STEIN Infrastructure Management GmbH has been developing innovative approaches to optimizing investment and rehabilitation strategies for water supply and wastewater disposal systems since 1998. Our success is based on the effective combination of engineering and management know-how.
As a subsidiary of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stein & Partner GmbH, we have been a pioneer in this area from the very beginning. We have been a part of initiating and shaping the development of maintenance and rehabilitation in the wastewater sector in the Federal Republic of Germany in the form of R&D projects, provision of expert opinion, studies, standardization work, and numerous engineering projects.
This professional background enables us, with the use of our Lifecycle Asset Management Model STATUS, to carry out technical / structural analyses and evaluations of network objects which integrate very well with real engineering decisions. Our strategy model, which has been used by the largest German network operators for several years, is able to model and optimize arbitrarily complex decision processes as well as to track the object-specific “condition class” (e.g. need for action to preserve function) and the object-specific level of “fabric deterioration” which can be related to the remaining service life or current net asset value. In this way, an object with a single critical defect needing repair, but otherwise in good condition, can be separated from a heavily deteriorated object that, while still performing OK at present, has a limited remaining service life.
Consultant
Dr.-Ing. Robert Stein
Dr.-Ing. Robert Stein is the managing partner of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stein & Partner GmbH and managing director of STEIN Infrastructure Management GmbH. Since 2003, he has been supervising and implementing projects concerning the optimization of commercial and technical decision-making processes in drainage and sewer system operations with regard to sustainable asset value management. In the field of water supply, he has been working on behalf of the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit" (GiZ) on issues concerning the reduction of water loss by means of dynamic pressure management in Jordan, Yemen and Burkina Faso.
In the fields of consulting and planning, Dr.-Ing. Stein was project manager for the Ministry of Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia (MUNLV), providing consulting and expert support to the approval authorities (State Environmental Offices (StUÄ)) in the approval procedure for what is currently the largest wastewater project in Europe, the "Emscher Sewer". Since 1995 he has published more than 100 articles, reports, expert opinions and feasibility studies. He is, among other things, the author of the technical book "Wertermittlung von Abwassernetzen" (Value evaluation of drain and sewer networks) and co-author of the 4th edition of the international bestseller "Rehabilitation of Drains and Sewers".
Prof. Dr. Martin Stachowske
Prof. Dr. Martin Stachowske has been a consultant and assessor for and by companies in the water supply and wastewater disposal industry since 1990. He was head of the Environmental Management department at WIBERA Wirtschaftsberatung AG. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, he was instrumental in organizing and implementing the reorganization and re-municipalization of water and wastewater management in Eastern Germany. He has developed methods for the recording and valuation of tangible fixed assets of water and wastewater plants in the context of the DM opening balance sheets, which are still used as a basis for the asset management of these plants today.
As head of the Economy & Technologies service department at KPMG International, he analyzed organizational structures and processes in the context of restructuring and was responsible for value analyses of tangible fixed assets in the context of balance sheet analyses and annual financial statements.
As Managing Director of Grontmij Deutsche Projektunion GmbH, he was responsible, in cooperation with the Technical University of Dortmund, for fundamental work to determine the requirements for advanced wastewater treatment for the elimination of trace substances. Since 2008 Prof. Stachowske is managing director of the IWEB INSTITUT für WASSER & ENERGIE BOCHUM GmbH, which advises companies in the water, wastewater and energy industry on restructuring and investment strategies.
In 1997, he received a teaching assignment for business administration from the RWTH Aachen University in the courses of study Waste Management Engineering - later Waste Management Engineering, Environmental Engineering incl. Urban Water Management as well as Mobility & Transport. For his merits in his teaching activities, the RWTH Aachen University awarded him the title of honorary professor.
CEO Statement
According to a study by Booz Allen Hamilton, around 23 trillion US dollars will have to be spent worldwide over a period of 23 years on the rehabilitation and new construction of water and sewage networks (Source: Strategy + Business magazine (Spring 2007 by Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.).
In particular, the importance of water supply and wastewater disposal networks is growing due to the increasing scarcity of water as a resource. In many countries, existing groundwater resources are being used almost to the point of exhaustion. The high population growth in many countries additionally increases the pressure to provide adequate drinking water supply and wastewater disposal. In industrialized countries, the outdated supply and disposal infrastructure must be continuously replaced and adapted to climatic changes and continually evolving regional development policies.
In addition, the demands on operation & maintenance, servicing and management of urban infrastructures are increasing dramatically. Both in terms of management requirements (see ISO 37152, ISO 55000, ISO 50001, ISO 50002, etc.) and technical requirements (ISO, EN, DIN, DWA, etc.). Due to the complexity of these tasks, many network operators will find difficulty in the future to meet these requirements with their own personnel.
A simple transfer of current methodologies to private service providers will not be sufficient in view of the above-mentioned problems. New approaches in combination with considerable increases in efficiency for the management of drain and sewer systems will be necessary. STEIN Infrastructure Management GmbH provides a service concept tailored to these needs. This concept has proven itself in more than 2 decades of practical applications and has found the widest distribution in the Federal Republic of Germany thanks to its technical advances and experienced personnel.