5 Ways to Conserve Energy with Good Maintenance
June 29, 2022
Energy misused cannot be excused. Regardless of industry, "energy" is one of the most expensive line items in your operating budget. It is also one of the most carbon-intensive and hurts our sustainability initiatives. The higher the energy used, the higher the strain on the environment. The manufacturers always need to track energy consumption and use strategies for energy-efficient technologies. By streamlining the areas that need energy optimisation, the first identification of the area is crucial. Real-time data insights into the equipment, inventory, maintenance schedules and utilities can help optimise energy and reduce costs.
Assets and facilities maintained well will be healthier, live longer, consume less energy and optimised to perform better. Maintenance has always been crucial in energy-related matters, especially in the 21st century. Upkeep forms an essential activity in almost all the sectors of the activities, whether consuming, producing or distributing energy. Production of renewable energy is concerned chiefly with the requirements of the maintenance performances because it is subject to strong profitability constraints.
Preventive maintenance strategies
Prevention is the new Proaction. Poorly managed facilities and assets breakdown often. Reactive maintenance happens when the equipment is already broken down. Though it appears less expensive than preventive maintenance, asset reliability and efficiency are affected in the long run. When equipment efficiency becomes less, the energy required to produce the same output will be more. Essential preventive maintenance plans are crucial in keeping the assets in good health and reducing energy use and costs. Regular checks of the assets can identify the problem and put forward corrective measures to repair them rather than aggravating the issue and reducing the efficiency of the asset. Data on the preventive maintenance strategies can become helpful for the facilities to decide the structured way to maintain the assets and when they need replacement with more energy-efficient models. Computerised Maintenance Management Systems(CMMS) can help create solid preventive maintenance strategies and achieve peak asset efficiency through automated scheduling, work order management, and more.
Digital and automated work orders
Maintenance management systems regulate and standardise the tasks and reduce energy use though in small but effective ways. Daily work orders are set up in such a way as to remind the workers to use energy-saving methods like putting the equipment on the energy-saving modes or turning the temperature in air conditioning units. The digital work orders of the CMMS softwares can eliminate the need for paperwork that can lower the environmental footprints and the costs associated with it. Digital orders, most of the time, also contain checklists related to the PMs and repairs, which ensures that the maintenance is done correctly and the equipment functions as efficiently as possible.
Data collection and Reporting
Scraps and reworks are the main reasons for the wastage of energy at equipment-intensive facilities. When there is an equipment breakdown, defects caused will make the product sit for hours until the repair is done, and when pulled out, the defective product is either reprocessed or thrown out. The additional uptime increases the energy consumption. More spending happens on labour and other resources for every reworked or scrapped product while reducing the value derived from the production.
One solution for this excessive energy consumption is to identify and correct the problematic trends right away. After collecting solid data and creating reports using this information. Maintenance softwares collect this data accurately and turn it into valuable reports. Using this information, the reports are automatically generated, which identify the possible problems in an asset before they break down. Checking and repair can be done before the problem becomes more extensive, which means there is less scrap, less rework, low energy consumption, and lower costs.
Efficient inventory management system
Poor inventory management piles up obsolete equipment and parts. The energy used to store these obsolete parts is enormous, which can come up to 5 % of the value of the parts produced yearly. The disposal follows. Spare assets are either recycled or scrapped; again, a considerable amount of energy is wasted on disposing of them yearly.
A firm hand on inventory management will increase energy efficiency in the business. Inventories, when stored while having fewer parts, will reduce energy costs. Collecting data, running regular usage reports, and establishing baselines and cycle counts create an efficient inventory system. The maintenance team identifies the best way to use and order new spare parts from these. CMMS can track these KPIs in a central database, making the reporting more accessible. The inventory purchasing based on these reports can be automated from this, which will deliver a more efficient inventory system that can save energy and money.
Effective Scheduling
When the facility does not have a proper strategy regarding the time of maintenance, the energy usage can go high. The facilities are usually charged for the energy at two different rates, the higher during peak hours and the lower during non-peak hours. Most facilities do not take advantage of the non-peak hours to complete the energy-intensive tasks. The lack of coordination between the maintenance and production schedules will result in inefficiencies, higher energy costs, lower returns, and a low bottom line. Data and reporting have already been discussed as factors which can reduce the energy consumption in heavy production facilities. CMMS allows running reports to find the tasks that use the most energy. This, when scheduled during non-peak hours, can have significant impacts. Work orders and tasks are created, assigned and triggered automatically. Not only the Preventive Maintenance is done more efficiently, but they will also only be booked accordingly so that the production is least affected.
Maintenance management softwares and energy conservation
Maintenance management softwares help the organisation ensure its equipment is functioning efficiently and reliably within predefined norms, thus reducing its energy footprint and the emergency downtime that leads to product defects and scrap or rework. By ensuring that the assets are regularly serviced and repaired on time, CMMS help the organisation extend the equipment's life expectancy. Analysis shows that a properly implemented CMMS can reduce capital asset replacement by three to five per cent. Tracking asset repair costs in the CMMS can make informed repair versus replace decisions, so equipment is only replaced when needed. The spare parts that are required to meet availability goals are also identified. A computerised maintenance management system is a proven instrument to ensure assets are adequately maintained, so it should be a key component of your green strategy.
Maintenance of energy infrastructures, maintenance of new energy production methods or energy efficiency of all sectors of activity, optimising maintenance and improvement in the performance of energy-producing or energy-consuming equipment, CMMS is becoming increasingly indispensable. Over the years, economics and environmental imperatives have been pressing the companies to reduce their energy consumption. CMMS is one solution that can manage their maintenance and respond to these constraints by improving the energy performance of the machines, equipment and buildings.
