On June 22, 2022, we went to meet Franck Moulin and Mathieu Scheibel, head of the leak detection division and team leader for the Mulhouse water department. Kraafteurs since 6 months, they tell us about their experience.
The city of Mulhouse manages 3M€ of works per year to guarantee the maintenance of the water networks. Franck's division, which is in charge of leak detection, coordinates a dozen technicians who intervene rapidly on the networks to guarantee the continuity of the service in the 13 municipalities of the EPCI.
Mathieu, one of the department's team leaders, welcomes us at job site. "Today we are redoing a new drinking water connection for a customer because there was a leak and his valve would not close," he begins. On these types of jobs, which last less than a day, responsiveness is key. But it's not always easy to manage all the regulatory documents and reporting when you have to manage one job site per day. "I arrive on site, we mark out the site, I draw up the DICTs and then the guys make the trench (...) I go to see the local residents to prevent water cuts, then we make the connection and put the water back on (...) I write everything down on paper and sometimes I take photos which I send by message or email" he explains.
"Before Kraaft, we worked with what we could get our hands on," continues Franck. When a leak is detected, his colleagues take out a plan and the teams annotate the papers by hand. A large volume of interventions which generates a lot of paperwork and important coordination issues.
The principle of Kraaft is simple. The interface of the mobile application, similar to WhatsApp, allows the city of Mulhouse to create a discussion for each leak encountered. Then, it puts in the news feed of job site all the documents necessary for the execution of the work, from the location to the pictures of the end of the intervention.
"We used to have a lot of paperwork and printing constraints, now Kraaft has freed us from all of that," says Franck. "When my colleagues find a leak, they immediately create a conversation, in which they will put the result of the leak search, I make the requests (ATU), I put the necessary plans, the work order, and I add the work team in the group".
"In Kraaft there are all the documents" continues Mathieu. "We have the DICT, the form, the work order, the technical sheet of the connection (...) Then I add the forms for the repair of excavations and the photos of the connections".
The city, which also uses a CMMS, has adopted Kraaft to de-materialize all administrative documents, thus reducing the workload of its management teams. "It saves me 3 hours a day compared to all the paperwork (...) we have all the elements in the Kraaft file and we can get the data whenever we want" says Franck.
"Kraaft was set up 6 months ago, the deployment is simple" explains Mathieu. "It's practical because the management can see the photos live. Last time, for example, I had a small problem: I sent them immediately on Kraaft and I got an answer within 5 minutes". A very important reactivity for the subscribers and the elected officials.
"We've saved a lot of time sharing information with colleagues," Franck continues. The division manager recently added NEVE and Colas to the platform to improve communication with all the players at job site.
Thanks to geo-localized photos, each job site is automatically positioned on the satellite map, with a color code according to its status: in progress, urgent work, pending, completed. It is also possible to export all the worksites in Excel or Word format, which facilitates reporting for the city, and which allows everyone to have the same level of information in real time.
"If the customers have a problem, we can cover ourselves because we always have the proof of how it was before and after our intervention (...) In fact Kraaft is the bible of the intervention from the beginning to the end of the job site" testifies Mathieu. "Everything is live, it's much easier (...) it's really a plus for the city. Today, going back to prehistoric times would be complicated" concludes the young team leader.
✅ Easy to use: mobile interface close to WhatsApp
✅ Dematerialization of administrative documents: DICT, work order, connection form
✅ 3h gained per day in administrative management for the division manager
✅ Positioning of leaks on the map with a custom color code
✅ More responsive and transparent communication with all market players
