As we approach the weekend, I am looking forward to attending Doble’s 2013 Life of a Transformer Seminar.  I’m excited about the opportunity to engage with other Asset Management minded folks who are interested in exploring ways to improve their current maintenance and reliability strategies.  Not to mention, I’m excited about the venue and a chance to seek out warmer weather!  If you’re in the area, look me up as I would be interested in your thoughts.

I am honored to have been asked to present at this years seminar and plan to share my thoughts on the best ways in which to obtain buy-in and support for maintenance and reliability efforts.  I know that M&R programs and initiatives can be difficult to obtain attention and financial support from senior and executive level management.  Often times, the difficulties are seldom due to the lack of perceived value but rather due to the lack of direction and ability to quickly impact return on investment and increased equipment reliability.   I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing and working with a number of different maintenance departments who have monetized failures and losses and advised their leadership teams on how to make investment decisions in a way that continually results in celebrated successes.  Through these experiences, I have not only learned a great deal about what works, but I have also struggled with what doesn’t work.

I’ve got to tell you, I absolutely love the opportunity to share concepts, tools, and methods utilized to show how capital investment decisions impact a companies overall returns, including cost reductions from improved labor utilization, materials costs, energy usage and OEE improvements.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming.  Send me an email (colsonc@alliedreliability.com) with your thoughts on the topic as I would enjoy your perspective.

I want to take a quick second to invite everyone to a free Webinar hosted by ReliabilityWeb.com on the topic of “Energy Management as a By-Product of Reliability”.  The Webinar is scheduled for Friday, November 16, 2012 from 1pm – 2pm EDT.

I’ve been told that space is limited and filling up quickly.  Sorry, I meant to post this sooner.  Anyhow, reserve your Webinar seat now by clicking here!

During this webinar, I plan on sharing tips and case studies from within the industrial and manufacturing space. I will discuss how to both bring greater reliability to your assets and reap energy savings in return for your efforts.

Learning Point Takeaways:

1) Understand the fundamentals of Energy Management.
2) Learn how to link CBM activities to Energy Management.
3) Learn from others – real-life case studies that have resulted in savings opportunities.

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.  I hope you are able to join me tomorrow!

What a great week!  I find myself in Orlando, FL at The Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professional’s (SMRP) annual conference discussing the topic of equipment reliability with many of the attendee’s.  I am always amazed at the high level or rich content provided through the many Workshops, Track Sessions, and side events which SMRP’s conference committee seems to always pull together.  Tomorrow morning I will be co-presenting with my good friend, Dr. James Neale of the Industrial Energy Efficiency Division of The University of Waikato in New Zealand.  James and I will be presenting on the three perspectives of energy management and suggesting a new strategic approach to plant reliability and energy efficiency.  I’ll share more about this topic with you in the coming weeks.

I mention all of this because these events have me thinking again on the topic of how we see and address Energy Management within the manufacturing and industrial environment.  You see, energy is typically an organization’s third highest expense (the industrial sector consumes 50 % of all energy globally), so reducing its consumption can be a highly effective tool for cutting costs.  While managing energy consumption is no small task, energy management solutions make it possible for companies to eliminate unnecessary energy consumption, significantly reduce energy expenses, and cut harmful carbon emissions — all with minimal risk and outlay.

ISO 50001:2011 was published the summer of 2011 with the purpose and intent of enabling organizations to establish the systems and processes necessary to improve energy performance.  This standard is based on the continual improvement and Plan-Do-Check-Act approaches utilized in the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management systems standards to provide compatibility and integration opportunities.  Implementing these Standards should lead to reductions in energy cost, greenhouse gas emissions and minimize the negative impact on the environment.

As with many standards and improvement initiatives, foundational elements exist.  The Energy Policy or “Commitment” is the foundational element for Energy Management Systems.

Businesses, Companies, and Corporations across the world are adopting internal energy and environmental policies to govern their procedures and practices and to promote themselves as socially responsible in an increasingly environmentally conscious society.  These policies are not only driven by the social aspect but they also have economics drivers.  Saving energy and cutting consumption costs aren’t just good for the environment, they’re good for the bottom line of an organization.

I challenge each of you to evaluate your corporate energy policy.  These policies are visions and goals that your company believes they can target and achieve.  Think about how (or whether) these guidelines and policies influence and/or impact the day-to-day operations.  If you are unable to relate to or notice direct behavioral modifications, it is likely that the company is not committed to real change.

Polices should not simply be vague statements about improving and reducing energy consumption and environmental impact but include measurable targets for improvement (i.e., 15% reduction in energy use (MJ/hl) by 2013 based on 2008 baseline, 15% reduction in water use (MJ/hl) by 2013 based on 2008 baseline, etc.).

It’s about common sense & doing the right things!

Energy Efficiency is a by-product of Reliability.

• It’s about making more with less and doing our part to make our manufacturing companies more reliable, energy efficient, cost effective and competitive.
• This topic is about being smart, being responsible and being successful.
• Compressed Air Systems:  Approximately 70% of plants use a compressed air system to power machine tools, material handling equipment, separation equipment and spray painting equipment.
• More than 85% of the electrical energy input to an air compressor is lost as waste heat, leaving less than 15% of the electrical energy consumed to be converted to pneumatic compressed air energy (U.S. DOE-ITP EM, 2008).
• Most leaks are at threaded connection points, rubber hose connections, valves, regulators, seals, and in old pneumatic equipment.
• Inadequate maintenance can lower compression efficiency, increase air leakage or pressure variability and lead to increased operating temperatures, poor moisture control and excessive contamination.  Better maintenance will reduce these problems and save energy!
• Hydraulic Systems:  when it comes to hydraulics there are two types of hydraulic systems; the first is clean, efficient and reliable, the second is dirty, inefficient and unreliable.
• As we look at hydraulic systems today over 80% of hydraulic system failures are directly related to the contamination or cleanliness of the hydraulic fluid. A clean hydraulic system sets the groundwork for achieving a reliable and efficient system.

As a reliability engineer, I find it exciting that nearly every major company in the world includes pages in regard to energy efficiency and environmental responsibility on their corporate web sites.  I’m excited because we know that reliable systems, reliable processes, and reliable assets are both energy efficient and environmentally responsible.

I think the graphic above best describes the characteristics of “Winning” Key Performance Indicators. What's meant by winning KPI's? Well, simply put the short list of items that can easily be used to quantify our current state or progress towards our desired state.

No matter where you work or what you do, KPI's should be integrated into your everyday practice. Work or tasks of all types have desired expectations or an array of intermediate steps and goals. All of these expectations, steps, and goals can and should be measured in a way to drive performance and meet the desired end state. There are really two challenges when it comes down to accomplishing this feat. First, taking the time to identify the few items that can easily be measured and used to proactively adjust in order to reach success. Second, and likely the most difficult, consistently measuring and analyzing to that which you expect.

If you think about green manufacturing and some items that can be used as winning KPI's consider a few of the following: energy cost per unit, energy cost per lb (kg, etc) of product produced, energy usage by product line, GHG emissions by line, by product, by defect (i.e., air and gas leaks, faulty steam traps, faulty insulation, etc.), energy cost by defect (i.e., motor defects such as resistance to ground, current unbalances, misalignment, incorrect application, undersized, oversized, etc.). For a truly holistic view, try comparing your plants Asset Health v.s. Overal Energy Consumption v.s. Production Output Weibull Plot.

As always, I welcome all of your thoughts and comments. Feel free to comment on my blog or send me an email at colsonc@alliedreliability.com. Until next time, set your goals and start measuring!

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For your efforts or programs to succeed it is vital that you gain as much “Buy-in” / support from as many people within the organization as possible. Although everyone’s support is important, I fully believe Plant Management is the most critical. When I say “Plant Management”, Im specifically talking about the plant manager! There is a high probability of gaining maximum “Buy-in” if you are able to get the plant manager as an advocate of your efforts.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with a plant manager of a very large operation (well over a thousand employees). Our conversation spanned across many topics from safety issues, production capabilities, reliability opportunities, projects, applicable new technologies, personnel, budgets, the community, and an assortment of problems and opportunities. I was pleasantly surprised that he spent nearly four times as much of our time together speaking directly about the opportunities and solutions rather than speaking about the problems they faced. He is an extremely busy man with hundreds of items at the plant that command his attention not to mention the many more items at the corporate level that demand his attention. So, I was mildly surprised when our conversation turned to energy. He was able to quickly covey to me exactly where his plant was relative to their industry vertical and the main areas where they were in the midst of making strides to reduce their energy usage. He even boasted, “Our plant efficiency has improved by a bit more than 4% versus last year”. I thought to myself, I’ve got to meet their site energy manager as this person is doing a fabulous job at getting the message and direction conveyed.

When introduced to the site energy management team and their manager, I commended them for their efforts which were so easily identified while walking through the plant and talking to the many individuals I had the pleasure of speaking with. I specifically asked their energy manager how she had been so successful in getting the all important “Buy-in”. Her response rang so true…”Consistent quick and concise information”. She was spot on! She understood that to get maximum benefit for their energy program she would need to present their efforts in a way that captures the plant manager’s attention while taking little or no time.

I’ve personally found that organizing your information in a repetitive fashion has benefits. What do I mean by this? Well, it’s this simple…setup a system to communicate to your boss or plant manager the right dose of information at the right time or frequency. Keep this one simple rule in mind, “speak their language”. To do this you’ve got to understand what drives them and what their pressing interests and concerns are. If you can do this, you will grab their ear and have the opportunity of obtaining their advocacy.

If you’re an energy manager, try the following: (all other mangers, adopt according to your efforts)

Daily Report: this should be the information that your plant manger sees each and every morning. This is the report that usually includes everything about the plant which best resembles the plants vital signs. From an energy perspective this needs to include two numbers which summarize the overall plant energy consumption. Make these numbers meaningful by speaking the language and representing them in terms well understood. What are they? The first one is straight energy units in a certain time period (e.g., BTU/yr., Kcal/hr., MW, or kJ); the second one is the relative number based on production (BTU/lb of finished product, MW/klb of finished product. These two numbers should be presented daily and displayed against a reference number (e.g., goals, budgeted).

Weekly Report: keep this to no more than two short paragraphs so the plant manager can read it in under 3 minutes. Provide a summary of the energy consumption with any explanation of why the number is what it is (positive or negative). Finish by telling the plant manager what energy related items took place the past week and what should be expected to take place next week.

Monthly Progress Report: the purpose of this report is provide a bit more information and detail about individual systems or projects which are either being improved or considered for improvements. Use this report to look back over the previous month and compare against expectations while providing insight for the plant manager as what to expect in the coming month. The report should be written in bullitized format with no more than a couple of sentences of details. The goal here is to highlight the efforts, mention any concerns and potential road blocks, and describe the road map through action items. if you have an energy manage,entteam this is a great place to put it items from team meetings. Because we want this report to be no more than one page, be careful not to break down each individual energy contributor. Pulling this information into large groupings (electrical, steam, water, coal, fuel, furnace efficiencies, etc.) works well.

Quarterly Report: here is your opportunity to shine! Hold a 60 minute meeting with your plant manager and leadership team. Make sure the entire energy management team is present so they too can present items they were involved with to improve overall plant efficiencies. This 60 minute meeting should be split into two segments; 30 minutes of presentation followed by open dialogue of questions and answers. This is an area where I am not real flexible. Make sure your information is put together with great attention to detail and flow. If you can’t present your message in thirty minutes then you will have a hard time gaining the support you are after. Answering their questions while soliciting for suggestions and input is vital.

So, what should you cover in this 30 minute report? Consider the following; list of improvements/projects, failures or setbacks and why they occurred, how any failures or setbacks will be fixed moving forward, ideas for new projects, budget impacts, and ROI’s realized. Keep in mind, be consistent, quick and concise with your presentation to keep the attention of your audience. Be enthusiastic, it’s contagious.

Annual Report: this report should be looked at as your opportunity to show the entir program’s accomplishments and outline how energy projects will be implemented during the new fiscal year. Be sure to highlight the involvement and input from all partis that were involved and engaged I the efforts. Include what you want to see in the next budget along with the business case for spending. Dedicate one small section of the report to present problems that occurred and how they were resolved. Make sure you focus on the positives and solutions rather on the negatives and road blocks. Corporate Executives and Plant Leadership want people leading efforts that are focused on solutions and improvements instead of pointing out all the negatives and why things either can’t or are slow to happen. This report should beno more than 15 to 20 pages and should begin with a summary tablets everything included in the report. Summary table = item of focus and one sentence describing results or solutions.

I hope you will give this system of communication a try because I know it can help you with your efforts. By improving the way you present information, you stand to make your plant manager a believer and advocate of your energy management efforts. Give it a try and let me know how it works. Also, if you have other suggestions or thoughts on this topic please feel free to share by commenting on this blog.

Interested in more great blogs to follow? Check out some from my colleagues here: GPAllied’s Coach’s Corner

A couple of months ago, I received an email from SustainablePlant where this picture was attached. The message was simple: Join Sustainable Plant in all things silly and submit a caption in the comments section for this month’s Substainably Silly cartoon contest.

Although I didn’t submit a caption, this picture sure got me thinking of the silly things we do within our manufacturing plants while labeling these efforts as something complete opposite. I really enjoyed these two posted comments as captions:

• “What, you mean to tell me after all these years all we had to do was paint it “green”?”

• “When I said we needed to greenwash our business, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

Obviously, stakeholders, corporate leaders, and plant management do not want to see us “acting” but rather successfully executing. With that being said, I believe there are five key factors that affect a plants performance. While I believe these five key factors are the same for nearly all efforts we engage in, I have written this with the focus towards the energy management efforts.

Five key factors, what are they? Focus, planning, resources, processes and people greatly affect the performance of energy management. These factors are applicable not only to the energy management team members but also, in a narrower domain, to the front line managers in the plant. A frontline manager should be looked at as a ‘mini energy manager’ who deals with the same strategic and operational issues that the energy team attempts to improve.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these five important factors.

Focus. The energy management manager team needs to ensure that the overall manufacturing operation has a clear sense of direction and strategic focus. Frontline managers also need to ensure correct interpretation of the goals by the workforce. Once the workforce in the plant is clear about goals and focus, the energy manager and the frontline managers need to delegate responsibility and decision-making authority to the required people, making them accountable for results.

Planning. It is the energy manager’s responsibility to chalk out a strategy to achieve goals with maximum input from the people who will implement the plan. Effective strategic and operational planning on the management team is a must for optimal performance of the manufacturing operation. For frontline managers, the strategic plan should aid operational improvements and the operational plan should focus on activities like maximum efficiency while maintaining/improving production schedules, maintenance activities, training and the like.

Resources. The energy manager should be able to garner enough financial support for his/her operation, deploy appropriate technologies and take steps to put together an effective team. It is then extremely important that the energy management team work directly with frontline management to ensure that financial resources and technologies are properly used for operations and maintenance. Don’t forget to work with Human Resource to formulate and implement policies for an effective workforce. Resource management should not be overlooked when targeting optimal performance of a manufacturing operation.

Processes. Without appropriate processes, focus, planning, and resources are of no use. I can’t stress how vital it is for the energy management team to have an efficient operating system in place, which closely monitors the operations and triggers a corrective action if the performance of the operation falls below expected efficiency and/or production levels. The energy management team has to ensure that the operating systems serve their design purpose, promote teamwork and monitor workgroup performance, as well as initiate corrective action when performance is below desired levels.

People. An effective and motivated workforce can be a blessing to any energy management effort. The energy management team should share a good working relationship with the frontline management group. To have the desired working relationship sharing information, listening and coaching are important skills the energy management team needs to possess. They should be able to initiate change in the operations as well as prevent political infighting. The same applies for the entire management team. They also should share a good working relationship with their workgroup and be able to implement the change initiated by the energy management team.

Besides the energy management team and front line management, their superiors should also understand the implications of the five factors discussed above. Though, for a plant’s energy manager to succeed a lot depends on the personal skills of the manager, the support of the top management goes a long way to help the energy manager achieve organizational goals.

I hope this short entry has been informative and you will continue to follow my blog. As always, I appreciate any feedback (comments, thoughts, etc.) so feel free to drop me a line at colsonc@alliedreliability.com.

Interested in more great blogs to follow? Check out some from my colleagues here: GPAllied’s Coach’s Corner

It’s time to wrap up this 6 part series detailing the process we use to developing a successful ISO 50001 compliant Energy Management process.  In this series I been sharing details behind the R5 Rapid Improvement Process model used by Allied Reliability Group to help companies identify, achieve, and sustain improvement gains in energy management.  ISO 50001 has gained much traction and attention from those looking to be responsible and gain competitive advantage by lowering their energy related costs.

In the final phase of this process we focus on “Realizing” the gains and fruits of our labor. The Realize phase is used to implement, measure, and train for sustained results.

As mentioned in previous parts, we have tailored this approach to either focus on a specific area or system within your plant (smaller implementation for controlled deployment), or it can be implemented site wide for a much wider implementation.  Either way, our goal is to identify real opportunities both quick wins and long-term project based improvements to reduce energy consumption, lower operation expenses, and position your company for sustained competitive advantage.

High level steps in this phase are shown below:

Let’s take a look at these two high level steps in the “Realize” phase.

• Implement Energy Improvement Plan  - Many are familiar with the typical assessment, analysis, reporting, and being left with hundreds of tasks to implement with no support or idea on how to accomplish.  This one fact is the graveyard of all initiatives.  Success only comes by implementing and changing the way we conduct business resulting in positive ROI’s.  We work hand-in-hand with your designated energy management team providing them with the support, training, coaching, and mentoring to accomplish each of the recommended tasks.

The completion of each task is critical to the success of the program.  To make task implementation go as smooth as possible, each task will have an implementation plan outlining:

• What’s needed
• What’s to be done (to-do’s)
• Who’s responsible for each step
• What’s the deadline

Anything less than this level of detail will slow or even derail the implementation process.

• Measure and Verify Performance - There is an old management adage that says, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”.  In other words, unless you measure something you will never know if it is getting better or worse.  Savings can occur in the form of either repetitive, reoccurring savings or one-time savings. Recorded before and after measurements are critical to eliminate the possibility of misrepresented or even unnoticed savings.

Measurement systems will be put into place to collect data and express results as standard Key Performance Indicating metrics.  These metrics will be compared to benchmark data to help the organization evaluate and measure progress toward its defined goals.  Integral inputs to the continuous improvement cycle are these Energy Management KPI’s.

It is important to communicate these metrics and the success of the program both up and down the organization.  People want to know how things are progressing and certainly like hearing the good news and how they are helping the organization become more efficient and environmentally responsible.  With energy management metrics in place, your organization will begin to recognize the directly proportional relationship between Equipment Reliability and Energy Efficiency.

• Training for Sustained Results - It is imperative that you and your team understand the key elements in sustaining positive results.  The major elements we have discovered over the years involve impacting the entire organizations beliefs and behaviors related to energy management.

Your organization must assume ownership of any improvement initiative, process, or program.  To sustain culture change, everyone must be active participants in the development and implementation.

Beliefs are vital to the ability to change and must be modified prior to any behavior change.  Education and knowledge transfer are keys to changing beliefs. This model incorporates education, followed by coaching and mentoring during implementation.  In doing so, we help your people become self-sufficient by transferring the knowledge and ability to them.

The most effective way to sustain change in your organization is to impact each and every level of the organization.  By utilizing dedicated, full-time employees trained to this Standard and the R5 model, we are able to deliver consistently and effectively instill long term successful and profitable change.

Continuous Improvement Cycle - The moment you stop looking to improve is the moment you open yourself up to competitors making inroads as they find ways to improve quality or reduce costs.  Perfection will never be achieved, and thus improvement is always possible.  The continuous improvement cycle is an effective team-involvement tool and forms the basis for a “lessons learnt” database and best practices, which are continually reinforced at the leadership level and reflected in changed KPI’s, updated business processes, and continual modeling and monitoring.  Rigorous application of the continuous improvement cycle often realizes step change while sharing lessons learnt through a knowledge management system ensures that change is sustained, despite leadership changes or staff turnover issues.

In closing this final part to this series of bogs, I want to point out where these steps in our R5 model align with the ISO 50001 standard.

• Competence, training and awareness (Section 4.5.2)
• Checking (Section 4.6)
• Monitoring, Measurement and analysis (Section 4.6.1)
• Evaluation of compliance with legal requirements and other requirements (Section 4.6.2)
• Internal audit of the EnMS (Section 4.6.3)
• Nonconformities, correction, corrective action and preventive action (Section 4.6.4)
• Control of records (Section 4.6.5)
• Management Review (Section 4.7)
• General (Section 4.7.1)
• Input to management review (Section 4.7.2)
• Output from management review (Section 4.7.3)

I hope this entire series has been informative and will you continue to follow this blog.  I will continue to share with you the many ways that we can improve upon our core business functions and how such improvements can lead to energy efficiency and sustainability.  As always, I appreciate the feedback so feel free to drop me a line at colsonc@alliedreliability.com.

Interested in more great blogs to follow?  Check out some from my colleague’s here: GPAllied’s Coach’s Corner

Wow, where did the last part of 2011 go? Time passes by so fast when you’re busy and having fun! I have received many emails and comments related to this topic as many of you are highly interested in this topic and our approach to Energy Management. I apologize for not updating this blog sooner and will do my very best to wrap up this 6 part series over the next couple of weeks.

For those of you that may not have been following, I am attempting to share details behind the R5 Rapid Improvement Process model that we use to help companies identify, achieve, and sustain improvement gains in energy management. ISO 50001 has gained much traction and attention from those looking to be responsible and gain competitive advantage by lowering their energy related costs.

In this part of the series, I want to discuss and highlight some of the main steps within the “Resolve” phase of the process. The Resolve phase is used to implement the strategic design and approach that is designed and developed in the previous phases. Basically, it is the portion of the process where the “rubber meets the road”.

As mentioned in Part 4, we have tailored this approach to either focus on a specific area or system within your plant (smaller implementation for controlled deployment), or it can be implemented site wide for a much wider implementation. Either way, our goal is to identify real opportunities both quick wins and long-term project based improvements to reduce energy consumption and lower operation expenses.

High level steps in this phase are shown below:

Let’s take a look at these two high level steps in the “Resolve” phase.

• Perform Energy Analysis  - Once a system or area has been selected, Allied will assemble a team of experts to conduct an onsite energy analysis. An energy analysis consists of a detailed examination of how a facility uses energy, what the facility pays for that energy, and finally, a recommended program for changes in operating practices or energy consuming equipment that will cost effectively save money on energy bills.The analysis will assist in quantifying energy uses and losses through detailed review and analysis of equipment, systems, and operational characteristics. Onsite testing and measurements are required during this step to ensure and quantify opportunities. Multiple tools and PdM technologies will be integrated to evaluate and capture significant energy savings and simplify ROI calculations.

Tools and PdM technologies include, but are not limited to, some of the following:

• Power Quality Meter
• Infrared Thermography
• Airborne Ultrasonic
• Data Logger
• Airflow Measurement Devices
• Motor Circuit Analysis
• Vibration Analysis
• Light Meter

The many steps in this analysis including data gathering, observations, onsite interviews, data analysis, developing the energy improvement plan, help increase awareness throughout the organization of the impact energy can have on the business. Participation in the process facilitates organizational alignment as the future state becomes clearer and the stake each department/individual holds in the improvement process. This alignment is critical to the effective implementation of cultural and behavioral change associated with adopting energy management best practices.

I’ll make note that while we advocate utilizing many of the available tools and technologies to identify opportunities; I also firmly believe that if you currently don’t have permanently installed meters to quantify and measure your energy consumption…doing so is a must. Measurement is the first step that leads to control and improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. And finally, if you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.

• Develop Energy Improvement Plan  - Once the analysis has been completed, energy saving measures can be identified. The measures identified vary from one facility or plant to another due to differences in equipment, system design, and operations. The energy improvement plan will provide clear, straight forward and to the point explanation of the current situation, recommended improvements, and advantages of taking recommended actions. This energy improvement plan becomes the roadmap or strategy to address the opportunities identified from the analysis.The energy improvement plan will prioritize tasks addressing both criticality and maximum ROI. It is highly possible that when utilizing PdM technologies during the analysis that defects of the equipment will be found. These results will be reported and may lead to non-energy related benefits (i.e., scheduled repair prior to emergency breakdown repair).

As noted in my previous blogs, companies must take logical controlled steps to successfully implement such initiatives or programs across their organization. To do so, I believe a prioritized effort based upon ROI is required to fully rollout.

Similar to how I closed each of the previous parts of this series, I want to point out where these steps align with the ISO 50001 standard.

• Energy Planning (Section 4.4)
• Energy Performance Indicators (Section 4.4.5)
• Implementation and Operation (Section 4.5)
• Operational Control (Section 4.5.5)
• Design (Section 4.5.6)
• Procurement of Energy Services, Products, Equipment and Energy (Section 4.5.7)
• Checking (Section 4.6)
• Monitoring, Measurement and Analysis (Section 4.6.1)

I hope this has been informative and will you continue to follow this blog as next time I plan to discuss the final phase, “Realize”, of the Energy Management R5 process. As always, I appreciate the feedback so feel free to drop me a line at colsonc@alliedreliability.com.

Interested in more great blogs to follow? Check out some from my colleague’s here: GPAllied’s Coach’s Corner

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last shared with you some of the details behind the R5 Rapid Improvement Process model that we use to help companies identify, achieve, and sustain improvement gains in energy management. ISO 50001 has gained much traction and attention from those looking to be responsible and gain competitive advantage by lowering their utility costs.

In this part of the series, I want to discuss and highlight some of the main steps within the “Ratify” phase of the process. The Ratify phase is used to establish the picture of the future state and rally the team around the targeted performance improvements. The site Leadership/Sponsorship Team becomes aligned around four things;

• The vision for the future
• A prioritized list of improvement opportunities
• An implementation plan
• The financial business case for change

Once these items become the focal points, it gets easier for partnership agreements to be created between operational and support functions. In this phase, the energy team performs a risk analysis to help mitigate any issues that may arise with the new processes. Also, for success it is imperative that site leadership agree to relieve the focus area of traditional constraints which allows them to follow the new process and practices designed and implemented by the R5 process.

High level steps in this phase are shown below:

Back in the Rationalize Phase we identified areas of significant energy use and consumption along with opportunities for improving our energy performance. These opportunities provide us with the areas that we intend to focus our efforts. While we have identified key areas of opportunity, it is important to take note that many of the processes and procedures that we develop along the way will be used across the organization to drive success.

Let’s take a look at the high level step in this “Ratify” phase.

• System Selection for Controlled Deployment  - Starting a new initiative/program or expanding an initiative often leads to many tasks needing to be completed with insufficient resources. Recognizing the need to prioritize efforts based upon business impact and financial savings will not only increase the potential for success but many times is necessary and required to even begin such a journey. My personal experience tells me that it is vital to implement energy management programs in a way that pays for future rollout and minimizes the strain that can be applied to an organization attempting to tackle every opportunity at the same time.

We have all been there before; anxious and excited to get started and accomplish each of our tasks and goals. Passionate about what we do and trying to accomplish everything at the speed of light. All of these are driven by our desire to achieve excellence and prove we are capable of that which we set out to do. Again, my experience says, “slow down and deploy at a controlled pace for success”.
By prioritizing and selecting areas or systems to focus efforts, you will be able to create specialized teams (through competence, training, and awareness) with the expertise to evaluate, analyze, and identify real energy saving solutions that can be implemented immediately.

Some common and familiar systems to start with or begin analysis include the following:

• Compressed Air Systems
• Compressed Gas Systems Steam and Hot Water Systems
• Chillers
• Cooling Towers
• Air Handling Units and Air Distribution Systems
• Pumping Systems
• Building Electrical Systems
• Lighting Systems
• Process Equipment

I will make note of one last point before closing. If the success of the improvement initiative is dependent on employees adopting new behaviors then we must effectively communicate why the change is necessary to the business and how it will affect each employee. The focus of such communications should be to provide employees with the necessary information to make an affirmative choice to 1) embrace the change, 2) support the change process, and 3) take ownership for the changes after implementation. Ownership in this sense is when employees model those behaviors required to sustain the technical improvements.

As I noted previously, companies must take logical controlled steps to successfully implement such initiatives or programs across their organization.  To do so, I believe a prioritized effort based upon ROI is required to fully rollout.  I hope this concept has become clear from the discussion of the “Ratify” phase.  I have no doubt that it will continue to become obvious when I write next on the “Resolve” phase of the R5 process.

Similar to how I wrapped up the previous parts of this series, I want to point out where these steps align with the ISO 50001 standard.

• Energy Objectives, Energy Targets and Energy Management Action Plans (Section 4.4.6)
• Implementation and Operation (Section 4.5)
• General (Section 4.5.1)
• Competence, Training and Awareness (Section 4.5.2)
• Communication (Section 4.5.3)
• Documentation (Section 4.5.4)

I hope this has been informative and will you continue to follow this blog as next time I plan to discuss the “Resolve” phase of the R5 process. As always, I appreciate the feedback so feel free to drop me a line at colsonc@alliedreliability.com.

It is now time to move into the “Rationalize” phase of the process to identify key improvement opportunities that will allow an organization to fully understand their current conditions and improve upon those conditions. The focus here is to understand the selected value stream in a way that makes analysis possible and, using relative processes and system data, create business case scenario simulations that will lead to a deeper understanding of the losses in the value stream and the appropriate areas of improvement moving forward.

High level steps in this phase are shown below:

Keeping the intent of the standard in mind, let’s discuss the high level steps in this “Rationalize” phase.

• Energy Baseline – The sole purpose of this step is to identify key opportunities for improvement and create a strategic and tactical plan to maximize the return on investment from the implementation of an Energy Management initiative. The objective is to examine and evaluate current business processes and practices as related to energy usage and determine the major energy consuming systems and equipment within the facility or plant. This analysis will serve as a baseline and foundation for the implementation activities driven in the “Ratify” and “Resolve” phases.
  
  The many steps in this phase include; data gathering, observations, on-site interviews, data analysis, planning and building the business case. All of these steps serve to increase the awareness throughout the organization of the impact energy management can have on the business. Participation in the process facilitates organizational alignment as the future state becomes clearer and the stake each department and individual holds in the improvement process is defined. This alignment/buy-in is critical to the effective implementation of cultural and behavioral change associated with adopting energy management best practices.
  

It is vital that the facility/plant operation be addressed holistically as it will promote energy management throughout the organization. Experience shows that a collaborative relationship between all functions of a business (maintenance, engineering, production, procurement, quality, finance and regulatory compliance) is critical to success. The integration and interdependencies that exist between these functions of an organization can greatly impact the potential of energy management and the overall business performance.

While the output of this phase serves as the baseline for all energy management implementation and opportunities within an organization, it is important to realize that companies must take logical controlled steps to successfully implement such initiatives or programs across their organization. To do so, I believe a prioritized effort based upon ROI is required to fully rollout. This concept will become clear throughout the next two phases, “Ratify” and “Resolve”, of the R5 process.

Similar to how I wrapped up Part 2 of this series, I want to point out where these steps align with the ISO 50001 standard.

• Energy Planning (Section 4.4)
• General (Section 4.4.1)
• Legal requirements and other requirements (Section 4.4.2)
• Energy review (Section 4.4.3)
• Energy baseline (Section 4.4.4)
• Energy performance indicators (Section 4.4.5)
• Energy objectives, energy targets and energy management action plans (Section 4.4.6)

I hope this has been informative and will you continue to follow this blog as next time I plan to discuss the “Ratify” phase of the R5 process. As always, I appreciate the feedback so feel free to drop me a line at colsonc@alliedreliability.com.