Managing Automation - October 2008 - (Page 34)

[ TRANSFORMATION ] Transformation Integration TechWatch level to exceed its own goals for efficiency. On avsystem,” says Rick Avery, director of sales and erage, the automaker manages a 4% improvement marketing at Bay Controls. in energy efficiency each year, a feat that translates Three stages of automation create the kind of indirectly to the bottom line. “We’re getting some big telligent compressor control system in place at returns,” Allemon says. Ford, Avery says. First, machines are linked toThe energy team’s most valuable contributors to gether via distributed logic — one plant may have that 4% improvement are two technology implefive compressors for generating air. At the next mentations that have helped Ford manage the use level, a manufacturer adds SCADA technology to of electricity, natural gas, and compressed air at all that collective system to feed reporting capabilities of its North American plants. and business intelligence. Finally, the resulting While lighting, heating, and plant floor equipdata is aggregated across multiple sites to establish ment tend to headline energy conservation stoa mode of comparison among plants. ries, experts say more attention should be paid After an initial investment of $4 million in the to compressed air, a staple of many automotive system, Ford saw a $2.8 million return in the first and other industrial processes and an energy hog year and has since accrued savings of $5.5 million. that is ripe for reform. IT’S NOT JUST AIR Powerhouse air compressors soak up electricity at each stage of production, which inThe thin ice on which Ford Motor Co. skates these cludes compression, cooling, and dr ying. At days is not a finance department phenomenon Ford, creation of compressed air ranks second that’s lost on plant-level workers. Workers see the only to paint operations as the most energy-infallout every day. In one 3 million square-foot astensive process. sembly plant, for example, the plant engineering Mindful that plants could be wasting serious staff has shrunk to just two workers. amounts of energy making compressed air they In that environment, the sheer number of opdon’t need and letting leaks go unchecked, the portunities for cost savings can be overwhelming, automaker installed a potpourri of metering and and automated air might not have the allure of, say, monitoring technologies from Bay Controls across automated lighting. Even Avery concedes that in all of its North American operations. “There’s a cer tain amount of com- “Here’s the amount of money you can save, pressed air that the plant’s going to conand here’s the amount of air leakage. I sume, either from allowable leaks or processes that need air,” Allemon says. mean, if it was water, you’d be drowning “But anything above that allowed amount by now.” — Bill Allemon of Ford Land is waste.” With the Bay system, “we can quantify it, we can measure it — both in air [lost] capital-constrained environments, Bay’s comand lost energy savings — and then we provide a pressed air technology sometimes loses out to report back to the plant to say, ‘You’ve improved, HVAC, lighting, and water efficiency initiatives. but keep going; keep doing your leak repair.’ ” But Allemon and his team work hard to push their The system also alleviates costly guesswork. stingy air agenda and combat the “it’s just air” atWithout the benefit of an intelligent control systitude among plant workers. tem, for instance, a power“There’s people killing themselves trying to house operator might fire up squeeze $5 out of the cost of an F150, and we’re managingautomation.com the compressor at 5 a.m. in saying, ‘Look, [get] two guys and a wrench; here’s order to be fully pressurized the amount of money you can save, and here’s RELATED ARTICLES: The Business of Going Green when workers pick up their the amount of air leakage. I mean, if it was water, www.managingautomation.com/green2 tools at 6 a.m. Data from the you’d be drowning by now,’ “ Allemon says with an Taking the Shock Out of Energy Costs control system might reveal exasperated laugh. www.managingautomation.com/energy that start-up can wait until 5:40 Yet, even in the face of worker apathy, the Eight Characteristics of Successful Energy a.m. Similarly, an operator company has made progress. “Ford has really Management might not think to set the syshad a lot of success in their energy savings projwww.managingautomation.com/energy3 tem for lower production levects,” Avery says. “They’ve done some really els during a lunch period. A good work.” COMPANIES MENTIONED: control system does. The other cornerstone of that work is Ford’s Bay Controls “Typically, most [plants] are Utility Metering and Monitoring System, which www.managingautomation.com/bay running at a pressure beyond measures the use of electricity and natural gas Schneider Electric their need because they don’t across the company’s North American footprint. www.managingautomation.com/schneider think they can turn down their The system relies on Schneider Electric’s Square maonline ma October 34 2008 Industries http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/green2 http://www.managingautomation.com/energy http://www.managingautomation.com/energy3 http://www.managingautomation.com/bay http://www.managingautomation.com/schneider

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

Managing Automation - October 2008 Contents Take 1 Systems Integration Market Braces for a Wave of Consolidation Kinaxis Launches Program to Lure i2 Customers Patent May Give Mobility a Needed Shot in the Arm New Group Aims at More Efficient Smart Devices Solar, Life Sciences Will Be the Next Frontier For Robots Notes Cover Story:�2009 Companies to Watch Special Report:�Siemens plus UGS: Is the Merger Working? Transformation:�Driving Energy Efficiency Integration: How Clean is Your Data Industries:�Fed Raises Red Flag on Chemicals Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - October 2008

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