MHV Water (MHV) is a farmer owned co-operative that has been delivering water for irrigation to its shareholders in the Mayfield, Hinds and Valetta areas of Mid Canterbury for over 75 years. More recently MHV has also begun managing the environmental compliance for its farmer shareholders. 

MHV draws water for irrigation from the Rangitata and Ashburton Rivers, through the Rangitata Diversion Race and delivers it to over 58,000 hectares of highly productive farmland via approximately 320km of open races and 100km of piped infrastructure. 

Solving the challenge

MHV are continually looking at how they can improve their infrastructure to most efficiently and effectively distribute water and support their shareholders to meet and exceed good management practices to deliver improved environmental outcomes. 

This drive to be better, along with the ever growing regulatory and compliance framework presents its challenges for a business of this nature. MHV also has a lot of intellectual property stored in the brains of its staff and making sure this is not lost in the normal course of business or when they are on leave is another key component of ensuring the water flows efficiently. 

Another challenge that was identified was the ability to see trends across the scheme to quickly identify larger issues.   

Using the configurable Assura workflow engine MHV have a solution that reflects how they work, with their language and their recurring processes digitised. This means errors are reduced and paper doesn’t get lost, plus important jobs are not forgotten.  

Staff know what the assets are, where they are and what maintenance is due on them along with being able to easily access and understand what previous maintenance has been undertaken when someone else has completed a task. This in turn allows them and their managers to manage by exception as only the tasks that haven’t been completed are escalated for attention.  

The Assura solution provides for the efficient management of irrigation assets, reveals trends and makes the life of managers and staff simpler.  

In addition to managing assets, the use of Assura has been extended to cover safety management for their team and to capture the environmental requirements along with the corresponding workflows.  

Results

Using the Assura platform as part of their day to day operations has enabled them to be far more streamlined with their Asset, Environmental and Safety Management.  

MHV have been able to refine their resourcing, and importantly Assura provides visibility and accountability across the board. Assura has made a material difference to how they operate their business and ensures they will be in a strong position to continue to deliver water and environmental benefits for many generations to come.  

The return on investment comes in a number of forms;  

  • Being more proactive about the management of assets and the work the team does on them.  
  • Efficiency of staff in recording and acting on the tasks ahead of them, so they’re able to do more, with the same staffing levels.  
  • Visibility for management around the work that needs to be done and any safety issues.  
  • Staff feeling valued and being given the tools to do their jobs well.  

”“Having Assura as part of our day to day operations has enabled us to be far more effective and efficient with our Asset Management and Safety.”

Mel BrooksCEO, MHV Water, New Zealand

”“It isn’t just the initial ROI, the returns will continue to increase as compliance and regulatory requirements grow around the management of our assets, our environment and our water quality.”

Mel BrooksCEO, MHV Water, New Zealand