Consultancy
Verbeteren AansluitketenThe Dutch drinking water sector faces major challenges in the connection chain. Demand for new connections is rising rapidly due to housing construction, while there is a shortage of technical staff to meet that demand. Collaboration with contractors and other utility companies is also complex, as the energy transition requires significant capacity. This calls for a smarter, faster and more efficient connection process. Together with BPM Consult, Vitens is working on these improvements.
Vitens supplies drinking water to more than 5.6 million customers in Flevoland, Friesland, Gelderland, Overijssel and Utrecht. The company is committed every day to providing clean and sufficient drinking water, because this is essential to life. Vitens works with partners on a sustainable and future-proof water system, so that future generations can continue to rely on an adequate supply of clean drinking water.
The challenge
The drinking water company aims to speed up the connection process, improve collaboration with contractors and reduce the administrative workload for employees. Vitens is doing this by further automating the work preparation and administrative processing within the connection chain.
In recent years, the company has already laid a solid foundation for further improvement. The transition to SAP S/4HANA has streamlined and improved work processes. In addition, Vitens has joined the national ‘Mijn Aansluitingen’ portal, where network operators and contractors work together on a faster and simpler process.
The approach
For further automation, Vitens chose a Scrum approach: improving step by step with a clear focus on value for customers, employees and supply chain partners. From BPM Consult, Pieter Wolswinkel fulfilled the role of Product Owner. He set the direction, introduced structure and ensured that attention was focused on what truly makes a difference.
“Together with the development team, key users and other departments, I assessed which activities were best suited to automation,” says Wolswinkel. This involved identifying where the greatest improvements could be achieved within the connection process. “Consider time savings for employees, fewer errors and less rework, as well as a positive impact for customers and contractors.”
The overall automation challenge was broken down into manageable parts. For each element, an estimate was made of the benefits in relation to the investment. This formed the basis for prioritisation and the creation of a roadmap. The team then worked with key users to elaborate on each component in detail and refine priorities where necessary.
“Efficiency has not only increased, employee satisfaction has also risen.”
In addition to the larger improvements, there were also smaller enhancements that immediately increased ease of use. Wolswinkel explains, “By bringing structure to the many user requests, the focus remained on initiatives that delivered the most value. This meant continuously balancing the resolution of short-term irritations and user requests with structural solutions for the longer term.”
Key principles included gaining insight into data and solving problems at their source. “By improving insight into process data, Vitens gained greater control over the process. And by addressing issues at the source, rather than opting for temporary fixes, a sustainable foundation was established for further improvement,” Wolswinkel reflects with satisfaction.
Lessons from practice
“A key lesson from this project was that automation only succeeds if you first understand the process in detail,” says Wolswinkel. According to him, this requires close collaboration with the employees who carry out the process. “Discussions with end users showed that many bottlenecks were easier to resolve than expected. At the same time, it became clear that a lack of process knowledge sometimes led to impractical solutions.”
The collaboration between developers and end users therefore proved to be crucial. “By understanding each other well and working together on solutions that truly work in practice, we were able to save a great deal of time and frustration.”
“The 80/20 rule also proved its value. By focusing first on the most common scenarios and only later on the exceptions, a lot of time was saved. This allowed Vitens to make rapid progress and better determine which exceptions were worth further automation.”
De results
“The project has delivered clear results,” Wolswinkel says with pride. “Orders for new water connections are now sent to contractors more quickly. Work preparation and administrative processing take less time, and the risk of errors has decreased, resulting in less rework.”
“Furthermore, efficiency has not only improved, employee satisfaction has also increased,” the BPM Consult adviser adds in conclusion. “Less repetitive work and fewer frustrations have led to greater job satisfaction. Moreover, valuable time has been freed up for technical staff, a scarce resource in the current labour market. That time is now being used to further improve the quality of the connection process.”
