Scope

The Utilities sector includes all the companies that produce, transport, distribute and sell electricity and gas, plus water treatment and distribution enterprises.

Background

The opening up of the utilities market and new European and national regulations have prompted the industry’s historical players to adapt their strategy, procurement policy, capital outlay and organizations.

In a situation where the price paid by the general public is under permanent pressure, the high cost of oil and gas impacts cost prices and the strengthening of environmental restrictions applies further pressure on margins, thereby calling for greater rigor.

The advent of new competitors has also increased the need to focus on service and to adopt an innovative approach to the offer to customers.

The challenges

Companies are having to take up strategic challenges and face tougher competition created by the current social climate:

• by permanently reinforcing and improving customer service:
  • better understanding of different needs through the segmentation of customer portfolios,
  • segment-based service policies and the optimization of plants and networks accordingly,
• by designing and rolling out innovative technological solutions and in particular by adapting supply to demand (smart grids),
• by optimizing the maintenance in operational conditions of systems and infrastructure to cut costs (purchase of new equipment, maintenance) and improve their availability,
• by controlling costs at every level of the company(direct, indirect, support) to stay abreast of the competition, while keeping the impacts on human resources under control,
• by adapting information systems to these new challenges.

How can Argon Consulting assist you?

The team dedicated to this sector works with numerous customers to boost their performance and benefit from opportunities for development. We help companies change their strategy and implement these changes, in particular in the following fields:

• analysis of the customer portfolio and assistance with segmentation,
• performance of the innovation process: analysis of product/service innovations, overhaul of the organization and processes, etc.,
• adoption of a Lean approach to all the processes that support or directly contribute to the production of the services,
• improvement of the maintenance in operational conditions of equipment and networks, and in particular:
  • optimization of the maintenance policy, modeling of life cycle costs (LCC), make or buy policy,
  • planning of operations (maintenance, repairs, refurbishment).
• improved performance of the parts purchasing policy, and in particular:
  • optimization of the spare parts supply chain (repairable parts, strategic parts, pool size optimization, new parts, etc.),
  • more efficient operations by adopting a Lean approach (maintenance, repairs, refurbishment): productivity or reduction of cycles.
• assistance in defining the information system master plans,
• assistance in information system program management and management of IT projects.

Argon’s customers include EDF, ERD, RTE, GDF, Electrabel, Poweo, Agence de l’Eau, etc.