Tyco Waterworks Evolution

Many of these companies and brands were highly successful in their own right; Erhard in Germany, established in 1871, is one of the most recognised names in the world in the supply of high quality butterfly valves, resilient seated gate valves and needle valves. Bayard is a market leader in France for fire protection hydrants, valves and mains water fittings. Atlantic Plastics is a manufacturer of water meterboxes and leads the UK market in this field. However, the Tyco Flow Control organisation has provided a level of investment which these companies individually could not have afforded. As a result, facilities around Europe have been consolidated and improved, product ranges extended through a programme of R&D investment, and sales penetration increased both at a local level as well as into new geographic markets, such as Russia, Middle East and Asia.

Tyco Waterworks is now a market leader in Europe in the manufacture and supply of valves and fittings for the international water, gas and municipal industries. There are 25 trading companies in the Tyco Waterworks EMEA operation, employing over 1600 people in 8 manufacturing locations and 11 sales locations.

Jan Van Ooijen, appointed President of Tyco Waterworks EMEA in June 2007, says “the Tyco Waterworks organisation has gone through significant changes following the acquisitions of these major Brands. It has been a massive undertaking to bring these strong individual companies together, including reduction of our overall footprint to simplify our businesses, and extensive restructuring of our management teams.”

Jan goes on to say “With the enhanced support from the Tyco Flow Control Group, we will continue to make investments in R&D and improvements to operations and services to ensure we can meet the needs of our water industry customers, both now and in the long term”. Jan went on to describe a project in Turkey, typical of the organisation’s approach to meeting customer needs.

Last summer, much of Turkey endured a heat wave causing a major water shortage throughout the country. The city of Ankara, the Turkish capital, felt the impact to the point where the city’s reservoirs for fresh water were less than five percent full, and was expected to only last five more months. Water rationing became a serious threat as the draught impacted hospitals, schools and agriculture production.

Ankara turned to Tyco Waterworks’ Erhard operation in Heidenheim, Germany to provide a solution. The project included three parallel pipelines that will supply Ankara with about nine cubic meters (9,000 litres) of water per second from a reservoir 128 kilometres away on the River Kizilirmak, with changes in height of up to 500 metres in places. Erhard was heavily involved in the technical design of the pipeline and required a selection of almost 2,200 different valves ranging from needle valves up to 1400 millimetres nominal diameter, flanged butterfly valves up to 1600 millimetres nominal diameter, gate valves, ball valves and air valves. A team of Project Engineers from Heidenheim regularly visited the site for the pipeline in Turkey during the project, and their expertise supported the installation and commissioning. Critical to the project was the lead time. Ankara needed supplies of water to begin through the new pipeline from October 2007, giving Erhard just three months to deliver the initial quantity of valves. Production was running 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to meet the schedule.

“This is an illustration of how we can make a big impact in solving a water crisis in another country,” says Jan Van Ooijen, “we hope to assist with future projects to help with the steadily rising water shortages in this densely populated country.”

The management team at Tyco Waterworks Europe is testimony to the diversity and international ambitions of the organisation. Jan himself is Dutch, and there are representatives from France, Pakistan, Brazil, America and Australia. This new management team is driving change. Its’ Operational Excellence (OPEX) programme is focussed on performance improvements through all aspects of its operations from efficiency in manufacturing to optimisation of stock profiles and achieving world class delivery performance. The Company is training many of its employees in the principles of six sigma and lean manufacturing to support these changes. Employees are encouraged to work in cross functional teams, taking responsibility for a project from start to finish.

Core to its operations is the company’s “Vital Values” initiative, which has Integrity, Teamwork, Excellence and Accountability as the foundation values upon which the business is built. “Our commitment to the highest standards of integrity begins with ensuring that everyone across the Tyco organisation understands our core values – values that define how we conduct ourselves – both internally and externally in all our business activities” says Jan.

Tyco Waterworks offers products ranging from butterfly valves, gate valves and hydrants to water meterboxes and fittings for pipe diameters from 15mm to over 2 metres. R&D investment is being provided to enhance ranges further with new developments and innovations. Bayard recently introduced its patented multi-material saddles for the renewal of service connections, and the new ‘Galaxy’ range of couplings and flange adaptors uses a patented gasket design.

From the early 1990s, Tyco has evolved through acquisitions of some of the water industry’s major suppliers, into an organization intent on organic growth through development of its people, products and facilities. The evolution is set to continue.