how Formula 1 can drive the water industry forward

Parallel objectives: Improving Today & Designing Tomorrow

In each season’s Formula 1 car, roughly 93% of components are changed, either due to technical advances, new regulations, or design improvements through analysing the previous season. Much like the water industry’s regulatory cycles, F1 teams cannot devote all their resources to solely focus on next season. They need to continuously understand and improve upon their existing car whilst also designing the best possible one for the next season.

It’s this dual focus with separate but collaborative teams – on improving today’s model while designing tomorrow’s - that allows the innovative advances we see each season. It’s a model that the water industry can learn from.

The water industry is facing new challenges, from an increased frequency of extreme weather, ageing assets, and growing customer bases. Success will be determined by how well a water company can navigate the operational challenges of today while also designing more optimal ways of operating for tomorrow.

Understanding the foundations

F1 teams are finely tuned to be as efficient as possible. Each car has around 300 sensors, together generating 1.1 million telemetry data points per second.  This huge dataset is only useful when the insights are collected, used, and reviewed to better inform the decisions being made. The F1 industry has mastered this marriage of data and insights and set it within a very clear system of governance, process, communication, and accountability.

Increasingly water companies also need to excel with data to drive continuous improvement. Data should be prioritised according to the key decisions and drivers required to improve performance and the insights then shared across functions and capability areas to achieve effective collaborative results.  

This ability to draw and share insights from data to make real time decisions directly links to the growing push in the industry for adaptative planning, given the rising uncertainty and complexity in the world. Increasingly we see our clients looking for ways to expand and exploit their data capability to drive a culture of continuous improvement. Often it’s not the data that’s the issue, it’s the system surrounding the data: the flow of information, the team structures that allow collaboration across the business and a clear line of sight from high level targets to operational realities.

Nailing today’s operational basics is one part of the equation for innovation. The second part requires fresh thinking outside the constraints of today’s model.

Designing for the future

Just as F1 are designing next season’s car, we need to be desiging the water operating model of the future. Designing, building and testing it alongside the existing model until it’s ready to race. Giving it ample time to be fully tested before it must take on both the existing and new demand.

We are currently exploring this approach with a client to do just that: via parallel but decoupled teams. One team to be focused on improving the here and now, refining the current setup and resolving short term issues, with learnings from this also supplementing the new model. The other team to be focused on designing and testing the new model underpinned by new technology, and removing obsolete practices or structures, to allow for greater proactive ability and more intelligent decision making.

The teams would still be connected and sharing discoveries but with different yet aligned goals. For this to work, we need to be clear on the goals and KPIs for each team, where accountabilities lie, how information is shared and – of course – the financial model underpinning the new operating model. New ideas still need a structure in which to flourish.

Pressures in the operating environment require an even sharper approach, akin to the F1 approach. Getting this right in the context of resource constraints requires careful planning and testing. The F1 analogy is being turned into reality in the work we are doing with a range of clients to create a paradigm shift in this space.

Watch out for the next two editions of the Institute of Water magazine where we describe in more detail how to Nail the Basics and Design for Tomorrow

This article was written by Cameron Clarke

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