Managing Automation - October 2008 - (Page 35)

For Ford, the demand for transformation extends well beyond generating energy savings. America’s oldest car company must break free from a growing list of troubles if it wants to “As a country, as consumers, and as thrive in this centur y as it did in the last. manufacturers, we’ve got to do a better But in a multi-front war, each battalion must make its charge, and Allemon and team are job of being productive with our energy intent on bringing energy usage to heel. “Now that we have fewer people, we know sources.” — Schneider’s Ted Klee that automation is the answer,” he says of that analysts can retrieve the raw data and run it the job cuts Ford has had to make. From 2000 to through homegrown software for analysis and 2007, that automation led to a 30% improvement reporting. in energy efficiency. Allemon says financial return on the system And yet, as jobs fall victim to Ford’s turnaround is hard to quantify, since it delivers the intellieffort, the remaining personnel become ever more gence that then leads to improvements in elecimportant drivers of the energy agenda. “Engaging tricity and natural gas usage. But he says that the operators — that was the best move,” Allemetering and monitoring projects typically save a mon says of the compressor control initiative. company 2% of its energy spend, which would “Then they have ownership in it, and then they translate into $10 million, based on Ford’s North would actually come back and say, ‘I think I found American operations total of $500 million annually. another energy-saving opportunity.’ ” “The key point there is if you don’t know As Schneider’s Klee puts it, “Whether you want where and how you’re using your energy, it’s to do it from a cost side, from a green side, from a really hard to manage and control,” says Klee at corporate responsibility side, it all points to the Schneider Electric. same thing: As a country, as consumers, and as Ten years ago, when Klee was a plant manager manufacturers, we’ve got to do a better job of being at a Square D manufacturing facility, the intense productive with our energy sources.” energy focus didn’t exist yet — even for a comAs such, Ford’s story is a signal tale for all manpany dedicated to energy management. Klee’s ufacturers, not just those struggling to restore a productivity objectives at the time were mostly once-mighty brand. s D-branded Enterprise Energy Management software to deliver metrics on each facility’s use of electricity and natural gas, based on the metering technology on-site. As data from the natural gas and electricity meters is collected, it is fed into a Square D data center and then delivered to Allemon’s team via a Web-based user interface, with only a 10- or 15-second delay between data collection and availability. The energy efficiency team can use the Enterprise Energy Management software to view key metrics; Ford has also established a virtual private network into the Square D data center so labor-based, with energy considered a minor spend that was out of his control. In the decade since, managers have beaten the drum on labor productivity to a pulp and the cost of energy has skyrocketed, he says, creating in industrial companies “the desire to turn energy into a variable cost that you can control, plan for, and drive productivity out of.” A SIGNAL TALE http://download.ifsworld.com/comparison_centers http://www.ifsworld.com http://www.ifsworld.com

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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