Manage information in real time for energy savings, sustainability, say separate reports
Proper metrics and ensuring that production information flows in real time can help significantly with energy savings and sustainability efforts, suggest separate reports from Rockwell Automation (see diagram) and from Aberdeen Group with support from Invensys.
-- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/28/2009 10:21:00 AM
Industry-leading manufacturers often view energy management
as strategic to business success and use advanced data visualization,
collection and monitoring tools to support their energy-management and
cost-reduction strategies. And manufacturing execution systems can help if
metrics drive manufacturers' energy and sustainability goals. Announced in separate
reports from Rockwell Automation and from Aberdeen Group with support from
Invensys, the findings emphasize the need for real-time information flow in
energy savings and sustainability efforts.
Best-in-class energy management practices
Recent research from the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Co., says industry-leading manufacturers are much more likely than other companies to view energy management as strategic to their business success and to apply advanced data visualization, collection and monitoring tools to their energy-management and cost-reduction strategies.
The resulting report partially funded by Invensys and titled "Energy Management: Driving Value in Industrial Environments," defines best-in-class companies as those that have 90 percent overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) ratings, have reduced their energy consumption by 15 percent and outperform corporate operating margin goals by 15 percent. The companies made the announcement on May 26.
"Manufacturers are under intense pressure to reduce operating costs, and many are responding to these pressures by deploying advanced energy management tools and techniques," said report co-author Mehul Shah, research analyst with the Aberdeen Group's Manufacturing Operations and Industrial Automation Practice. "For some, energy costs constitute as much as 25 percent of their total operating costs, and even small improvements can have a dramatic impact on their bottom line.
Among the best practices adopted by best-in-class companies are:
- 62 percent make energy usage data available to decision makers in real-time;
- 55 percent take energy costs into account when scheduling production;
- 62 percent establish metrics to quantify the benefits of energy management programs;
- 56 percent tie operational metrics to financial metrics; and
- 56 percent invest in technology to automate collection and monitoring of energy data.
"The findings of the Aberdeen survey are highly consistent with what we see among the clients of our energy management practice," said Nathalie Marcotte, vice president, Global Consulting, Invensys Process Systems. "For example, in the first months of automated energy monitoring and management, our client Sasol Infrachem realized a 6 percent savings on energy feedstocks and 4 percent savings in electricity costs at just two steam stations, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings over the year. They expect substantial incremental savings as they bring together new business information and process data to identify other areas of improvement."
Before July 3: Invensys has helped make the Aberdeen report "Energy Management: Driving Value in Industrial Environments" available for free until July 3, 2009.
For more details about IPS energy management solutions from IPS; also IPS offers a free energy management white paper and video.
MES use helps achieve sustainability goals, Rockwell Automation says
Information solutions help achieve manufacturers' energy and
sustainability goals, according to a white paper, "Manufacturing Executions
Systems for Sustainability: Extending the Scope of MES to Achieve Energy
Efficiency and Sustainability Goals," presented May 27 at the IEEE Conference on
Industrial Electronics and Applications in Xi'an,
China.
Changing metrics to reflect sustainability goals is one way to achive that.
"Information solutions often focus on achieving production management benefits," said Jeffrey Soplop, project manager for Rockwell Automation and one of the paper's authors. "However, as this paper illustrates, these solutions can be used to implement sustainable production to help reduce energy and raw material use; drive emissions monitoring and environmental reporting; and improve worker and product safety."
The business case for sustainability begins with a holistic approach to manufacturing, incorporating the principles of environmental stewardship, corporate responsibility and economic prosperity - tenets of a fundamental sustainability concept known as the triple bottom line, the paper says. From this perspective, the traditional manufacturing requirements for information solutions lead directly to sustainability improvements.
"The traditional goal of increasing productivity directly supports sustainability goals as well; consuming less energy and raw materials; enforcing regulatory compliance through emissions monitoring and environmental reporting; and reducing operating costs by eliminating waste," said Soplop. "The bottom line - sustainable production positions manufacturers for high performance by helping them to cut costs, generate revenue, and mitigate brand and regulatory risks both now and in the future."
Change what you measure; use what you have
To validate the overlap between traditional and sustainability goals, the paper provides case studies on several Rockwell Automation customers, showing how companies already use information solutions in existing operations. This demonstrates that many sustainability goals are achievable simply by changing perspectives or metrics, rather than by implementing entirely new systems and solutions. Soplop and co-authors Jenifer Wright, Khris Kammer and Rafael Rivera point out in the paper "for manufacturers pursuing sustainability initiatives, MES is an ideal tool for changing production processes to meet the demands of the competitive global landscape."
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An integrated approach can achieve quantitative sustainability, says Rockwell Automation in a new Rockwell Automation whitepaper (1.31 MB PDF), "Manufacturing Execution Systems for Sustainability." The MES communicates with other critical information systems within the plant and analyzes disparate data into meaningful metrics, Rockwell Automation says. |
