelines cover, e.g. wetlands, dolomite areas, rocky areas (Coovadia, 2014).

Figure 4:1:

GIS view of Rand Water pipelines (Coovadia, 2014)

4.4

Findings Regarding Other South African Utilities

The researcher attempted to obtain pipeline failure data information from both Umgeni Water and Cape Water, but this information was not available. The researcher then contacted the CSIR for information, but the CSIR could not assist with such information and supported the view that there is a need for research in this field in South Africa (Matji, 2014).

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4.5

Findings from Nam Water

Nam Water of Namibia was selected for this study and the researcher had the opportunity to conduct a workshop with the pertinent operations and maintenance teams to discuss the need for collecting and recording pipeline failure data. At this workshop it was established that there were no reports or information available regarding the recording and reporting of pipeline failure. It was agreed that a SWOT analysis with the teams should be performed to determine the need for better asset management and decision-making regarding pipelines, both for the short-term and long-term. It was agreed that the collection of data was critical to improve pipeline reliability and availability.

The SWOT analysis completed at Nam Water identified vast gaps in terms of data collection:



Increase in breakdowns.



No pipeline failure recording system in place.



No system in place to capture pipeline failures.



Ageing infrastructure.



No maintenance reports generated from CMMS.

Although Nam Water has a maintenance module on SAP, it is only used to create work orders to do repairs. No feedback is completed. In terms of mapping pipeline routes, hard copies of maps are used as well as pipeline layout drawings. Pipeline failure reports are done at site level where this information is only accessible to the relevant manager. Another factor is that Nam Water reliance on an individual‟s experience as determined during group discussions and SWOT analysis with Nam Water team members. The concern is that when a knowledgeable employee retires or leaves the organisation, information will leave with the retiree, thereby creating challenges regarding the longevity and sustainability of the operations.

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4.6

Findings from Australia & New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand utilities have fully implemented asset management. The following figure demonstrates how far New Zealand and Australia have come, and it was not a surprise that data collection and records are their first step to improving pipeline maintenance management. These countries are now at a stage where they have developed their own reliability modelling software to improve decision-making based on improved data collection and recording practices.

Figure 4:2:

Strategy to improve pipeline asset management in Australia & New Zealand (Molia, 2006)

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4.7

Summary of Findings

The findings from the Operations Report show that information is not sufficient to determine the exact state of the pipelines. Although this report is critical for making decisions concerning pipelines, it only serves as a record but no decisions have been made with information from these records to improve pipeline failure management and reduce pipeline leaks. The monthly release of this report makes it a reactive document.

The researcher is puzzled about why the operations team still use a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet to record failures when there are two world-class systems that could be utilised; one for plotting failures on the pipeline map on the GIS, and the other to provide maintenance repair history on the Maximo system. The ineffective use of these programmes prompted the researcher to have a discussion with the maintenance and operations teams, where he asked the following questions:



Why don‟t the operations and maintenance teams use the Maximo maintenance system to record and report on failures?



Why don‟t operations and maintenance teams use the GIS system? The GIS system provides visual information if utilised to its full potential.



The researcher had the Maintenance Systems Administrator lead these discussions with the operations and maintenance teams and identified challenges that influenced the presence of good data that was available for decision-making.

The following are the findings from this discussion:



Districts are far apart from Bulk Water Distribution and do not have IT networks to connect them.



Rand Water staff members do not have mobile devices in the field to capture and record pipeline failure data.

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

When a failure occurs at night, the pipeline is repaired and the failure is only reported the next day.



No real time information is available as District Superintendents only report failures on a weekly basis.



Only work done by the maintenance team is recorded on Maximo.



The maintenance team‟s reaction time to respond to and repair failures is long as they do not receive accurate GPS coordinates to locate the pipelines.

The figure below illustrates how far the districts are from Bulk water Distribution.

Figure 4:3:

12 Rand Water districts & distances from Bulk Water Distribution (Meintjies, 2014)

4.8

Conclusion

The information garnered from Rand Water, Nam Water and the CSIR demonstrated that there is a definite need to improve data collection methods on pipeline failures in Africa and South Africa. Rand Water cannot make long-term decisions regarding pipeline failure management due to the lack of information on critical failures in the

65

pipeline network.

Although Rand Water has software systems to enable data collection and reporting, these are not being used to enhance the current data collection and recording practices. This has created a very reactive environment where operations and maintenance teams have no proactive plans in place to reduce pipeline failures.

Operations and maintenance teams have identified challenges that must be overcome to improve data collection methods and these are discussed in Chapter 5. The next and final chapter discusses and verifies key issues pertaining to the research. Research findings are brought into the context of the overall research, and recommendations are made. The research problem is mitigated through the implementation of a problem-solving mechanism/tool to benefit Rand Water and its employees as well as water utilities in other developing countries.

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CHAPTER 5:

APPLICATION FRAMEWORK & CONCLUSION

5.1

Introduction

This Chapter shows that a solution was created, as failure data was collected and recorded timeously. This data is also clearer where specific pre-determined information that is needed is captured. The results of the literature review support the view that the maintenance and operations teams, although they are from one division and report to the same Executive Manager, appear to work in their own individual space. Current data collected serves only as record keeping tools for the different sections. The increase in pipeline failures and the continuous increase of water loss since 2007 require that Rand Water take urgent action to ensure that critical pipeline data is captured, recorded and analysed to improve decision-making on pipelines asset management.

The research conducted on Namibia‟s Nam Water and South Africa‟s Rand Water shows that utilities do not proactively manage pipelines assets. In Chapter 1 of this research study, the state of Ghana Water also supported the view that African utilities need to seriously improve data collection methods to ensure long-term strategic decision-making is in place or else the sustainability of these utilities, including Rand Water, will be in jeopardy. Not only is Rand Water losing water through leaks and is experiencing an increase in pipeline failures, more infrastructures is required to meet customer growth demands.

From the literature review the researcher, information from the operations and maintenance department attempted to answer the specific questions listed below:

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Table 5:1: Questions asked by Manager in relation to pipeline failure improvement process INFORMATION REQUESTED BY ACTING MAINTENANCE MANAGER

YES/NO

COMMENTS

Where are most of the leaks concentrated on the pipeline?

No

There was no information available and work was done on an emergency basis.

What is the exact location of the failures?

No

This visual information was not available although Rand Water has GIS.

How many failures occur on a monthly basis?

Partially Answered

Maintenance and Operations have different figures.

Is there a plan to reduce leaks?

No

No action plan was available.

Which pipelines need the most attention?

Partially Answered

Unknown as no data available. Pipelines are repaired on a reactive basis.

Are there any performance measurements in place for pipelines?

No

No performance measurements were in place for pipeline management.

PARTIALLY ANSWERED

Active Research at Rand Water demonstrated that very important questions regarding the true condition and status of the water pipelines could not be answered.

5.2

Cause & Effect Analysis

The researcher selected to perform a cause and effect analysis on the findings as he believed that most of the problems identified were related. The cause and effect analysis was developed by Professor Kaoru Isikawa in the 1960s. The Isikawa technique, also known as a fishbone analysis, is a technique used to find the root cause of a problem as well as to identify barriers in processes (Mind Tools, 19962015).

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Figure 5:1:

Cause & effect diagram (Mind Tools, 1996-2015)

The researcher identified four main contributors to Rand Water‟s dearth of critical pipeline data available on an easily assessable platform. These include technology, people, resources (tools, finance), and procedures and processes.

5.3

Technology: MAXIMO & GIS

It was established that Rand Water has been using three systems for capturing pipeline information namely, Maximo GIS and Microsoft Excel. Maximo is used for Maintenance, and GIS have pipeline routes and other features mapped and this is used for planning new infrastructure. Operations use Microsoft Excel for recording pipeline failures, but the information in these specific documents is unreliable. It was agreed with the participants that Rand Water uses both Maximo and GIS as these systems have very different features that complement each other. This is an initiative to create a standard reporting template on Maximo that can be used in Maximo and

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GIS, where information regarding pipeline failure information and maintenance work can be maintained, whilst GIS can be used to accurately capture the GPS coordinates of the pipeline failures. By optimal use of these two systems, Rand Water would have access to the pipeline failure record on Maximo and be able to have a visual view of that failure on GIS.

MAXIMO

GIS

Asset Management

Spatial: Seeing the Assets



Equipment identification





Maintenance history

Provides a geographical view of all pipelines/assets



Maintenance cost



Asset tracking



Current condition



Planning functions for new and existing pipelines



Maintenance key performance indicators



Manage and analyse networks



Work order management



Data management of pipeline network



Service request





Create assets

Plotting of pipeline failures on exact locations (visual)



Preventive maintenance



Property/land management



Reporting





Failure reporting and recording

View of different terrains for example wetland, dolomite areas, roads, bridges, building in pipeline routes etc.

Figure 5:2:

Maximo & GIS Features

The researcher, as stated in Chapter 1, used Elliot‟s Action Research Model (1991) as cited by Koshy (2005) and Lessem and Schieffer ( 2010), which places the emphasis on fact-finding by observation and other methods. This research model first identifies an idea, thereafter fact-finding and analysis is done to determine the action plan. The plan is then implemented and then monitored to determine the consequences. The idea is then revised and improved and refined until the desired outcome is attained (Elliot, 1991 as cited by Koshy, 2005; Lessem & Schieffer, 2010). The figure below illustrates the research model that was used.

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Figure 5:3:

Elliot‟s Action Research Model 1991 (as cited by Koshy, 2005; Lessem & Schieffer, 2010)

5.3.1

Identify Improvement Opportunity

There are many opportunities available to the maintenance and operations teams. Some of the currently applicable opportunities include the following:



Create a new template on Maximo that incorporates operations and maintenance data collection on Maximo.



Send GPS coordinates and images of the pipeline failures to be plotted and photographs attached with the work order number to capture on the GIS system.

5.3.2

Reconnaissance (Fact-Finding & Understanding)

The researcher enlisted the assistance of the Maximo maintenance systems analyst,

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a systems specialist, to create a standard reporting template on Maximo where information regarding pipeline failure could be recorded and information such as photographs and GPS XY coordinates could be sent to the GIS where the pipeline failure is plotted. With a photograph of the failure attached, and the maintenance work order number available, the operations and maintenance users have both the maintenance history of failure and a visual picture of the failure on GIS.

The following figure shows that the two systems used can be interfaced.

Figure 5:4:

Data from Maximo is emailed to GIS

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5.3.3

Action Plan: Maximo to Receive Email Alerts from Mobile Devices

5.3.3.1

Scope of Work



Maximo system must update the specified service request fields.



The image (jpeg file) must be attached to the service request.



The information will be “submitted” using the service request workflow process (already in place).



Manual updating of some additional information will be performed by the relevant GIS department. The Workflow will be triggered to create a work order from the service request (existing functionality) with the addition of the GPS coordinates. The attached image on the service request will also be linked as an attachment on the work order.



An e-mail will be sent to a pre-defined email address with all the predetermined information, including the newly created work order number. This should happen when the work order is created and only for work orders with GPS coordinates (Aarle, 2014).This image will be attached to the pipeline and the point of failure(GPS coordinates) will be plotted on GIS thus creating a visual of actual point of pipeline failure.

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Table 5:2:

Action Plan Start Date 14/10/2014: End Date 23/10/2014 (Aarle, 2014)

ACTIVITY

LABOUR HOURS

DONE BY

Status

Set up e-mail listener and initial testing with mail box provided.

10

Senior Systems Analyst

Complete

Configure workflow and develop custom code for transfer of Service request fields.

15

Senior Systems Analyst

Complete

End to End testing.

12

Senior Systems Analyst

Complete

Move from development server to production server

3

Senior Systems Analyst

Complete

5.3.4

Implementation of action plan

The results of the implementation were successful.

The following figure demonstrates the plant status report from Maximo. When a failure is reported by operations and/or maintenance, the failure is recorded and the following data is captured on the system:



Pipeline status: This field shows whether there is a failure or whether the pipeline is online.



Sub-code: The type of failure e.g., leak or burst pipe, etc.



Failure description: A brief description of the failure and type of repair done with GPS coordinates.



Work Order Number: Automatically generated.



Online/Offline: Whether or not the pipeline in operation.



Start Date/End date: When the failure occurred to completion of repair.



Capturer: Person who captured the information.



Status Change Date: When the pipeline was put back into service.

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

Running hours

The information of the plant status is useful to operation and maintenance divisions as it provides critical information concerning pipeline failures.

Vital information obtained from plant status data:



Number of failures over a specific period.



The classification of hours calculated from start date and end date.



The availability of the pipeline determined from running hours in terms of downtime (or breakdown hours).



Detailed failure record of each pipeline.

Figure 5:5:

Plant Status on Maximo (Aarle, 2014)

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Figure 5.6 shows the service request on Maximo. When a pipeline failure is reported by operations and/or maintenance, a service request is opened with failure information. The service request is then verified by maintenance planning about whether or not it is a valid request. If the request is valid, a work order is opened for maintenance and/or operations to perform the repair work.

Figure 5:6:

Service request on Maximo (Aarle, 2014)

Figure 5.7 below shows the work order for a formal request to maintenance and/ or operations to carry our repair work on the reported pipeline failure. The information on work order is as follows:



Asset identification.



Work order number.



Description of work to be done.

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

Description of who will perform work.



Date and time repair work is initiated.



GPS coordinates of pipeline failure, etc.

As soon as the work order is created, the work order number with the GPS coordinates is automatically emailed from Maximo to the GIS administrator for plotting leaks and attached photographs and to create a trail of reference. Work order creation is done manually.

Figure 5:7:

Work order tracking: send email to GIS with details of failure & GPS coordinates (Aarle, 2014)

The following Figure 5.8 shows the GIS map view of the Rand Water pipeline network indicating the different features; e.g. the pipeline route, as well as the area or suburb the pipeline goes through. It also depicts the type of terrain the pipeline

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traverses; e.g. wetlands.

Figure 5:8:

GIS view of Rand Water pipelines before failure is captured (Coovadia, 2014)

Figure 5.9 is a map view of a specific pipeline B6 (Identification Number). The researcher selected this specific pipeline to demonstrate that if the pipeline failure GPS coordinates were plotted, details such as the work order number and photograph of the pipeline attached could be useful to Rand Water.

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Figure 5:9:

View of B6 pipeline before failure is plotted on GIS (Coovadia, 2014)

Figure 5.10 shows the GIS map view of Rand Water pipeline network with the pipeline failure plotted. It demonstrates the length of the pipeline, from where it starts to the destination. It also provides a visual of the distance between each failure, and the areas or suburbs it traverses, etc.

The feature can also show the attached photographs of the failure and the work order number so that maintenance work can be viewed on Maximo. The plotting of the failures gives Rand Water management and operations and maintenance teams a visual of failures on the pipelines; this will possibly create urgency and commitment to fix the problem within the maintenance teams, as “seeing is believing”.

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Figure 5:10:

GIS view of failures plotted on map (Coovadia, 2014)

5.3.5

Monitoring & Explanation of Failures

Testing the initiatives listed below has been successful, and operations and maintenance are able to use the same systems for data collection and management.

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

The creation of a new template on Maximo that incorporates operations and maintenance data collection proved successful.



The second feature sends GPS coordinates and images of the pipeline failure to be plotted and photographs attached on GIS and the work order number of the failure as a reference to maintenance history. This was also tested and proved possible.



A service request can be opened anytime (during working or after hours) if Maximo receives an email alert. This triggers multiple actions by capturing pipeline status information, and creates a work order for maintenance to carry out repairs and sends an email alert to the GIS administrator to capture the latest pipeline failure spatial information.

5.4

Limitations

Like with any improvement implementation there are limitations. GIS and Maximo still work as standalone systems, although important pipeline failure data is now emailed to the GIS administrator to capture this information manually.

5.5

Revision of Improvement Opportunity

To gain a better understanding of the limitations, the researcher developed a model (Figure 5.11) for data collection using existing systems (Maximo & GIS) at Rand Water. The model assesses these phases; Data sources, Data Management and Data Driven Strategic Planning.

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Table 5:3: Data sources, management and strategic planning of pipeline failure DATA SOURCES

DATA MANAGEMENT

STRATEGIC PLANNING



Pipeline Failure Information:

Data Driven Decisions on:



Maintenance Data.





Operations Data.

Repairs and Replacements.



Strategic Asset Management Data.



Long Term Planning.



Water Loss Reduction.



Corrosion Management.



Design.



Safety Compliance.





Pipeline burst / leak / Failure reporting with mobile device from field. Email alerts sent to targeted recipients to take appropriate action. Information is emailed to Maximo with full details of failure.



Information captured on plant status.



Service request is opened in Maximo and converted to work order.



Failure location with GPS coordinates are emailed to GIS for plotting failure on map and attach work order number and photograph.

Figure 5:11:

Improvement model for data collection and decision making (adapted from

82

Molia, 2006)

The limitations of the improvement initiative were data source-related, where GIS and Maximo still work as standalone systems. However, important pipeline failure data is now emailed to the GIS administrator to capture this information manually.

5.6

Re-Revision of Improvement Opportunity

Integrated GIS and Maximo systems, where data from both Maximo and GIS can be viewed in one browser, provides the user with access to both systems. As such, a system has been generated where visual information like pipeline features, failure locations, and photographs can be viewed and Maximo maintenance information such as pipeline failure history, repair costs etc. can be viewed.

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5.6.1

Revised Action Plan

Integrate GIS and Maximo systems for easier excess to information.

Figure 5:12:

Synchronised GIS & Maximo systems for easy excess by users

5.6.2

Implementation of Revised Action Plan

Research has shown that the integration of a Computerised Maintenance Management System and GIS is becoming a common solution internationally as utilities not only want to make decisions based on maintenance history but want to

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know more facts about their infrastructure than the mere maintenance history. One such solution was developed by Geoworx (Heise, 2014) where a simple data synchronisation between GIS and Maximo was developed. Data is stored in the native database of each system and the failure of one system does not impact on the other. This technology has already been implemented in many North American utilities (Geonexus, 2013).

This action plan could not be implemented immediately as a formal motivation must be made that recommends the aforementioned improvement initiative to Rand Water management. If approved, a budgeting process must be followed. This can take up to 12 months for final approval.

5.7

No Field Devices to Capture & Record Failure Data

This finding refers to the data source established. District Superintendents are based around Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the North West and parts of the Free State provinces, and a failure can occur anywhere in the 3600km network of pipeline. Not all superintendents have access to the Internet and are not on the Rand Water network. When a pipeline failure occurs, it is fixed but not reported to the maintenance planning office. It was suggested to make available a mobile device to capture photographs of the failure, record details of the failure, determine GPS coordinates and send them via SMS or email to the planning office to capture the details on Maximo.

The researcher found that although there are many mobile solutions available, it is very costly to implement for Rand Water. An example would be the IBM Mobile solution, i.e. the Maximo Mobile Work Manager (Maximo, 2014), that has the capability to provide access to the Maximo asset and work management processes from a hand-held mobile device on the field. The researcher did not only want to provide a solution that can benefit utilities such as Rand water, but also ailing municipalities and other utilities in South Africa and Africa where a simple solution

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can be found that meets the following criteria: it must be easy to access and manage, available at a low cost, and it must be easily available.

5.8

Identification of Improvement Opportunity

Recommendations were made to develop an application for the mobile device where critical data can be captured and sent via email or SMS to the planning office to open a works order and capture failure information. The researcher took the opportunity to investigate this possibility as this would improve data collection in Rand Water. The District Superintendent would typically use his mobile device to capture details of pipeline failures in a standard format and send these to the planning office or to the Maximo system to open a service request.

5.8.1

Reconnaissance (Fact-finding & Understanding)

To achieve this goal, the researcher sought the assistance of three role players with the following knowledge, skills, and willingness to participate in this research:



The end user: A person who has knowledge of the needs of the field workers to make it easy for them to report failures to the planning office.



The in-house subject matter expert: Specifically, an expert with detailed knowledge of Maximo.



A programmer: An individual who has experience in developing software.

The researcher identified a maintenance systems administrator who is also the planner at Rand Water and has been working for Rand Water for 20 years. He commenced his career at Rand Water as an artisan who worked in the field and worked his way up to a position in the planning office. He has vast experience in the many different aspects of the Rand Water business, which includes water treatment process, operations and maintenance.

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The second specialist, identified by the researcher was the Maximo systems analyst. The systems analyst has been in the employ of Rand Water for 30 years, and is passionate about maintenance management. Like the maintenance systems administrator, he has worked in the different Rand Water departments and has good experience in the field and a solid understanding of the problems that field workers encounter in terms of data collection.

The researcher then enlisted the assistance of a programmer with software development skills. This skill could not be recruited in-house but the researcher was aware of an on-going project in Rand Water where an energy service company was contracted to investigate energy efficiency and load management projects on Rand Water sites. A discussion was held with this team and they agreed to assist Rand Water to develop the application where the ideas of the researcher were investigated at no cost (Jansen Van Rensburg, 2014-2015).

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5.8.2

Action Plan: Start date 01 November 2014 – Completion date: 01 March January 2015

Table 5:4: Action Plan for application (Franco Jansen Van Rensburg, 2014 -2015) ACTIVITY

LABOUR HOURS

DONE BY

Status

Supply Software Developer with Specification Data collection Information.

8

Researcher

Complete

Supply Programmer with Maximo Configuration Details

8

Systems Analyst

Complete

Supply Developer with End User Requirements

16

Maintenance Systems Administrator

Complete

Develop Software

20

Software Developer

Complete

Download software to Mobile device(Cell Phone)

8

Software Developer

Complete

Test prototype

45

Software Developer

Complete

End User to test Device on Field

40

Maintenance systems Administrator

Complete

Develop User guidelines

12

Software developer/MSA/SSA

Draft Complete

5.8.3

Implementation of Action Plan

The development and installation of software on mobile device was successfully carried out. The solution is currently still in a testing and fine-tuning phase. The plan to implement the solution in Rand Water will be formally done with a presentation to management, together with training on the use of the software for the end user.

5.8.3.1

Explanation of Software

The development of the software was aimed at collecting information with the use of 88

a mobile system that would send critical pipeline failure information to the Maximo system. The system then opens a service request, records the pipeline failure, and sends the absolute location coordinates of the failure to the GIS system. The goal is to make available a mobile device to the District Superintendents in the field so that all failures are reported and Rand Water has critical, comprehensive data available to make decisions regarding the management of the pipeline infrastructure.

Operations and maintenance personnel will now be able to collect, record, and manage critical pipeline failure data.

The mobile device main menu is the starting point in which a list of commands and options prompt the user to capture the pre-defined pipeline failure data.

The Main Menu of the mobile application has three key sections:



New Log



View Log



Manage

The user captures all relevant information on the pipeline failure as follows:



Step 1: Capture photograph of failure.



Step 2: The user can adjust the image resolution.

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Figure 5:13:



Main menu (Prinsloo, 2015)

Step 3: The next screen guides the user to a pre-defined list where specified information of the failure is captured.

Figure 5:14:

Pre-defined list (Prinsloo, 2015)

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

Step 4: The summary screen show the details of the failure.

The pipeline failure includes the following information: date, time, priority (whether classified as a 1, 2, or 3), the location of the GPS coordinates, the employee number of the person who reported the failure, site information, cost centre, pipeline identification number, and geographic location (e.g. under road) and description.

This information is then sent to targeted recipients and to the Maximo system where a service request is created, the status of the pipeline is recorded, and the work order is opened for maintenance and/or operations to take action (Prinsloo, 2015).

Figure 5:15:

Summary screen

The testing of the prototype software was successful. An operations manual was developed and must still be formalised. The researcher is satisfied that the design and develpoment of the sofware meets the requirements of the end user and Rand Water, and they can now cost effectively collect data on an easily accessible platform.

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5.8.3.2

Monitoring and Explanation of Any Failures

After monitoring the improvements, the following observations were noted:



The software is user friendly.



Easy to download to Android, which can be done in-house.



The software can be updated and improved to accommodate additional information if required.



Email alerts are sent to targeted recipients.



Can be extended to meter readings.

5.8.3.3

Limitations



Only works on Android devices.



No current SMS capability.

The two key limitations are addressed and apply to all devices. The researcher believes that attaining the SMS function will improve the efficiency of sending the failure information to targeted recipients for action. A review and amended action plan will be implemented to mitigate the limitations.

5.9

People, Procedures, Processes, and Resources

The researcher emphasised problems in other areas of the research in the fishbone analysis. These areas involved a lack of processes, procedures and resources (see Figure 5:1 Cause and Effect Diagram). In terms of the use of three different sources of data, it delineated the fact that operations and maintenance teams worked in isolation and did not work as one unit although they work on the same pipelines and both teams work for Rand Water. No analysis is done on this available data (Rand Water, 2014).

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5.10

Explanation of Results

The results have shown that there is a need for real-time critical pipeline failure data for proper strategic decision-making. The researcher‟s improvement model (see Figure 5:19) shows that data sources, data analysis and data management are three critical areas that are interdependent, but still need to be taken into consideration for good asset management. Without pipeline failure data collection and the analysis thereof, good strategic decisions to ensure that Rand Water pipelines are well maintained and failures and water loss are reduced cannot be made.

The research has shown that there are flaws in terms of data collection. The findings emphasised that a new template on Maximo that incorporates operations and maintenance data collection must be created to ensure improvement of data collection.

The Maximo system was initially configured to serve only the maintenance department. Adjustments had to be made to the system to cater for, and report on, operational data collection needs. In addition to the standard maintenance management features, although the system had the email alert feature, it was not activated. This was then done, and plant status information was then developed in the system to capture the actual operational status of the pipeline. This comprised of key data such as date and time of failure, GPS actual or absolute location of failure, type of failure, and date and time the pipeline was put back into operation. Another feature that was improved was being able to open service requests on the Maximo system remotely by using the email alert feature. This optimised the use of the Maximo system, which is now user friendly to both operations and maintenance departments. The key improvement is that now all pipeline failure data can be recorded on this system.

The second aspect to this initiative is to send GPS coordinates and images of the pipeline failure to be plotted and photographs attached with work order numbers to

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the the GIS section of capturing data.

The GIS system was not used by maintenance or operations adequately. The Rand Water asset planning used the GIS system for planning purposes, in terms of pipeline routes management and adding new pipelines. Evidence provided in this research showed that this GIS system can be optimised and put to better use. The email alert feature in the Maximo system can not only receive emails to remotely create a service request, but the system is now configured to also send emails to any targeted recipient.

Maximo is now able to send an email with selected pipeline failure details, including GPS location coordinates to the GIS section regarding the affected pipeline. The results demonstrated that the GIS system is a great tool for visual management of the pipeline infrastructure. The operations and maintenance departments will find great value in terms of analysing this data by cross-referencing with the GIS system, where failures can now be visualised.

A recommendation was made to develop an application for mobile devices where critical data can be captured and sent via email or SMS to the planning office to open a work order and capture the failure information.

The researcher took the opportunity to investigate this possibility. A mobile application will improve data collection in Rand Water, as the District Superintendent can use his mobile device to capture details of pipeline failures in a standard format and send them to the planning office or to the Maximo system to open a service request.

Rand Water field workers did not previously have a mobile device to remotely send failure information to the planning office to capture on Maximo, hence operations personnel did not use the system. The researcher developed an easy-to-use application where critical pipeline details can now be collected and sent to targeted

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recipients and Maximo to open a service request and capture details of failure on plant status. The application can be downloaded on any Android device. Rand Water field workers now have access to an easy-to-use platform that prompts them to capture specific data and send it remotely to the Maximo system based in the planning office. This can be done from anywhere along the 3600km Rand Water pipeline network.

5.11



Key Limitations

Maximo and GIS are still stand-alone systems, although the new improvements allow both systems to have the critical data required. A recommendation has been made to integrate the Maximo and GIS systems at Rand Water so that information can flow between the two systems.



The application to collect pipeline failure data in the field can only be downloaded on Android devices. The researcher believes that this limitation will not be a huge concern but further improvements can be made to this software so that it can be downloaded to any smart phone or mobile device.



The figure 5.16 below, i.e. the improvement model, amplifies that to make good strategic decisions such as long term pipeline repair and replacement plans, water loss reduction plan, design new pipelines for reliability and corrosion management, Rand Water needs to improve their data collection methods. Attempts have been made in this research to improve data collection methods by making available an easy-to-use platform, as well as optimising the use of current systems in terms of data sources.

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Figure 5:16

Improvement model for data collection

The results of the research have shown that the collection and recording of correct, real-time pipeline failure data is critical for making informed, intelligent decisions regarding pipeline maintenance and replacement strategies. The researcher identified data sources as a vital factor that influences the ability of Rand Water to make informed decisions regarding the maintenance of pipelines as well as longterm strategic plans to ensure that Rand Water continues to meet water supply demands.

One unexpected outcome of this research is that the researcher found that no thought had been put into formally answering the following questions:



What is critical data?



Why must it be collected?



What database must be used?

The researcher realised after concluding the research that over the years Rand Water has spent a great deal of time analysing the wrong data or did not trust the

96

data collected, or the data collected was incomplete, or the data that was available did not do what it supposed to do, i.e. help Rand Water make decisions that would reduce pipeline failures. Hence, it was previously impossible to consider methods that would reduce water loss and improve long-term decision-making for the sustainably of the organisation.

The water loss trend (Rand Water, 2007-2014) (see Appendix 8) shows that Rand Water water losses through non-revenue water have increased from 0.5 to approximately 4,5%; i.e. a current daily loss of approximately 221 million litres of water somewhere in the pipeline system. Rand Water does not know exactly where these losses are, but the causes are ageing infrastructure and increased pipeline failures. The lack of critical pipeline data hampers Rand Water‟s ability to make key strategic decisions.

The researcher obtained data from three sources at Rand Water, and the assessment of the literature that was reviewed showed that critical data was either not collected, or was collected in “pockets” in different systems that were not easily assessable to the users. One of the main problems encountered was that the data sources at Rand Water were not utilised effectively and critical field data was not collected.

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Figure 5.17 explains the solutions and recommendations:

Figure 5:17 Data sources improvement

The researcher identified that the main cause of lack of critical data and the accessibility of this these data is the actual sources of data.

5.12

Solution 1: Mobile Application: Testing Complete

This entailed the implementation of the mobile device with a software application for the collection of critical data in the field. A key factor is that a specified set of information is collected where the user is prompted by the drop-down lists on the software application. The collected data are now sent remotely to the planning office, which sends it onto the Maximo system to open a service request and also to notify the responsible people to take immediate action to correct the problem.

5.13

Solution 2: Activate Email Alert: Implemented New System

The Maximo system was configured to receive emails from the mobile field device and remotely open a service request, capture failure data on the status of the

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pipeline, and open a work order for maintenance and operations teams to repair the failure.

5.14

Solution 3: Integrate Maximo and GIS systems: Recommended as Medium-Term to Long-Term Action Plan

Integrate Maximo and GIS systems so that users can view both GIS and Maximo information with one browser.

The researcher believes that the results can be applied to other utilities in South Africa and Africa. The mobile solution is a very cost effective solution and can be used anywhere in the world as it only requires the application to be downloaded. Although developed at Rand Water, it can be adapted to suit different types of data needed, and it can further be improved to do meter readings, etc. The researcher is of the opinion that this solution is reachable to anyone with an Android device.

Finally, when the researcher acted as the Maintenance Manager at Bulk Water Distribution, he learned from actual experience that the most pressing problem was repairing pipeline leaks, and the number increased weekly. The Maintenance planning personnel were requested to supply the researcher with various reports for analysis to identify improvement opportunities and make informed decisions based on evidence to turn the reactive working situation into a proactive situation.



Where are most of the leaks reported? This question can be answered as an easy-to-access platform that has been created to collect this data.



What is the exact location of the failures? The capturing of GPS coordinates will now provide a clear indication of the areas where Rand Water needs to focus in terms of pipeline failures.



How many failures occur on a monthly basis? It is now possible to know this fact as all failures are captured on one database.



Which pipelines need the most attention? The location and number of

99

failures can now be viewed on GIS and the maintenance history is available on Maximo. 

Is there a plan to reduce leaks? This can be developed, however data needs to be collected over a period of time to make better decisions.



Is there any performance measurement in place for pipelines? No performance measures are in place yet but the implementation of the plant status makes it possible to measure where the date, time of failure, date and time taken to repair the failure, as well as the length of time that the pipeline was not in operation, and the number of failures; it makes it possible to measure the performance in place for pipelines.

The limitation here is that the new implementation must be in place for at least 12 months before Rand Water can see the true value of the improvement this research has produced. A test report on key performance measurement (KPI) was generated from the system to prove that Rand Water can now measure various KPIs (see figure below) after having configured the Maximo system and is now able to record the correct pipeline failure data.

Figure 5:18:

Pipeline failure information captured

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Figure 5:19:

Primary objective of the research

By answering the aforementioned questions, the researcher is confident that the primary objective of the research study has been achieved.

A platform is now in place to ensure that the secondary objectives of this study are achievable, and the only limitation here is that to make decisions on design, corrosion management, long-term strategic plans, and replacements require data to be collected over a period of time. This time period is typically anywhere from 12 months to at least three years of pipeline failure history to improve the quality of decisions made. Current Strategy of replacing entire pipelines due to the age or failure rate of the pipeline will not be the only criteria that decisions will be made on, but the new accurate data collected will inform managers which pipeline to replace. Another valuable benefit is that, Rand water will not have to replace entire pipelines e.g.: instead of replacing 50km pipeline, only the section that is problematic will be replaced which could be as little as only 5km section being replaced, but only sections at a time as the capturing of the GPS points will show exactly where the problem areas are thus reducing capital expenditure without compromising the operational capability of Rand Water.

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5.15

Conclusion

The researcher is confident that the goals of the research have been achieved as an internal solution to reduce the current pipeline failures has been developed. Further, preventive measures can now be taken to address the current problem as mechanisms are now in place to collect the critical data needed to make these decisions. The researcher is confident that Rand Water has the right database, is able to collect the right data, and knows how to improve current data collection methods.

The solutions recommended not only help the operations and maintenance teams to improve their practices, but Rand Water will now see a true picture of the condition of the pipelines, and most importantly, decisions makers in Rand Water will now have information they can trust to make strategic decisions. It is also accepted that improving pipeline leakages will contribute to the improvement of water supply to the community.

The significance of the research study is that the findings and recommendations can be applied throughout the entire water sector for the betterment and transformation of the entire South African society, and more so for the African continent. The researcher is confident that the study proved that problem solving requires the involvement of all stakeholders. The researcher found great value in conducting action research where he worked with personnel in the field and involved them in helping to find solutions to the problem. The researcher found that today too many managers make decisions without knowing what it is like on the ground, where the real work takes place, and where the real knowledge and experience resides.

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