Sabesp, the largest water and wastewater company in Latin America, found itself facing a major water crisis in 2015. As the primary provider of water distribution, sewage collection and treatment for more than 360 cities across the Brazilian state of São Paulo, this crisis resulted in a significant uptick in inquiries from customers who rely on Sabesp’s integrated system for their water and sewage needs.
As the company struggled to keep up with the volume of service calls while maintaining operations, Sabesp began to identify inefficiencies in their process, seeking a partner to streamline operations and ensure quality service for the region’s residents. This is where Stefanini Group stepped in.
COMPANY INFORMATION
- Founded: 1973
- Employees: 12,000
- Industry: Energy and Utilities
Situation:
One of the largest water and wastewater companies in the world, Sabesp is responsible for the water distribution, sewage collection and treatment of over 360 cities in the Brazilian state of São Paulo – a region with few water resources. With irregular terrain and fewer reservoirs than what is typically recommended by the United Nations, the region relies heavily on Sabesp’s metropolitan integrated system for all of its water- based needs.
Challenge:
When the state of São Paulo faced a major water crisis in 2015, Sabesp saw its customer inquiries rapidly increase, with the volume of these calls making it difficult for the company to maintain operations during an already volatile time.
This prompted Sabesp to begin identifying inefficiencies in its processes, opening the door for a new system with the potential to improve operational efficiency and guarantee a reliable supply of drinking water for the residents of metropolitan São Paulo.
With a long list of requirements for this solution, including the ability to provide integrated analysis of the sanitation cycle, the company ultimately turned to Stefanini Group.
Solution:
With its legacy systems, Sabesp was already receiving a lot of data from its remote equipment. Working collaboratively with Stefanini, the company was able to implement an interface to collect this data and move it to a PI System, increasing access to real-time information and packaging it behind a customizable, user-friendly dashboard.
This allowed engineers and managers throughout the company to easily retrieve and understand information related to the status of pipes, pump stations and reservoirs. The system also simplified data modeling and automated incident reports, making it easier for engineers and maintenance teams to take preventative action when needed
Results:
Following the implementation of the new PI System, Sabesp saw a:
967% Increase in the number of assets monitored
7% Corrective maintenance needs decreased
5% Claims from customers regarding water shortages decreased.
According to a company satisfaction survey, Stefanini’s efforts also positively impacted customer experiences.
22% Increase in Sabesp’s satisfaction scores.
From configuring servers to collect data from multiple interfaces to organizing 100,000 tags across more than 270 different asset types, Stefanini made the implementation of the custom PI System simple so Sabesp could focus on what it does best: providing water and sewage services to more than 25 million people across the São Paulo region.
