Every progressive company thinks about strategies to ensure efficient use of energy and reduced production costs. How you can make your production processes more energy-efficient depends on your industry and your existing operations and equipment. However, some factors are universal regardless of your location and the nature of business.
How much energy do you waste while powering your plant each month? Most companies have an energy efficiency of less than 50 percent. High energy usage not only affects your bottom line but also causes damage to the environment. Being involved in production, you must track energy consumption patterns in your facility and develop ways to bring about efficient energy use.
If you want to optimize energy consumption and cut production costs, you need data to generate real-time insights into your equipment, maintenance, inventory, and utilities. You can analyze your data and identify areas that require improvement.
To develop and implement an effective strategy, you need the right tools, workforce, skills, and commitment. When you identify the areas where energy use can be optimized, it becomes easier to figure out what tools you need to make your facility more energy efficient. Here are major sources of wasted energy at production plants:
Poor maintenance practices
Maintenance typically refers to repairs that are done to fix broken down equipment. Most companies rely on reactive maintenance which is less expensive and time-consuming. However, reactive maintenance can lead to reduced equipment efficiency and reliability down the line. Poor maintenance practices reduce the useful life of your critical machines and make them consume extra energy to produce the same output. In other words, asset’s value shrinks at a rapid pace when you don’t implement a good preventive maintenance plan in your facility.
Inefficient practices
You can end up wasting tons of energy if you keep ignoring small operational inefficiencies. For example, keeping your HVAC systems running all day can significantly increase your production costs. Cooling and heating systems installed in your facility account for a significant portion of your overall energy use. Keeping your HVAC systems off even for a couple of hours each day can save you thousands of dollars every year while making your facility more eco-friendly.
Scrap and rework
When it comes to wasted energy at equipment-intensive facilities, we can’t skip the impact of scrap and rework. Companies either throw out the faulty products or reprocess them. Additional resources are invested whether you scrap or rework defective products. Additional uptime to rework products leads to increased energy consumption and labor costs. Having a preventive maintenance strategy in place will help you reduce equipment failure and, eventually, manufacturing rework.
Solution: preventive maintenance best practices
To keep your assets energy-efficient, you must focus on implementing preventive maintenance best practices. Keeping your electrical infrastructure in good working condition should also be a vital part of your overall maintenance plan. One of the benefits of having a comprehensive preventive maintenance plan is the increase in your asset’s ability to function efficiently.
About Quality Millwright
At Quality Millwright, we provide services that help businesses keep their assets efficient both in terms of energy and performance. We provide preventive maintenance and industrial electrical services to help you keep your facility up and running in a cost-effective way. To learn more about our industrial maintenance and electrical services, please contact us!
