Best-in-Class Manufacturers Reduce Energy Use by 15%

June 19, 2009

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Aberdeen Group’s latest research shows how “best-in-class” manufacturers manage energy in their plants. Surveying 230 executives, the market researcher identifies best-in-class performers as companies that averaged 90 percent overall equipment effectiveness and reduced energy consumption by 15 percent and outperformed corporate operating margin goals by 14 percent, reports Industry Week.

A key finding reveals that top-performing companies differentiate themselves from average and below average energy-management programs by understanding which energy data to collect, where to find it, how frequently they should gather it and how to effectively use the information, reports IndustryWeek. They are also more than twice as likely to consider energy management as one of their top three strategies and to establish a companywide energy-awareness culture.

Among best-in-class manufacturers in energy management, 82 percent have standardized processes for monitoring energy consumption across the enterprise, and fifty-seven percent of energy management leaders establish short- and long-term goals for individual plants, reports Managing Automation.

In addition, the IndustryWeek article notes that these best-in-class companies know how to implement the strategies developed in board rooms efficiently on the plant floor, and they also invest in technology that helps them drill down into energy data for information such as usage per production line, plant or product produced.

Sixty-seven percent automatically and centrally collect energy consumption information, and 62 percent of leaders make both real-time and historical energy usage information available to decision makers, reports Managing Automation.

Technology tools include statistical process control software, analytics, dashboards and alert management. In some cases, the statistical process control software is integrated with alert management systems to signal when processes are beyond the control limits, according to the Aberdeen report.