Maturity Model Wastewater disposal 4.0

Under the leadership of IWW Mühlheim (Germany), a standardised maturity model for the evaluation of the digital development status of a drinking water supplier, the so-called "Maturity Model Water Supply 4.0", has been developed. The project is a R&D project funded by the DVGW (German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water) with the participation of 15 practical partners (including for example Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Gelsenwasser, Hamburg Wasser, RheinEnergie) and was realised from October 2017 to February 2019. The currently running project "Maturity Model Wastewater Disposal 4.0" wants to help wastewater operators to systematically analyse their digital development and to answer the following strategic questions:

• Where are we in the digitalisation process?
• What are our digital development opportunities?
• What is our goal and what is useful for our company?

In addition to the project partners IWW Zentrum Wasser und MOcons GmbH & Co. KG, 17 more wastewater operators/associations are involved as practical partners in the project (including for example Emschergenossenschaft, hanseWasser Bremen, StE Dresden, StEB Köln, Ruhrverband, Wupperverband). In this way, a successful modification of the water supply model into a model for wastewater disposal can be ensured.

Activities of the FiW in the project "Maturity model for wastewater disposal 4.0"

• Definition and preparation of main and partial processes of wastewater disposal
• Taking and evaluating interviews
• Organisating and holding workshops

Goal and outlook

So far, six main processes and connected sub-processes have been defined, which must be analysed in the maturity model to their level of digital development. The topic of digitalisation is analysed from the four perspectives of "resources", "information systems", "organisation" and "culture".                                                 

The maturity model will be completed in future meetings with the project partners. After defining evaluation criteria for the identification of the maturity level of a wastewater disposal company, the model will be tested. In this context, two-day interviews will be held with the practical partners to be able to evaluate the main processes. The model will then be further improved on the basis of the new inside views. Through their participation, the practice partners can get a status quo analysis of their digital development status. Later, also a web tool will be developed for easy use of the maturity model in the company. In the process, "self-checks" shall be included to make in particular the transfer of the project results into the industry easier.