Managing Automation - May 2008 - (Page 25)

consulting help from WSP to work out a sustainability strategy. Why do this? In today’s world, “if your supplier has a problem, it becomes your problem,” Bovit says. Judy Glazer, director of global, social, and environmental responsibility at HewlettPackard Co., agrees. “More recently, we’ve focused on the carbon footprint of the supply chain because we recognize there are materials and energy usage that go into making our products that happen outside of our own four walls,” she says. HP has made it a priority to provide leadership and encourage industry progress in this area, Glazer says. “We engage with our suppliers to raise environmental and social standards.” The maker of computer equipment must comply with regulations such as the RoHS Directive. But the need to meet certain requirements can actually constitute significant competitive advantage, Glazer says, because it forces smart innovation. “The real takeaway is that it is important to design for the environment, in every aspect of the business,” she says. LIGHTBULB MOMENT Designing for the environment sometimes means going back to the drawing board to innovate in R&D (see sidebar, p. 24). Other times, it means mapping out an environmentally friendly plan for corporate facilities. The data center, for example, is a huge energy eater. At Ford Motor Co., Vijay Sankaran, manager of IT infrastructure operations, has been on a mission to lower the computing and application footprint as a way to offset energy inefficiencies. Globally, the company maintains roughly 5,000 Intel-based servers, about 17,000 MIPS of mainframe processing power, and runs numerous operating systems, including AIX, VMS, and HP-UX. Sankaran’s approach is to consolidate the infrastructure onto a primary campus, standardize on technology platforms and services, and simplify processes through application decommissioning and business process management (BPM). Companies usually start out small when they want to see immediate results. In a factory, that might mean switching in a multivariable drive, while in a data center it might mean adding rack-mounted cooling or blade servers. But for a green data center to be successful, it must be redesigned from top to bottom. “You have to look at the problem differ- ently and really think about the problem you are trying to solve,” Sankaran said recently during a presentation at IDC’s Green IT Forum in New York. If an organization does not approach saving energy as a strategic initiative, it won’t work. “Consumption will grow unless an organization has a holistic strategy,” he said. Mike Farrell, CEO of Sentry Equipment Corp., took the same approach when he set out to build a state-of-the ar t facility in Oconomowoc, WI, including a 35,000-squarefoot factory and a 15,000-square-foot office area. The facility was built with a lot of glass to bring in daylight, water conservation techniques, variable speed drive controllers to operate the welding booths, and, of all things, LED lights for nearly all outdoor and several indoor applications. LEDs, typically recognized as the tiny indicator lights in a clock radio or car dashboard, are now being used in general illumination applications known as white light. Cree Inc., a maker of LED chips and lights, is responsible for the new class of LEDs geared toward replacing the light bulb. The new Sentry building uses about 75 LEDs inside for bathrooms, conference rooms, and hallways. The LEDs use about 11 watts of energy each, far less than incandescent lights, which may burn at 75 watts per fixture, and fluorescent lights, at 54 watts per fixture. An LED has no filament that can fail, so it can last managingautomation.com 10 to 20 years. In addition, it does not get hot like a typical light RELATED ARTICLES: bulb. By using LEDs, Far rell Going Green www.managingautomation.com/green found he could lower energy costs, just about eliminate mainVirtex Assembly Services, Inc.: High Achiever in Leadership Mastery tenance costs, and reduce coolwww.managingautomation.com/PMleadership ing costs. The energy savings Industry Update: SCE from using LEDs are estimated www.managingautomation.com/SCupdate at $4,000 to $5,000 per year, FarIndustry Update: EAM rell says. www.managingautomation.com/EAMupdate And that helps to put the company in a competitive position. COMPANIES MENTIONED: “Anywhere you can save money Aravo Solutions Inc. on indirect costs, it is money you www.managingautomation.com/aravo are not spending, and you can put Cree, Inc. that toward innovating or marwww.managingautomation.com/cree keting, or whatever you need to Infor do to increase your business,” www.managingautomation.com/infor4 Farrell says. QAD So green can move manufacwww.managingautomation.com/QAD turing toward “the green,” believRockwell Automation ers say. “The net net is, what’s www.managingautomation.com/rockwell3 good for greenness is good for Servigistics general business,” says Ford’s www.managingautomation.com/servigistics Sankaran. I maonline 25 May 2008 http://managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/green http://www.managingautomation.com/PMleadership http://www.managingautomation.com/SCupdate http://www.managingautomation.com/EAMupdate http://www.managingautomation.com/aravo http://www.managingautomation.com/cree http://www.managingautomation.com/infor4 http://www.managingautomation.com/QAD http://www.managingautomation.com/rockwell3 http://www.managingautomation.com/servigistics

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - May 2008

Managing Automation - May 2008 Contents Take 1 Award-Winning Shoe-Maker Otabo Alters Course, Shifts Production to China IBM Partners with Universities for Cloud Computing Getting Noise in Production Under Control Incuity Embarks on a Vertical Market Strategy Foundation Intensifies OPC Standard Testing Mailbox Notes PM Roundtable Cover Story: The Business of Going Green Special Report: Night and Day Delivering on Promises Finding the Right Fit for Wireless Driving RFID Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - May 2008

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