Case study – South West Water savings per lid installed
FT Pipeline Systems has been supplying replacement stop tap lids to South West Water for over 20 years.
As part of the apprenticeship scheme offered by South West Water, they currently have two employees who are carrying out a project to determine how much money the water authority saves every time it installs an FT locking lid rather than completely replace the existing frame. Their findings will be presented to the management team in February 2017.
We would like to thank South West Water for allowing us to share these findings and will upload the full results to this page once they are made available to us.
South West Water – Findings
The primary aim of the research carried out by Sam Haddy and Matt Pascoe was to save their company money. As part of this, a secondary aim was to increase the inspectors’ awareness of the simplicity of the replacement locking lid and thereby increase their use.
The contractor employed by South West Water bills the water company every time a defective cover needs to be replaced. A few simple calculations showed that replacing defective covers themselves, with lids supplied by FT Pipeline Systems, is approximately £200 cheaper per unit. They then went on to work out the cost savings for just one of their areas over a 6 month period – over £2500. Therefore, in a 12-month period, across all 6 areas, savings of approximately £30,000 can be achieved.
In addition to cost savings, Sam and Matt made a number of interesting observations:
- Using the key which is supplied to all inspectors, they found that it takes just minutes to replace a broken stop tap box lid.
- It was also noted that the FT lids supplied are made from a more durable iron than those being replaced.
- Being able to carry out the repairs in just one visit means a reduction in the number of callouts.
- When faced with a dangerous hole in the ground, temporary solutions are no longer necessary (e.g. filling the open chamber with sand or soil from a nearby verge).
