Veolia Water North America (Veolia Water) has entered into an exclusive Reliability-Centered Maintenance support service agreement with Anthony M. (Mac) Smith, doing business as AMS Associates.
By teaming with Smith, Veolia Water gains access to his industry-leading experience applying the RCM process successfully to more than 75 projects over the past 30 years. This exclusive partnership will allow Veolia to expand its use of RCM methodology throughout its operations, and enables the company to implement additional asset management strategies for its clients to reinforce the delivery of safe, cost-effective water treatment services.
Smith is an internationally recognized RCM expert and the author and co-author, respectively, of Reliability-Centered Maintenance and RCM: Gateway to World-Class Maintenance, which have become standards for defining and implementing the Classical RCM process.
“Looking at companies in the water and wastewater treatment industry, it is clear that Veolia Water places great importance on maintenance, which is why I’m pleased to enter into this agreement,” said Smith. “The RCM methodology is the foundation of Veolia Water’s maintenance philosophy, and it has proven to be a highly effective risk-mitigation tool where it has been applied. I look forward to working closely with the company to enhance its RCM capabilities.”
Throughout its operations, Veolia Water has a primary responsibility for maintaining client assets, and the company’s business strategy includes providing world-class maintenance programs to ensure asset reliability on a life cycle cost basis. Properly applying the RCM methodology is a key element in this program. The partnership with Smith will help ensure the success of Veolia Water’s asset management programs.
“We are very pleased to partner with someone of Mac Smith’s stature and expertise in all facets of RCM,” said Frank Benichou, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Veolia Water North America. “We have had great success over the years in applying RCM at our projects, and we view our partnership with Mac as recognition of excellence in applying RCM methodologies. We look forward to working with him in his important role as we combine respective experiences and best practices to ensure world-class maintenance programs for our clients.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Smith will work with Veolia on a priority basis to provide RCM services to its client base while continuing to accept, via AMS Associates, selected projects that are not a part of Veolia’s business plan.
Based in Chicago, Veolia Water North America is the leading provider of comprehensive water and wastewater partnership services to municipal and industrial customers, providing services to more than 14 million people in approximately 650 North American communities. The company is part of the Veolia Environnement companies in North America, with 30,000 North American employees providing sustainable environmental solutions in water management, waste services, energy management, and passenger transportation.
Veolia Water, the water division of Veolia Environnement, is the world leader in water and wastewater services and technological solutions. It is No. 1 in the world for publishing research works on water and has a portfolio of more than 600 patents. Its parent company, Veolia Environnement, is the worldwide reference in environmental services. With more than 312,000 employees, Veolia Environnement recorded annual revenues of $50 billion in 2008. Veolia Environnement is in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) and Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index.