Features
In the Cloud: How cloud computing is changing the manufacturing ERP landscape Featured
Written by Pat Garrehy Monday, 15 April 2013
The introduction and success of cloud computing in recent years has dramatically changed how businesses run. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the manufacturing industry, as manufacturers have been traditionally slower to adopt new technology platforms that affect mission-critical operations. With cloud computing, we are seeing a seismic shift in the manufacturing landscape moving to business applications delivered as software as a service (SaaS) via the Internet.
A 2009 International Data Corp. (IDC) study shows that the Software as a Service (SaaS) market had worldwide revenues of $13.1 billion. IDC forecasts the market to reach $40.5 billion by 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate of 25 per cent. By 2012, IDC expects that less than 15 per cent of net-new software firms coming to market will ship a packaged product (on CD). By 2014, about 34 per cent of all new business software purchases will be consumed via SaaS, and SaaS delivery will constitute about 14.5 per cent of worldwide software spending across all primary markets.
Why are manufacturing companies shifting to the cloud? How is the recent introduction and adoption of Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions impacting manufacturers? What makes PaaS a better solution for manufacturing rather than the traditional on-premise, other SaaS or other ‘on-demand’ offerings? We explore some of the main drivers behind this shift to new technology platforms—and why it is critical to build competitive edge for the future.
Cloud Computing 101
The basic argument in favor of cloud computing remains the same across all industry verticals. Specifically, cloud computing significantly reduces the costs and complexity of evaluating, buying, configuring and managing business applications. Rather than requiring companies to manage all the various software applications and hardware required, cloud computing initially has promised (and delivered) these solutions as a service via the Internet. It has evolved even further to now include platforms for building and running custom applications, commonly referred to as ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS). This new ability to provide customized solutions on a common cloud-computing platform delivers new possibilities to companies of all types. It simplifies deployment and encourages innovation across all business solutions, while lowering overall costs.
Manufacturers in particular benefit from the move to PaaS. Traditionally, manufacturers have been hesitant to jump on to the latest technological ‘bandwagon’ that promised better, faster, and cheaper solutions. In essence, they have been burned in the past and don’t want to take on any additional risk from unproven and unknown software solutions. This has resulted in many manufacturers - mid-market manufacturers in particular - having antiquated, dated systems that are simply taking too many resources to just keep up and running.
The move to cloud computing finally delivered solutions that provided manufacturers with improved visibility and management capabilities into their global operations at lower overall costs. While these benefits were clear, some manufacturers still resisted because the standard SaaS solutions did not provide the critical capability or functionality for their particular business. This left the complexity of integrating and maintaining new SaaS solutions with legacy ‘mission critical’ applications. The move to PaaS radically changes this ‘problem’ for manufacturers. With a standard platform for building and running applications in the cloud, manufacturers can now easily maintain mission-critical customized business applications. PaaS simplifies development and encourages innovation of new cutting-edge business solutions, removing the need to build ‘from scratch’. This standardized infrastructure also creates a new ecosystem of developers that can now build customized applications quickly and easily for manufacturing companies.
Now, manufacturers can run the entire business in a cloud on a platform that lowers costs, improves visibility, simplifies operations, and - possibly most important - lowers overall business risk. Manufacturing executives are no longer burdened with the overhead associated with managing IT resources. Also removed are concerns over technological obsolescence associated with ERP systems that don’t keep up with times. Given the strong PaaS ecosystem that encourages software companies to develop their solutions with ease of integration in mind, businesses are provided with more choices for software solutions.
Critical Visibility
Almost every mid-size manufacturer outsources or partners with other manufacturing companies during their routine operations. Whether this is due to efforts to save costs, focus on core competencies, or gain access to industry expertise, we have seen a dramatic move in the last decade to more outsourced operations. In simple terms, ‘outsourcing’ can be defined as the strategic use of outside resources to perform activities traditionally handled by internal staff and resources. It is a management strategy by which an organization outsources major, non-core functions to specialized, efficient service providers.
Manufacturers in particular have embraced outsourcing as a critical way to remain competitive in the global marketplace with the benefits of lowering costs and improved flexibility. Outsourcing can be more challenging than expected, however, due to the need for better collaboration throughout the extended supply chain.
Cloud computing solutions, and in particular supply chain management (SCM) solutions, finally give manufacturers the visibility and agility they need to better run their outsourced operations. With SaaS supply chain management (SCM) solutions, manufacturers have the ability to easily add new partners, better monitor product quality, and be more agile to respond to change quickly.
With an increased reliance on outsourced manufacturing, the need for collaboration has escalated. Cloud computing now enables manufacturers with inter-enterprise collaboration. Manufacturing companies and their outsourcing partners have access to business applications to support critical visibility and collaboration, but mission critical processes sometimes slip through the cracks. Manufacturers need not only SaaS but an entire platform to build and run any customized applications – thus the need for PaaS. History has taught us that manufacturing companies will always need customized software solutions that easily integrate to their core ERP software. PaaS delivers the robust ecosystem and ease of integration to support this requirement.
Manufacturing is currently experiencing a major shift to relying on communities of trading partners to fulfill outsourced manufacturing services. Cloud computing, and in particular PaaS, is the catalyst for this explosive change and it is the trigger that will deliver a new collaborative, community supply chain management model. Manufacturers with outsourced operations are moving to the cloud for obvious benefits today and the promise of additional benefits tomorrow. The move from ‘on-premise’ to the Internet based ERP systems allows the manufacturer easy access (24 x 7) to a single system in the cloud.
Multi-Plant Environment now the Norm
Multiple plant operations add complexity. Whether manufacturing plants are located across town, across the country, or across the world, companies today need to have sound business processes and systems in place for successful global operations. The need for systems that provide you with increased operational efficiencies, increased productivity, and costs savings must be balanced with the need for increased collaboration and visibility.
One clear example of this inherent complexity is effectively capturing manufacturing costs. Different operations, different sites, different plants, different divisions, different business units usually capture and maintain their own ‘sub-ledgers’ of cost accounts. The complexity of accurately capturing these costs and then rolling up into the main ledger for the company’s overall financial statements is clear. Just doing this roll up activity manually may take days, weeks, or months to complete. Manufacturers would not know what their real costs were for months after the fact, let alone have any real understanding of costs they are occurring today to make better business decisions.
With cloud computing, solutions are now available to deliver global real-time business solutions to manufacturers. Companies gain improved visibility and business intelligence to better manage the entire business as a whole rather than as separate plants. They now have access to dashboards of information that instantly show what is occurring throughout their global operations to make better business decisions today. But again, SaaS solutions sometimes fall short in providing unique applications or business solutions needed to run each distinctive business.
PaaS finally delivers the platform to support the multi-company business processes inherent in any supply chain. It provides the visibility, flexibility, and simplicity to enable manufacturers to better run their multi-plant operations. A successful manufacturing company can now have business-critical apps specific to particular sites, plants, divisions, and business units running in the PaaS environment simply and easily linked to all their other cloud-based solutions. You get the benefits of customized expert systems for your unique needs running in a simple, cost efficient platform.
Building for the Future
As with any investment, business application purchasing decisions are not only about what your company needs today but what will be best position them for tomorrow. The momentum towards cloud based solutions by manufacturers strongly illustrates this point. The cloud, delivering both software and platform as a service, provides cost savings, standardized business processes, and the operational efficiencies companies need today to remain competitive. Even more important, though, is what the cloud promises for the future for manufacturers.
Arguably the most valuable benefits of moving to the cloud are the simplicity and flexibility to be responsive to all sorts of change. Now, real-time visibility is no longer a myth, but an actuality, providing valuable dashboards of information in order to make more informed business decisions. As customer demand shifts, or supply availability changes, manufacturers now have the tools necessary to respond accordingly. In addition, this more flexible platform enables customized solutions, when needed for business critical operations, to be added simply and easily by an entire ecosystem of developers. As a new business opportunity emerges, manufacturers can quickly identify and take immediate action with any solutions necessary to best position them against competitors.
What is also interesting to watch in the coming years is the expected significant increase in merger and acquisitions (M&A) in the manufacturing industry. Despite the recent global economic slowdown, M&A activities are expected to grow due to many manufacturers taking advantage of an increase in market share or new market growth. An established cloud based computing platform may be critical for either those companies that wish to be acquired as well as the companies doing the acquisitions.
For those companies that wish to be merged into another organization, having established cloud computing solutions can make you much more ‘attractive’. An existing systems infrastructure that is simple and flexible that can be easily consolidated with other companies’ systems eases the complexity that comes from traditional M&A activities. It is one less headache that the acquirer has to deal with knowing that they are not acquiring a legacy software system and additional IT infrastructure costs.
For companies looking to grow via an M&A strategy, having an established cloud based platform not only gives you the visibility that you need to run your current business but it also provides the flexibility to add new sites, plants, divisions, and business units as the opportunities arise. Also, the key to most successful mergers is maintaining a lower cost of ownership for business solutions. With cloud solutions, the usual obstacles of antiquated legacy systems and costly integration disappear.
Conclusion
There is little doubt that manufacturers are moving to the cloud. More enterprises consider cloud computing a viable technology, with nearly 60 percent saying they view it as a business enabler versus less than 40 percent who say the technology will take years to mature. That’s a big change from 2009, when just 37 percent saw it as an enabler and 63 percent were taking a wait-and-see attitude or considering the cloud more marketing hype than reality. “Cloud computing is on the cusp of broad enterprise adoption,” said Sheryl Kingstone, Research Director at Yankee Group.
More and more companies are realizing the dramatic costs savings and operational efficiencies gained today as well as improved visibility and flexibility gained for tomorrow. Critical to this move is the emergence of Platforms as a Service that provide a robust, yet simple way to enable customized solutions unique to specific business needs. This all points to a seismic shift in the manufacturing landscape to cloud based solutions that are critical to building competitive advantage in the future.
Pat Garrehy is the founder, president and CEO of Rootstock Software. For more information, visit www.rootstock.com.
A 2009 International Data Corp. (IDC) study shows that the Software as a Service (SaaS) market had worldwide revenues of $13.1 billion. IDC forecasts the market to reach $40.5 billion by 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate of 25 per cent. By 2012, IDC expects that less than 15 per cent of net-new software firms coming to market will ship a packaged product (on CD). By 2014, about 34 per cent of all new business software purchases will be consumed via SaaS, and SaaS delivery will constitute about 14.5 per cent of worldwide software spending across all primary markets.
Why are manufacturing companies shifting to the cloud? How is the recent introduction and adoption of Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions impacting manufacturers? What makes PaaS a better solution for manufacturing rather than the traditional on-premise, other SaaS or other ‘on-demand’ offerings? We explore some of the main drivers behind this shift to new technology platforms—and why it is critical to build competitive edge for the future.
Cloud Computing 101
The basic argument in favor of cloud computing remains the same across all industry verticals. Specifically, cloud computing significantly reduces the costs and complexity of evaluating, buying, configuring and managing business applications. Rather than requiring companies to manage all the various software applications and hardware required, cloud computing initially has promised (and delivered) these solutions as a service via the Internet. It has evolved even further to now include platforms for building and running custom applications, commonly referred to as ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS). This new ability to provide customized solutions on a common cloud-computing platform delivers new possibilities to companies of all types. It simplifies deployment and encourages innovation across all business solutions, while lowering overall costs.
Manufacturers in particular benefit from the move to PaaS. Traditionally, manufacturers have been hesitant to jump on to the latest technological ‘bandwagon’ that promised better, faster, and cheaper solutions. In essence, they have been burned in the past and don’t want to take on any additional risk from unproven and unknown software solutions. This has resulted in many manufacturers - mid-market manufacturers in particular - having antiquated, dated systems that are simply taking too many resources to just keep up and running.
The move to cloud computing finally delivered solutions that provided manufacturers with improved visibility and management capabilities into their global operations at lower overall costs. While these benefits were clear, some manufacturers still resisted because the standard SaaS solutions did not provide the critical capability or functionality for their particular business. This left the complexity of integrating and maintaining new SaaS solutions with legacy ‘mission critical’ applications. The move to PaaS radically changes this ‘problem’ for manufacturers. With a standard platform for building and running applications in the cloud, manufacturers can now easily maintain mission-critical customized business applications. PaaS simplifies development and encourages innovation of new cutting-edge business solutions, removing the need to build ‘from scratch’. This standardized infrastructure also creates a new ecosystem of developers that can now build customized applications quickly and easily for manufacturing companies.
Now, manufacturers can run the entire business in a cloud on a platform that lowers costs, improves visibility, simplifies operations, and - possibly most important - lowers overall business risk. Manufacturing executives are no longer burdened with the overhead associated with managing IT resources. Also removed are concerns over technological obsolescence associated with ERP systems that don’t keep up with times. Given the strong PaaS ecosystem that encourages software companies to develop their solutions with ease of integration in mind, businesses are provided with more choices for software solutions.
Critical Visibility
Almost every mid-size manufacturer outsources or partners with other manufacturing companies during their routine operations. Whether this is due to efforts to save costs, focus on core competencies, or gain access to industry expertise, we have seen a dramatic move in the last decade to more outsourced operations. In simple terms, ‘outsourcing’ can be defined as the strategic use of outside resources to perform activities traditionally handled by internal staff and resources. It is a management strategy by which an organization outsources major, non-core functions to specialized, efficient service providers.
Manufacturers in particular have embraced outsourcing as a critical way to remain competitive in the global marketplace with the benefits of lowering costs and improved flexibility. Outsourcing can be more challenging than expected, however, due to the need for better collaboration throughout the extended supply chain.
Cloud computing solutions, and in particular supply chain management (SCM) solutions, finally give manufacturers the visibility and agility they need to better run their outsourced operations. With SaaS supply chain management (SCM) solutions, manufacturers have the ability to easily add new partners, better monitor product quality, and be more agile to respond to change quickly.
With an increased reliance on outsourced manufacturing, the need for collaboration has escalated. Cloud computing now enables manufacturers with inter-enterprise collaboration. Manufacturing companies and their outsourcing partners have access to business applications to support critical visibility and collaboration, but mission critical processes sometimes slip through the cracks. Manufacturers need not only SaaS but an entire platform to build and run any customized applications – thus the need for PaaS. History has taught us that manufacturing companies will always need customized software solutions that easily integrate to their core ERP software. PaaS delivers the robust ecosystem and ease of integration to support this requirement.
Manufacturing is currently experiencing a major shift to relying on communities of trading partners to fulfill outsourced manufacturing services. Cloud computing, and in particular PaaS, is the catalyst for this explosive change and it is the trigger that will deliver a new collaborative, community supply chain management model. Manufacturers with outsourced operations are moving to the cloud for obvious benefits today and the promise of additional benefits tomorrow. The move from ‘on-premise’ to the Internet based ERP systems allows the manufacturer easy access (24 x 7) to a single system in the cloud.
Multi-Plant Environment now the Norm
Multiple plant operations add complexity. Whether manufacturing plants are located across town, across the country, or across the world, companies today need to have sound business processes and systems in place for successful global operations. The need for systems that provide you with increased operational efficiencies, increased productivity, and costs savings must be balanced with the need for increased collaboration and visibility.
One clear example of this inherent complexity is effectively capturing manufacturing costs. Different operations, different sites, different plants, different divisions, different business units usually capture and maintain their own ‘sub-ledgers’ of cost accounts. The complexity of accurately capturing these costs and then rolling up into the main ledger for the company’s overall financial statements is clear. Just doing this roll up activity manually may take days, weeks, or months to complete. Manufacturers would not know what their real costs were for months after the fact, let alone have any real understanding of costs they are occurring today to make better business decisions.
With cloud computing, solutions are now available to deliver global real-time business solutions to manufacturers. Companies gain improved visibility and business intelligence to better manage the entire business as a whole rather than as separate plants. They now have access to dashboards of information that instantly show what is occurring throughout their global operations to make better business decisions today. But again, SaaS solutions sometimes fall short in providing unique applications or business solutions needed to run each distinctive business.
PaaS finally delivers the platform to support the multi-company business processes inherent in any supply chain. It provides the visibility, flexibility, and simplicity to enable manufacturers to better run their multi-plant operations. A successful manufacturing company can now have business-critical apps specific to particular sites, plants, divisions, and business units running in the PaaS environment simply and easily linked to all their other cloud-based solutions. You get the benefits of customized expert systems for your unique needs running in a simple, cost efficient platform.
Building for the Future
As with any investment, business application purchasing decisions are not only about what your company needs today but what will be best position them for tomorrow. The momentum towards cloud based solutions by manufacturers strongly illustrates this point. The cloud, delivering both software and platform as a service, provides cost savings, standardized business processes, and the operational efficiencies companies need today to remain competitive. Even more important, though, is what the cloud promises for the future for manufacturers.
Arguably the most valuable benefits of moving to the cloud are the simplicity and flexibility to be responsive to all sorts of change. Now, real-time visibility is no longer a myth, but an actuality, providing valuable dashboards of information in order to make more informed business decisions. As customer demand shifts, or supply availability changes, manufacturers now have the tools necessary to respond accordingly. In addition, this more flexible platform enables customized solutions, when needed for business critical operations, to be added simply and easily by an entire ecosystem of developers. As a new business opportunity emerges, manufacturers can quickly identify and take immediate action with any solutions necessary to best position them against competitors.
What is also interesting to watch in the coming years is the expected significant increase in merger and acquisitions (M&A) in the manufacturing industry. Despite the recent global economic slowdown, M&A activities are expected to grow due to many manufacturers taking advantage of an increase in market share or new market growth. An established cloud based computing platform may be critical for either those companies that wish to be acquired as well as the companies doing the acquisitions.
For those companies that wish to be merged into another organization, having established cloud computing solutions can make you much more ‘attractive’. An existing systems infrastructure that is simple and flexible that can be easily consolidated with other companies’ systems eases the complexity that comes from traditional M&A activities. It is one less headache that the acquirer has to deal with knowing that they are not acquiring a legacy software system and additional IT infrastructure costs.
For companies looking to grow via an M&A strategy, having an established cloud based platform not only gives you the visibility that you need to run your current business but it also provides the flexibility to add new sites, plants, divisions, and business units as the opportunities arise. Also, the key to most successful mergers is maintaining a lower cost of ownership for business solutions. With cloud solutions, the usual obstacles of antiquated legacy systems and costly integration disappear.
Conclusion
There is little doubt that manufacturers are moving to the cloud. More enterprises consider cloud computing a viable technology, with nearly 60 percent saying they view it as a business enabler versus less than 40 percent who say the technology will take years to mature. That’s a big change from 2009, when just 37 percent saw it as an enabler and 63 percent were taking a wait-and-see attitude or considering the cloud more marketing hype than reality. “Cloud computing is on the cusp of broad enterprise adoption,” said Sheryl Kingstone, Research Director at Yankee Group.
More and more companies are realizing the dramatic costs savings and operational efficiencies gained today as well as improved visibility and flexibility gained for tomorrow. Critical to this move is the emergence of Platforms as a Service that provide a robust, yet simple way to enable customized solutions unique to specific business needs. This all points to a seismic shift in the manufacturing landscape to cloud based solutions that are critical to building competitive advantage in the future.
Pat Garrehy is the founder, president and CEO of Rootstock Software. For more information, visit www.rootstock.com.
Under the Dome: Energy retrofit grows savings and reliability at Montreal Biodôme Featured
Written by André Voshart Monday, 01 April 2013
The Montréal Biodôme last year celebrated its 20th birthday. This nature exhibition has attracted roughly 17.3 million visitors since it opened in 1992, making it the most visited paid tourist attraction in Montreal.
However, it most noteworthy for being the only institution in the world that brings together five entirely different ecosystems under the same roof. This is an accomplishment whose realization relied not only on complex technologies but also on settings as authentic as nature itself and on animal and plant collections that are highly varied and typical of each habitat.
Rachel Léger, director of the Biodôme since 2006 and a member of the Biodôme’s design team, says when they created the Biodôme, they wanted visitors to marvel at the beauty and diversity of habitats found in the Americas, “with the goal of encouraging behaviours that are respectful of the environment. Twenty years later, we still rely on the effect of positive messages.
“We want people to keep hope alive and to take action, on however small a scale.”
Innovative Retrofit
The Biodôme has put its commitments to sustainable development in concrete form by integrating new, more efficient technologies at every level of its operations. As part of the energy-conservation program launched by this Space for Life, an open-circuit geothermal system has been installed, along with an energy-recovery system and energy-efficient lighting.
The comprehensive $8.1-million energy retrofit, designed and implemented by Quebec-based energy-efficiency firm Ecosystem in partnership with the Montréal Space for Life, cut the Biodôme’s energy costs by 52 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent. All project costs, including the extensive heating, cooling and lighting equipment upgrades, are being repaid by the resulting energy savings and $1.6 million in government and utility incentives.
“What’s wonderful about this project is that the cost is entirely covered by the savings,” said Jean Bouvrette, project leader and head of technical services for the Montréal Space for Life. “In addition, the project is self-financed and allowed us to replace nearly $2 million worth of old equipment as part of the building’s energy efficiency measures.”
Implemented from 2008 to 2010, the project was designed to dig deeper into the existing energy infrastructure while improving conditions for the Biodôme’s plant life and furry and feathered occupants. The humans didn’t miss out either — improvements to heating, air conditioning and lighting made a big difference in offices and public areas.
Some of the most innovative measures involved recycling energy from one ecosystem to the other; for example, heat from the sub-polar regions ecosystems is now being used to keep the tropical rainforest warm. In addition, after ground water was found under the Biodôme it was integrated into a cutting-edge open-loop geothermal system now used to heat and cool the building. Better quality and more energy efficient lighting was also part of the project.
So how was the old two-loop system inefficient, and how does the new heat recovery system solve this problem? “Before the project, chilled water and steam came from an independent supplier and were used to cool and heat the Biodôme,” Bouvrette said. “Both energy sources were often used at the same time and sometimes at cross purposes, which increased costs considerably.”
And as many of the animals are quite sensitive to temperature changes, “the new system was designed to keep performance changes to a minimum with respect to the previous system,” he added.
Maintenance Improvements
Prior to the retrofit, some of the equipment that had been in place was a bane on the maintenance department’s existence. Bouvrette went over some of the inefficiencies and reliability issues.
The old reciprocating compressors — 10 parallel units — used to cool the penguin-heavy sub-polar ecosystems “performed poorly and leaked occasionally, affecting operations and the environment,” he says. Before the project, there were 10 reciprocating chillers; after the project, “we now have four screw chillers, including one with two screws. The screw chillers have no moving parts, unlike reciprocating chillers. Useful life before major maintenance is now much longer for the screw chillers.”
As well, the old lamps had one high-intensity discharge (HID) 2,000-Watt bulb, two (double ballast) transformers and a poorly performing reflector. “Replacing the bulb and transformers had become problematic, both because of cost and the availability of replacement parts,” Bouvrette said. “There was also a problem with reliability: ballasts were exposed to the sun, which caused them to overheat. They then made a noise that could be heard in the ecosystems.” The lamps were replaced by a high-efficiency 1,000-Watt model the company says is much more reliable. Maintenance for lighting the ecosystems has been reduced since the useful life of the new ballasts is much longer; ballasts are now away from the light fixtures and out of direct sunlight.
Overall maintenance costs have fallen considerably since the whole steam system — including pumping trap, steam trap, steam valve, condensing tank, etc. — and all obsolete equipment was removed. This made way for much simpler heat pumps and 30-per-cent-glycol cooling and heating systems that are very reliable when it comes to maintenance.
Award-Winning Results
The program has gained recognition for after implementing this cutting-edge energy-saving program. Last February, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) presented its 2012 Sustainable Communities Award in the energy category to the Space for Life for the quality of its program; and the Association québécoise pour la maîtrise de l’énergie (AQME) presented them the Énergia award in the existing buildings (institutional) category.
More recently, Ecosystem and Montréal Space for Life received the 2013 ASHRAE Technology Award for the public-assembly building category. The project — part of a broader energy savings program that includes the Insectarium and Botanical Garden — was the sole Canadian entry to earn a first-place finish for the international prize presented by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers in recognition of the successful application of outstanding building design. This was the fifth award for the broader energy-saving program at the Space for Life, which comprises the Biodôme, Botanical Garden and Insectarium.
“This project is a wonderful example of how best practices translate into exceptional, concrete results,” said Andre Rochette, Ecosystem’s president and CEO. “Our firm’s compensation was dependent on reaching the Ville de Montréal’s ambitious energy savings and GHG reduction targets. The interests of client and supplier were thus perfectly aligned, laying the groundwork for a creative deep energy retrofit. The city led the way with a model that generates significant value for building owners from any sector of activity.”
Ecosystem is an independent and ISO-certified firm of energy efficiency professionals operating in Canada and the U.S. Over the past 20 years, the firm has focused exclusively on the design, installation and optimization of super-efficient building energy infrastructures. Its turnkey projects enable building owners to drastically reduce operating costs, renew critical assets, free up capital for other improvements and provide appealing spaces for occupants.
André Voshart is the editor of PEM.
However, it most noteworthy for being the only institution in the world that brings together five entirely different ecosystems under the same roof. This is an accomplishment whose realization relied not only on complex technologies but also on settings as authentic as nature itself and on animal and plant collections that are highly varied and typical of each habitat.
Rachel Léger, director of the Biodôme since 2006 and a member of the Biodôme’s design team, says when they created the Biodôme, they wanted visitors to marvel at the beauty and diversity of habitats found in the Americas, “with the goal of encouraging behaviours that are respectful of the environment. Twenty years later, we still rely on the effect of positive messages.
“We want people to keep hope alive and to take action, on however small a scale.”
Innovative Retrofit
The Biodôme has put its commitments to sustainable development in concrete form by integrating new, more efficient technologies at every level of its operations. As part of the energy-conservation program launched by this Space for Life, an open-circuit geothermal system has been installed, along with an energy-recovery system and energy-efficient lighting.
The comprehensive $8.1-million energy retrofit, designed and implemented by Quebec-based energy-efficiency firm Ecosystem in partnership with the Montréal Space for Life, cut the Biodôme’s energy costs by 52 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent. All project costs, including the extensive heating, cooling and lighting equipment upgrades, are being repaid by the resulting energy savings and $1.6 million in government and utility incentives.
“What’s wonderful about this project is that the cost is entirely covered by the savings,” said Jean Bouvrette, project leader and head of technical services for the Montréal Space for Life. “In addition, the project is self-financed and allowed us to replace nearly $2 million worth of old equipment as part of the building’s energy efficiency measures.”
Implemented from 2008 to 2010, the project was designed to dig deeper into the existing energy infrastructure while improving conditions for the Biodôme’s plant life and furry and feathered occupants. The humans didn’t miss out either — improvements to heating, air conditioning and lighting made a big difference in offices and public areas.
Some of the most innovative measures involved recycling energy from one ecosystem to the other; for example, heat from the sub-polar regions ecosystems is now being used to keep the tropical rainforest warm. In addition, after ground water was found under the Biodôme it was integrated into a cutting-edge open-loop geothermal system now used to heat and cool the building. Better quality and more energy efficient lighting was also part of the project.
So how was the old two-loop system inefficient, and how does the new heat recovery system solve this problem? “Before the project, chilled water and steam came from an independent supplier and were used to cool and heat the Biodôme,” Bouvrette said. “Both energy sources were often used at the same time and sometimes at cross purposes, which increased costs considerably.”
And as many of the animals are quite sensitive to temperature changes, “the new system was designed to keep performance changes to a minimum with respect to the previous system,” he added.
Maintenance Improvements
Prior to the retrofit, some of the equipment that had been in place was a bane on the maintenance department’s existence. Bouvrette went over some of the inefficiencies and reliability issues.
The old reciprocating compressors — 10 parallel units — used to cool the penguin-heavy sub-polar ecosystems “performed poorly and leaked occasionally, affecting operations and the environment,” he says. Before the project, there were 10 reciprocating chillers; after the project, “we now have four screw chillers, including one with two screws. The screw chillers have no moving parts, unlike reciprocating chillers. Useful life before major maintenance is now much longer for the screw chillers.”
As well, the old lamps had one high-intensity discharge (HID) 2,000-Watt bulb, two (double ballast) transformers and a poorly performing reflector. “Replacing the bulb and transformers had become problematic, both because of cost and the availability of replacement parts,” Bouvrette said. “There was also a problem with reliability: ballasts were exposed to the sun, which caused them to overheat. They then made a noise that could be heard in the ecosystems.” The lamps were replaced by a high-efficiency 1,000-Watt model the company says is much more reliable. Maintenance for lighting the ecosystems has been reduced since the useful life of the new ballasts is much longer; ballasts are now away from the light fixtures and out of direct sunlight.
Overall maintenance costs have fallen considerably since the whole steam system — including pumping trap, steam trap, steam valve, condensing tank, etc. — and all obsolete equipment was removed. This made way for much simpler heat pumps and 30-per-cent-glycol cooling and heating systems that are very reliable when it comes to maintenance.
Award-Winning Results
The program has gained recognition for after implementing this cutting-edge energy-saving program. Last February, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) presented its 2012 Sustainable Communities Award in the energy category to the Space for Life for the quality of its program; and the Association québécoise pour la maîtrise de l’énergie (AQME) presented them the Énergia award in the existing buildings (institutional) category.
More recently, Ecosystem and Montréal Space for Life received the 2013 ASHRAE Technology Award for the public-assembly building category. The project — part of a broader energy savings program that includes the Insectarium and Botanical Garden — was the sole Canadian entry to earn a first-place finish for the international prize presented by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers in recognition of the successful application of outstanding building design. This was the fifth award for the broader energy-saving program at the Space for Life, which comprises the Biodôme, Botanical Garden and Insectarium.
“This project is a wonderful example of how best practices translate into exceptional, concrete results,” said Andre Rochette, Ecosystem’s president and CEO. “Our firm’s compensation was dependent on reaching the Ville de Montréal’s ambitious energy savings and GHG reduction targets. The interests of client and supplier were thus perfectly aligned, laying the groundwork for a creative deep energy retrofit. The city led the way with a model that generates significant value for building owners from any sector of activity.”
Ecosystem is an independent and ISO-certified firm of energy efficiency professionals operating in Canada and the U.S. Over the past 20 years, the firm has focused exclusively on the design, installation and optimization of super-efficient building energy infrastructures. Its turnkey projects enable building owners to drastically reduce operating costs, renew critical assets, free up capital for other improvements and provide appealing spaces for occupants.
André Voshart is the editor of PEM.
Controlling scale in water systems helps prevent bacterial outbreaks
Written by Jan De Baat Doelman Monday, 04 March 2013
The legionella bacterium (L. pneumophila) is a water-based organism, which causes infection when inhaled in an aerosol form. Normally associated with cooling towers and evaporative condensers, mist machines, humidifiers, whirlpool spas and showers, the bacteria L. pneumophila is most commonly associated with the disease outbreak (legionellosis), which travels by air and is caused by the inhalation of contaminated water under the form of aerosol spray that is smaller than 5 μm.
The bacteria thrive in stagnating water (tanks, reservoirs, dead legs in piping systems, poor flow areas). The bacteria require temperatures between 68°F and 113°F (under 68°F they survive over 140°F they are killed) and a supply of nutrients found in algae, rust, sludge and scale.
PREVENTION
Health agencies continually draw attention the risks and good practice concerning cooling towers and evaporative condensers in cooling water treatment. Conditions that affect the proliferation of legionella include:
1. The presence of scale deposits or algae growth in the water
2. Deadlegs in the pipework or stagnation due to very low use of outlets
3. Low temperature in potable hot water heaters and distribution systems
4. Stratification of water in water heaters
5. Inappropriate water treatment
L. pneumophila may be able to colonize certain types of water fitting, pipework and materials used in the construction of water systems. The presence of such materials, and of large quantities of sediment may provide nutrients for Legionella and can make eradication difficult. In practice, L. pneumophila is found in many recirculating hot and cold water systems particularly in larger, complex systems such as those found in hospitals, hotels, office block and factories.
Managing the risks from legionella in water systems requires a holistic approach and a suite of control measures underpinned by a suitable and sufficient risk assessment specific to the risk system in question. In hard water areas, scale formation can be a problem unless properly managed, and can increase the likelihood of legionella persisting.
SCALE
Scale or lime-scale is a hard, rock-like deposit of calcium or magnesium salts that forms in heat exchangers and cooling tower packing and other water-fed equipment as a result of heat and increased concentration factor. Scale formation impairs heat transfer, interferes with flow and cooling, and can be a breeding ground for legionella bacteria. The scaling tendency of a water supply will depend on the hardness of the water but if not adequately treated even relatively soft waters can become highly scaling when concentrated by evaporation. Poor control not only puts your cooling process at risk, but can also squander $1,000s in wasted energy, chemicals and water charges.
Scale is a major problem in both hot and cold water systems. Dripping taps can deposit scale in and around the tap, and with high ambient room temperatures, provide an ideal growth medium for LP. In hot systems, scale can trap Legionella and biofilms. This provides a perfect growth medium, which disinfectants cannot penetrate. Scale deposits colonized by Legionella can continuously re-contaminate a system, even after disinfection. Biofilms trapped are a source of nutrients for LP and can lead to taste and odor problems from the products of their metabolism.
Scale is a major cause of inefficiency in hot water systems. Scale on heat exchange surfaces dramatically reduces the heat transfer efficiency and promotes corrosion in the calorifiers and pipework. Descaling of a hot water system is time consuming and expensive. Water softeners can reduce scale, but there is growing concern over the increase to sometimes-high levels of sodium in the water.
AIR CONDITIONING AND REFRIGERATION WATER SYSTEMS
Many air conditioning and refrigeration plant systems are water-cooled. The heat generated by cooling coils is removed by water, which is passed through a water-cooling tower. These are recirculating systems, which operate at temperatures ideal for bacterial and algal growth, and have plentiful supplies of nutrients. They have been highlighted as a major possible source of Legionnaires disease mainly because of the large number of people that can be affected.
However, in a tower that is well-designed and maintained, chances of problems with L. pneumophila are greatly reduced. Most cases of outbreaks have occurred in towers, which were badly designed, and had little or no maintenance. In cooling towers, temperature, water hardness, pH, scale and corrosion are all factors, which increase the chance of biofilms, algae and Legionella colonization. Many agents are used to control these factors, including scale and corrosion inhibitors, dispersants and biocides. Water softeners are sometimes used for soft water, which can cause a problem with foaming.
Biofilms are a major problem in cooling towers. Biofilms and scale can reduce the efficiency of cooling systems to the point where the system no longer functions with regard to heat transfer. Health & Safety Officers recommend the periodic chlorination and descaling of cooling towers. However, chlorine is not always compatible with other treatment chemicals like corrosion inhibitors, is not effective in alkaline water, and can itself cause corrosion. Some biocides are effective against L. pneumophila if used in sufficient concentration. Strains of L. pneumophila and other bacteria may become resistant to particular biocides hence dual or alternating biocides are used.
ALTERNATIVES
What is required in all the systems, cold, hot and process is a method of continuously controlling scale deposition and a water treatment regime which prevents the growth of biofilms, bacteria and, in particular, L. pneumophila. This method is now available in the form of electronic scale treatment of water to prevent scale deposition together with the chlorination of all water supplied to a building or factory both hot and cold.
ELECTRONIC WATER TREATMENT
This involves the fitting of electronic water descaling equipment, such as the patented Scalewatcher, at strategic points in the water system. Water treated by such systems will prevent scale from forming in pipework and on heat transfer surfaces, and will also, over a period of time, remove existing scale deposits. There are many advantages to this non-intrusive engineering solution:
1. Energy use is greatly reduced due to heat exchange surfaces remaining free of scale deposits (just a ¼ inch of scale increases energy costs by around 40 per cent).
2. Corrosion caused by scale deposits is eliminated.
3. Extensive downtime and labor cost involved in descaling systems is eliminated.
4. A source of colonization by biofilms and L. pneumophila is removed.
5. Water distribution efficiency and pressure is increased by removal of scale deposits which can reduce pipe diameters considerably.
Jan De Baat Doelman is the president of Scalewatcher North America Inc. For more information, visit www.scalewatcher.com.
The bacteria thrive in stagnating water (tanks, reservoirs, dead legs in piping systems, poor flow areas). The bacteria require temperatures between 68°F and 113°F (under 68°F they survive over 140°F they are killed) and a supply of nutrients found in algae, rust, sludge and scale.
PREVENTION
Health agencies continually draw attention the risks and good practice concerning cooling towers and evaporative condensers in cooling water treatment. Conditions that affect the proliferation of legionella include:
1. The presence of scale deposits or algae growth in the water
2. Deadlegs in the pipework or stagnation due to very low use of outlets
3. Low temperature in potable hot water heaters and distribution systems
4. Stratification of water in water heaters
5. Inappropriate water treatment
L. pneumophila may be able to colonize certain types of water fitting, pipework and materials used in the construction of water systems. The presence of such materials, and of large quantities of sediment may provide nutrients for Legionella and can make eradication difficult. In practice, L. pneumophila is found in many recirculating hot and cold water systems particularly in larger, complex systems such as those found in hospitals, hotels, office block and factories.
Managing the risks from legionella in water systems requires a holistic approach and a suite of control measures underpinned by a suitable and sufficient risk assessment specific to the risk system in question. In hard water areas, scale formation can be a problem unless properly managed, and can increase the likelihood of legionella persisting.
SCALE
Scale or lime-scale is a hard, rock-like deposit of calcium or magnesium salts that forms in heat exchangers and cooling tower packing and other water-fed equipment as a result of heat and increased concentration factor. Scale formation impairs heat transfer, interferes with flow and cooling, and can be a breeding ground for legionella bacteria. The scaling tendency of a water supply will depend on the hardness of the water but if not adequately treated even relatively soft waters can become highly scaling when concentrated by evaporation. Poor control not only puts your cooling process at risk, but can also squander $1,000s in wasted energy, chemicals and water charges.
Scale is a major problem in both hot and cold water systems. Dripping taps can deposit scale in and around the tap, and with high ambient room temperatures, provide an ideal growth medium for LP. In hot systems, scale can trap Legionella and biofilms. This provides a perfect growth medium, which disinfectants cannot penetrate. Scale deposits colonized by Legionella can continuously re-contaminate a system, even after disinfection. Biofilms trapped are a source of nutrients for LP and can lead to taste and odor problems from the products of their metabolism.
Scale is a major cause of inefficiency in hot water systems. Scale on heat exchange surfaces dramatically reduces the heat transfer efficiency and promotes corrosion in the calorifiers and pipework. Descaling of a hot water system is time consuming and expensive. Water softeners can reduce scale, but there is growing concern over the increase to sometimes-high levels of sodium in the water.
AIR CONDITIONING AND REFRIGERATION WATER SYSTEMS
Many air conditioning and refrigeration plant systems are water-cooled. The heat generated by cooling coils is removed by water, which is passed through a water-cooling tower. These are recirculating systems, which operate at temperatures ideal for bacterial and algal growth, and have plentiful supplies of nutrients. They have been highlighted as a major possible source of Legionnaires disease mainly because of the large number of people that can be affected.
However, in a tower that is well-designed and maintained, chances of problems with L. pneumophila are greatly reduced. Most cases of outbreaks have occurred in towers, which were badly designed, and had little or no maintenance. In cooling towers, temperature, water hardness, pH, scale and corrosion are all factors, which increase the chance of biofilms, algae and Legionella colonization. Many agents are used to control these factors, including scale and corrosion inhibitors, dispersants and biocides. Water softeners are sometimes used for soft water, which can cause a problem with foaming.
Biofilms are a major problem in cooling towers. Biofilms and scale can reduce the efficiency of cooling systems to the point where the system no longer functions with regard to heat transfer. Health & Safety Officers recommend the periodic chlorination and descaling of cooling towers. However, chlorine is not always compatible with other treatment chemicals like corrosion inhibitors, is not effective in alkaline water, and can itself cause corrosion. Some biocides are effective against L. pneumophila if used in sufficient concentration. Strains of L. pneumophila and other bacteria may become resistant to particular biocides hence dual or alternating biocides are used.
ALTERNATIVES
What is required in all the systems, cold, hot and process is a method of continuously controlling scale deposition and a water treatment regime which prevents the growth of biofilms, bacteria and, in particular, L. pneumophila. This method is now available in the form of electronic scale treatment of water to prevent scale deposition together with the chlorination of all water supplied to a building or factory both hot and cold.
ELECTRONIC WATER TREATMENT
This involves the fitting of electronic water descaling equipment, such as the patented Scalewatcher, at strategic points in the water system. Water treated by such systems will prevent scale from forming in pipework and on heat transfer surfaces, and will also, over a period of time, remove existing scale deposits. There are many advantages to this non-intrusive engineering solution:
1. Energy use is greatly reduced due to heat exchange surfaces remaining free of scale deposits (just a ¼ inch of scale increases energy costs by around 40 per cent).
2. Corrosion caused by scale deposits is eliminated.
3. Extensive downtime and labor cost involved in descaling systems is eliminated.
4. A source of colonization by biofilms and L. pneumophila is removed.
5. Water distribution efficiency and pressure is increased by removal of scale deposits which can reduce pipe diameters considerably.
Jan De Baat Doelman is the president of Scalewatcher North America Inc. For more information, visit www.scalewatcher.com.
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Room to Grow: Minimize downtime with parts storage that evolves as production does
Written by André Voshart Tuesday, 13 November 2012
A new flexible type of storage system can create denser, more space and labor-efficient parts storage capacity.
When production equipment breaks down, every minute it takes to get back up and running can cost thousands of dollars in lost production and idle labor. While technicians strive to reduce downtime, if they spend precious minutes searching for the right replacement parts in inefficient parts storage then, despite their best efforts, many thousands of dollars in production and labor will be lost.
Whether a company manufactures machinery or food products, whether it drills for offshore oil, refines petrochemicals, processes wastewater or produces electricity, to stay competitive production must be extremely efficient and minimize downtime. Yet traditional, inflexible, restricted parts storage space can increase downtime and negatively impact production, operations, and maintenance efficiency.
Too often parts storage and maintenance capacity does not evolve, even as new part sizes, shapes, weights, quantities, and configurations are introduced. The challenge increases when multiple generations of products or equipment must be manufactured or promptly serviced using the same unchanging storage and service space. Changing demand and products, along with line expansion, parts consolidation, facility renovation, and a host of other factors can also require a flexible parts storage capacity that evolves as production does.
Fortunately, a new flexible type of storage system that starts from raw shelving and evolves as needed is allowing parts managers to create denser, more space and labor-efficient parts storage capacity as market, budget, or storage needs change.
While traditional modular drawer cabinets on casters are fine for some applications, their main drawback is that they are essentially unchangeable steel boxes, unable to efficiently accommodate changing part sizes, shapes, weights, quantities or configurations. Once the size of the drawers and box frame is set, modular drawer cabinets have virtually no future adaptability. As storage needs change, for instance, storing washer-sized parts in six-inch drawers wastes a lot of storage space.
Traditional storage shelves offer more space than modular drawer cabinets, but a tremendous amount of storage space can be wasted if, for example, three-inch-high parts are stored on 24-inch-high shelves. Because moving a shelf to create more storage space often requires removing and reassembling 10 or more nuts and bolts, this is practically never done on a large scale.
When parts storage capacity lags behind the need, clutter results with parts too often stored on the floor, on top of cabinets, and stacked in boxes — which can lower productivity if parts are not easy to store and retrieve.
A few years ago, Equipto teamed up with Boeing Canada's Winnipeg facility to help them with their storage needs. Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. The company wanted a device that would be easy to install and flexible for future re-designs of the storage facility.
The old system was unorganized, uncategorized and inefficient. The time it took employees to locate the exact tool was unacceptable and was costing the facility money in downtime. Equipto offered their V-Grip storage solution to Boeing, which took the device and designed a storage facility itself. The installation took just four days, and the results exceeded what Boeing Canada had in mind when they were shopping for a storage device. In fact, Boeing was so pleased that they signed up several sister storage facilities with the same system. Boeing also found that this system gave them a higher productivity rate, thanks to less down time and a more functional storage area.
The maintenance benefits of flexible storage systems have demonstrated themselves in facilities across North America.
“The goal in maintenance is to strive for zero production downtime, but that depends on getting the right parts into the hands of technicians for needed repairs as soon as possible,” says Jeremy Miller, a DC maintenance foreman with U.S.-based JBS USA LLC, the largest animal protein processing company in the world. “Delay in locating the right parts in storage translates into unnecessary downtime.” The Marshalltown, Iowa, facility carried a production parts inventory of over $1 million, mostly in a central parts area, with parts ranging from tiny nuts, bolts and screws to gears, sprockets, and cabling to motors, chain drives, and sensitive electronic boards.
While the facility had initially used an open rack, cabinet, and bin storage system for parts storage, Miller knew there was room for improvement.
“We felt trapped by our old system of parts storage because it forced us to adapt to it,” Miller says. “The shelves on our open rack were essentially fixed. So too were the cabinets and bins. Because nothing would fit the storage space exactly, we constantly had to search for a spot to put the items. If the parts didn’t fit, we had to store the items in multiple locations, or buy entire new racks when all we may have wanted was a larger drawer to keep related parts together.”
“Parts for certain equipment ended up being scattered in as many as ten different locations,” adds Miller. “This made the parts hard to locate. It could take ten minutes or more to retrieve all the needed parts for some repair jobs. The inefficiency of our storage space crowded our parts area.”
Miller also turned to V-Grip by Equipto, which says its systems start as raw shelving and allow parts managers to adapt and create denser and denser storage capacity as marketplace, budget or storage needs change. A modular storage system is more flexible than modular drawer cabinets or traditional shelves because it is designed so shelves, drawers, and other accessories can be interchanged in the shelf cavity. Since each shelf, drawer or accessory is individually mounted to upright posts using a proprietary bracket system, they are individually adjustable and can be added at any time without disassembly of the unit.
“Since the V-Grip storage system adapts to our needs, we can quickly add, move, remove or change the size of drawers or shelves to fit the size of our parts,” Miller says. “We were able to consolidate our spare production parts in equipment-specific locations in a small central parts room. This left enough room for me to build a small office inside, which further improved inventory control.”
He says it has cut part retrieval time for repair jobs about 70 per cent. Understandably, faster jobs translate into less production downtime, which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more in annual savings.
“We’re looking at increasing our flexible parts storage capacity even more by using more of our vertical space,” says Miller. “Once you’ve switched to flexible parts storage that adapts to your needs, you won’t go back to inflexible, fixed storage.”
André Voshart is the editor of PEM. This article also includes files from Equipto. For more information, visit www.equipto.com.
When production equipment breaks down, every minute it takes to get back up and running can cost thousands of dollars in lost production and idle labor. While technicians strive to reduce downtime, if they spend precious minutes searching for the right replacement parts in inefficient parts storage then, despite their best efforts, many thousands of dollars in production and labor will be lost.
Whether a company manufactures machinery or food products, whether it drills for offshore oil, refines petrochemicals, processes wastewater or produces electricity, to stay competitive production must be extremely efficient and minimize downtime. Yet traditional, inflexible, restricted parts storage space can increase downtime and negatively impact production, operations, and maintenance efficiency.
Too often parts storage and maintenance capacity does not evolve, even as new part sizes, shapes, weights, quantities, and configurations are introduced. The challenge increases when multiple generations of products or equipment must be manufactured or promptly serviced using the same unchanging storage and service space. Changing demand and products, along with line expansion, parts consolidation, facility renovation, and a host of other factors can also require a flexible parts storage capacity that evolves as production does.
Fortunately, a new flexible type of storage system that starts from raw shelving and evolves as needed is allowing parts managers to create denser, more space and labor-efficient parts storage capacity as market, budget, or storage needs change.
While traditional modular drawer cabinets on casters are fine for some applications, their main drawback is that they are essentially unchangeable steel boxes, unable to efficiently accommodate changing part sizes, shapes, weights, quantities or configurations. Once the size of the drawers and box frame is set, modular drawer cabinets have virtually no future adaptability. As storage needs change, for instance, storing washer-sized parts in six-inch drawers wastes a lot of storage space.
Traditional storage shelves offer more space than modular drawer cabinets, but a tremendous amount of storage space can be wasted if, for example, three-inch-high parts are stored on 24-inch-high shelves. Because moving a shelf to create more storage space often requires removing and reassembling 10 or more nuts and bolts, this is practically never done on a large scale.
When parts storage capacity lags behind the need, clutter results with parts too often stored on the floor, on top of cabinets, and stacked in boxes — which can lower productivity if parts are not easy to store and retrieve.
A few years ago, Equipto teamed up with Boeing Canada's Winnipeg facility to help them with their storage needs. Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. The company wanted a device that would be easy to install and flexible for future re-designs of the storage facility.
The old system was unorganized, uncategorized and inefficient. The time it took employees to locate the exact tool was unacceptable and was costing the facility money in downtime. Equipto offered their V-Grip storage solution to Boeing, which took the device and designed a storage facility itself. The installation took just four days, and the results exceeded what Boeing Canada had in mind when they were shopping for a storage device. In fact, Boeing was so pleased that they signed up several sister storage facilities with the same system. Boeing also found that this system gave them a higher productivity rate, thanks to less down time and a more functional storage area.
The maintenance benefits of flexible storage systems have demonstrated themselves in facilities across North America.
“The goal in maintenance is to strive for zero production downtime, but that depends on getting the right parts into the hands of technicians for needed repairs as soon as possible,” says Jeremy Miller, a DC maintenance foreman with U.S.-based JBS USA LLC, the largest animal protein processing company in the world. “Delay in locating the right parts in storage translates into unnecessary downtime.” The Marshalltown, Iowa, facility carried a production parts inventory of over $1 million, mostly in a central parts area, with parts ranging from tiny nuts, bolts and screws to gears, sprockets, and cabling to motors, chain drives, and sensitive electronic boards.
While the facility had initially used an open rack, cabinet, and bin storage system for parts storage, Miller knew there was room for improvement.
“We felt trapped by our old system of parts storage because it forced us to adapt to it,” Miller says. “The shelves on our open rack were essentially fixed. So too were the cabinets and bins. Because nothing would fit the storage space exactly, we constantly had to search for a spot to put the items. If the parts didn’t fit, we had to store the items in multiple locations, or buy entire new racks when all we may have wanted was a larger drawer to keep related parts together.”
“Parts for certain equipment ended up being scattered in as many as ten different locations,” adds Miller. “This made the parts hard to locate. It could take ten minutes or more to retrieve all the needed parts for some repair jobs. The inefficiency of our storage space crowded our parts area.”
Miller also turned to V-Grip by Equipto, which says its systems start as raw shelving and allow parts managers to adapt and create denser and denser storage capacity as marketplace, budget or storage needs change. A modular storage system is more flexible than modular drawer cabinets or traditional shelves because it is designed so shelves, drawers, and other accessories can be interchanged in the shelf cavity. Since each shelf, drawer or accessory is individually mounted to upright posts using a proprietary bracket system, they are individually adjustable and can be added at any time without disassembly of the unit.
“Since the V-Grip storage system adapts to our needs, we can quickly add, move, remove or change the size of drawers or shelves to fit the size of our parts,” Miller says. “We were able to consolidate our spare production parts in equipment-specific locations in a small central parts room. This left enough room for me to build a small office inside, which further improved inventory control.”
He says it has cut part retrieval time for repair jobs about 70 per cent. Understandably, faster jobs translate into less production downtime, which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more in annual savings.
“We’re looking at increasing our flexible parts storage capacity even more by using more of our vertical space,” says Miller. “Once you’ve switched to flexible parts storage that adapts to your needs, you won’t go back to inflexible, fixed storage.”
André Voshart is the editor of PEM. This article also includes files from Equipto. For more information, visit www.equipto.com.
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Reliability Management: Know where you are and where you're going
Written by Christer Idhammar Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Many improvement initiatives within reliability and maintenance is a journey toward a state of continuous improvement. You will never reach a final destination.
You might state your goal is 95-per-cent planned and scheduled maintenance and 96-per-cent reliability — and in my opinion, such goals are necessary milestones, because when you pass them, you should never think you’re done. What you will notice is that you now have time to go the next step. You must use this time to take actions to generate continuously better results; otherwise, your organizations’ performance will weaken. An old but still true statement is, “If you do not improve, you are not good anymore.”
If we agree on our destination being a state of continuous improvement, the next thing we need to know is where we start.
Before you enter into any improvement initiative, it’s a good idea to ask yourself what best describes your organization’s status:
• “I don’t know where I am and don’t know where I am going.”
If you do not know where you are when you start an improvement initiative and you do not know where you are going, plan to have a nice but very expensive experience. There will be a lot of action — but inadequate results.
• “I know where I am but I don’t know where I am going.”
If you know where you are but do not know where you are going, it will take a very long time to reach any destination. Again, there will be a lot of action with inadequate results.
• “I don’t know where I am but I know where I am going.”
If you don’t know where you are but know where you are going, you might reach your destination, but it will take a lot of unnecessary time and effort to arrive there. Again, there will be a lot of action, but with inadequate or late results.
• “I know where I am and I know where I am going.”
If you know where you are and know where you are going, you can reach your destination in the shortest amount of time and in the most cost-effective manner.
Which statement above best describes your situation?
I have said many times that maintenance managers are in a “budget jail.” It is more important to stay within the budget than invest in improved reliability because their performance is not measured by reliability — they are measured on cost.
In many cases, this situation is created because management does not have a good measurement on how good their organization is, they do not have a good picture of how good they can become and there is no aggressive and quantified plan on how to close this gap.
Maintenance management is a very process-driven matter. If you document these processes and the elements of each process, you can appraise how well each of these elements is executed. You have also created a document that describes what excellence looks like.
After you have assessed and rated all elements, your organization will discover where your gaps are, and from there you can develop the action plan to close these gaps.
We have used this methodology in hundreds of organizations worldwide, and we have proven that a better score on best practices will generate excellent results. The biggest challenge is to get often-reactive people to work in a more disciplined way.
You need to know where you are and where you are going — and you must have a plan to draw a straight line on how to reach your destination. Then it is all about long-term reinforcement.
Christer Idhammar is a world-renowned and awarded reliability and maintenance consultant and guru. He is the founder and executive vice-president with IDCON Inc., a reliability and maintenance training and consulting company since 1972. For more information, visit www.idcon.com.
You might state your goal is 95-per-cent planned and scheduled maintenance and 96-per-cent reliability — and in my opinion, such goals are necessary milestones, because when you pass them, you should never think you’re done. What you will notice is that you now have time to go the next step. You must use this time to take actions to generate continuously better results; otherwise, your organizations’ performance will weaken. An old but still true statement is, “If you do not improve, you are not good anymore.”
If we agree on our destination being a state of continuous improvement, the next thing we need to know is where we start.
Before you enter into any improvement initiative, it’s a good idea to ask yourself what best describes your organization’s status:
• “I don’t know where I am and don’t know where I am going.”
If you do not know where you are when you start an improvement initiative and you do not know where you are going, plan to have a nice but very expensive experience. There will be a lot of action — but inadequate results.
• “I know where I am but I don’t know where I am going.”
If you know where you are but do not know where you are going, it will take a very long time to reach any destination. Again, there will be a lot of action with inadequate results.
• “I don’t know where I am but I know where I am going.”
If you don’t know where you are but know where you are going, you might reach your destination, but it will take a lot of unnecessary time and effort to arrive there. Again, there will be a lot of action, but with inadequate or late results.
• “I know where I am and I know where I am going.”
If you know where you are and know where you are going, you can reach your destination in the shortest amount of time and in the most cost-effective manner.
Which statement above best describes your situation?
I have said many times that maintenance managers are in a “budget jail.” It is more important to stay within the budget than invest in improved reliability because their performance is not measured by reliability — they are measured on cost.
In many cases, this situation is created because management does not have a good measurement on how good their organization is, they do not have a good picture of how good they can become and there is no aggressive and quantified plan on how to close this gap.
Maintenance management is a very process-driven matter. If you document these processes and the elements of each process, you can appraise how well each of these elements is executed. You have also created a document that describes what excellence looks like.
After you have assessed and rated all elements, your organization will discover where your gaps are, and from there you can develop the action plan to close these gaps.
We have used this methodology in hundreds of organizations worldwide, and we have proven that a better score on best practices will generate excellent results. The biggest challenge is to get often-reactive people to work in a more disciplined way.
You need to know where you are and where you are going — and you must have a plan to draw a straight line on how to reach your destination. Then it is all about long-term reinforcement.
Christer Idhammar is a world-renowned and awarded reliability and maintenance consultant and guru. He is the founder and executive vice-president with IDCON Inc., a reliability and maintenance training and consulting company since 1972. For more information, visit www.idcon.com.
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Powerful Allies: Energy management is central to meeting corporate objectives
Written by David Anders, Carl Friesen and Rodney McDonald Monday, 24 September 2012
For many companies, energy use has long been a “black box.” Historically, energy costs were low and there were not many tools to gather detailed information on energy use. This meant there was little need for corporate executives to crack open that box to find out how energy impacts their bottom line, and how it can be better managed.
More recently, several factors have been pushing energy out of the technical world of the boiler room into the harsh scrutiny of the boardroom. Suddenly, energy management is a strategic issue. Why?
Energy market uncertainty due to global markets:
Oil markets have long been global, natural gas markets are trending that way, and electricity markets are becoming continental. This exposes every company to global energy risk and uncertainty, including volatile prices and unreliable supplies. Managing energy use and increasing energy efficiency will reduce one’s risk exposure.
Energy efficiency is a competitive advantage:
The price of energy is outside your span of control. So, focus on what you can control: managing energy use and energy efficiency. This gives you more flexibility in choices, making your company more competitive.
Energy is a key stakeholder concern:
While most industries once had only to be concerned about the price of energy, they now need to be increasingly conscious of energy’s environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While much there is much uncertainty around future regulatory schemes for GHGs, many companies now manage their emissions as part of corporate strategy. Increasingly, environmental positioning and sustainability are important to a strong corporate brand, making the company more attractive to customers as well as the best employees. Managing GHG emissions includes measuring your carbon footprint, generating or purchasing energy from renewable or low-carbon sources, and developing an understanding of the range and cost of mitigation and adaptation options.
Even as the risks associated with energy have increased, there is now also a greater range of tools available to the C-suite for managing energy impacts.
• Measurement tools: You can’t manage what you don’t measure. And in recent years, there has developed a flood of new information tools to help members of senior management pry the lid off that energy “black box” and look inside.
In a surprisingly large number of cases, energy bills get sent directly to accounts payable staff, who pay the bill and file it. Having a mechanism to review and summarize energy consumption and costs in a way that can be presented to senior management is a good first step towards reducing them.
Buildings constructed a decade or more ago might have just one electrical meter and one electrical bill. Easily retrofitted sub-metering now allows management to get a more accurate picture of the energy costs of each product, process or part of the building. This applies equally to electricity, natural gas supply, and even the flow of heat from a central boiler. Understanding energy use on a per-unit basis helps establish more accurate input costs, which leads to better-informed decisions to reduce energy costs and carbon outputs. It also leads to wiser thinking around life-cycle costs for equipment, rather than just capital costs.
• Energy-efficiency innovations: Just as cars, refrigerators and other consumer goods have become more efficient in recent years, a lot of R&D has gone into improving energy efficiency of industrial equipment, ranging from computer servers to boilers, as well as buildings themselves. These innovations have widened the energy use gap between older in-use inefficient products, technologies and buildings, and today’s energy-efficient innovations. This creates a strong business case to replace old solutions with current technology to capture the energy cost savings for years to come. Upgrading and replacing equipment is now less of an operational decision and more of a strategic decision, having to do with payback times and other strategic issues related to reduced energy consumption and environmental footprint.
• Standards for Continuous Improvement: Newly developed standards provide a tool for identifying best practices as well as increasing the transparency of energy management strategies. The ISO 50001 standard for Energy Management Systems, for example, outlines a continuous improvement (CI) framework and comprehensive management systems approach for energy, which aligns with similar standards for environment (ISO 14000), quality (ISO 9000), and health and safety. Companies that use a CI process or which have existing ISO certifications will see the value to extending these systems to energy.
• Changing behaviours: Replacing equipment is only one avenue for effective energy management. The fastest payback is achieved when there is little or no capital cost in order to achieve a net energy savings. Companies seeking energy efficiency opportunities often overlook operating methods and behaviours. Methods include increasing awareness and operator training as well as shifting energy use to off-peak periods.
External management consultants
• Strategic Thinking: Management consultants use an approach to energy management that aligns energy management activities with overall corporate strategy. This helps companies build a plan of action appropriate to their needs, and is supported at the highest levels within the organization. Management consultants can help identify and articulate the key issues that drive energy management strategies.
• Facilitation: Detailed information helps senior management make decisions on capital spend, retrofit vs. new purchase, products, energy-efficient buildings and the like. However, much of the information they need is locked up in silos within the organization. In many cases, people at an operational level have ideas on reducing energy costs, but have never been asked for their insights, or rewarded for offering them. Management consultants can help facilitate this, through their ability to walk the shop floor and relate to line personnel, and then enter a boardroom environment to explain their findings in terms relevant to senior management.
• Technical Advice: Consultants frequently provide both management and technical advice. Energy management is supported by a range of technology solutions including not just energy equipment itself but also information technology. Management consultants who specialize in energy management can provide a range of technical analysis from modeling energy use and identifying opportunities, to assessing feasibility and developing implementation plans. Where more detailed technical advice is needed, a management consulting perspective helps bridge the gap between the technical knowledge base and the organization’s purpose.
• Organizational Analysis: Managing energy effectively requires the right organizational structure, and an approach that aligns with organization’s culture and particular norms. A small, entrepreneurial organization may need a different strategy than a large, conservative one. An external perspective on the role of organizational behavior and structure helps build a successful energy management program.
• Change Management: Making the necessary alterations from business-as-usual involves change- management skills, and in many cases management consultants are in a good position to facilitate this, through developing effective communications, engagement and training strategies.
Energy market uncertainty is one of the reasons why energy efficiency is emerging as a means of competitive advantage. This means that more companies now see energy as a strategic issue, requiring attention of top executives. Several key strategies and tactics can help manage energy. Management consultants can be a valuable resource for helping executives with strategic thinking, change management, technical advice, organizational analysis, and accounting and financial knowledge, to achieve measurable results from a strategic focus on energy management.
David Anders is the strategic energy services lead with Golder Associates in Toronto; Carl Friesen is principal with Global Reach Communications Inc. in Mississauga, Ont.; and Rodney McDonald is president of the McDonald Sustainability Group Inc. in Toronto. For more information about the Canadian Association of Management Consultants, visit www.cmc-canada.ca.
More recently, several factors have been pushing energy out of the technical world of the boiler room into the harsh scrutiny of the boardroom. Suddenly, energy management is a strategic issue. Why?
Energy market uncertainty due to global markets:
Oil markets have long been global, natural gas markets are trending that way, and electricity markets are becoming continental. This exposes every company to global energy risk and uncertainty, including volatile prices and unreliable supplies. Managing energy use and increasing energy efficiency will reduce one’s risk exposure.
Energy efficiency is a competitive advantage:
The price of energy is outside your span of control. So, focus on what you can control: managing energy use and energy efficiency. This gives you more flexibility in choices, making your company more competitive.
Energy is a key stakeholder concern:
While most industries once had only to be concerned about the price of energy, they now need to be increasingly conscious of energy’s environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While much there is much uncertainty around future regulatory schemes for GHGs, many companies now manage their emissions as part of corporate strategy. Increasingly, environmental positioning and sustainability are important to a strong corporate brand, making the company more attractive to customers as well as the best employees. Managing GHG emissions includes measuring your carbon footprint, generating or purchasing energy from renewable or low-carbon sources, and developing an understanding of the range and cost of mitigation and adaptation options.
Even as the risks associated with energy have increased, there is now also a greater range of tools available to the C-suite for managing energy impacts.
• Measurement tools: You can’t manage what you don’t measure. And in recent years, there has developed a flood of new information tools to help members of senior management pry the lid off that energy “black box” and look inside.
In a surprisingly large number of cases, energy bills get sent directly to accounts payable staff, who pay the bill and file it. Having a mechanism to review and summarize energy consumption and costs in a way that can be presented to senior management is a good first step towards reducing them.
Buildings constructed a decade or more ago might have just one electrical meter and one electrical bill. Easily retrofitted sub-metering now allows management to get a more accurate picture of the energy costs of each product, process or part of the building. This applies equally to electricity, natural gas supply, and even the flow of heat from a central boiler. Understanding energy use on a per-unit basis helps establish more accurate input costs, which leads to better-informed decisions to reduce energy costs and carbon outputs. It also leads to wiser thinking around life-cycle costs for equipment, rather than just capital costs.
• Energy-efficiency innovations: Just as cars, refrigerators and other consumer goods have become more efficient in recent years, a lot of R&D has gone into improving energy efficiency of industrial equipment, ranging from computer servers to boilers, as well as buildings themselves. These innovations have widened the energy use gap between older in-use inefficient products, technologies and buildings, and today’s energy-efficient innovations. This creates a strong business case to replace old solutions with current technology to capture the energy cost savings for years to come. Upgrading and replacing equipment is now less of an operational decision and more of a strategic decision, having to do with payback times and other strategic issues related to reduced energy consumption and environmental footprint.
• Standards for Continuous Improvement: Newly developed standards provide a tool for identifying best practices as well as increasing the transparency of energy management strategies. The ISO 50001 standard for Energy Management Systems, for example, outlines a continuous improvement (CI) framework and comprehensive management systems approach for energy, which aligns with similar standards for environment (ISO 14000), quality (ISO 9000), and health and safety. Companies that use a CI process or which have existing ISO certifications will see the value to extending these systems to energy.
• Changing behaviours: Replacing equipment is only one avenue for effective energy management. The fastest payback is achieved when there is little or no capital cost in order to achieve a net energy savings. Companies seeking energy efficiency opportunities often overlook operating methods and behaviours. Methods include increasing awareness and operator training as well as shifting energy use to off-peak periods.
External management consultants
• Strategic Thinking: Management consultants use an approach to energy management that aligns energy management activities with overall corporate strategy. This helps companies build a plan of action appropriate to their needs, and is supported at the highest levels within the organization. Management consultants can help identify and articulate the key issues that drive energy management strategies.
• Facilitation: Detailed information helps senior management make decisions on capital spend, retrofit vs. new purchase, products, energy-efficient buildings and the like. However, much of the information they need is locked up in silos within the organization. In many cases, people at an operational level have ideas on reducing energy costs, but have never been asked for their insights, or rewarded for offering them. Management consultants can help facilitate this, through their ability to walk the shop floor and relate to line personnel, and then enter a boardroom environment to explain their findings in terms relevant to senior management.
• Technical Advice: Consultants frequently provide both management and technical advice. Energy management is supported by a range of technology solutions including not just energy equipment itself but also information technology. Management consultants who specialize in energy management can provide a range of technical analysis from modeling energy use and identifying opportunities, to assessing feasibility and developing implementation plans. Where more detailed technical advice is needed, a management consulting perspective helps bridge the gap between the technical knowledge base and the organization’s purpose.
• Organizational Analysis: Managing energy effectively requires the right organizational structure, and an approach that aligns with organization’s culture and particular norms. A small, entrepreneurial organization may need a different strategy than a large, conservative one. An external perspective on the role of organizational behavior and structure helps build a successful energy management program.
• Change Management: Making the necessary alterations from business-as-usual involves change- management skills, and in many cases management consultants are in a good position to facilitate this, through developing effective communications, engagement and training strategies.
Energy market uncertainty is one of the reasons why energy efficiency is emerging as a means of competitive advantage. This means that more companies now see energy as a strategic issue, requiring attention of top executives. Several key strategies and tactics can help manage energy. Management consultants can be a valuable resource for helping executives with strategic thinking, change management, technical advice, organizational analysis, and accounting and financial knowledge, to achieve measurable results from a strategic focus on energy management.
David Anders is the strategic energy services lead with Golder Associates in Toronto; Carl Friesen is principal with Global Reach Communications Inc. in Mississauga, Ont.; and Rodney McDonald is president of the McDonald Sustainability Group Inc. in Toronto. For more information about the Canadian Association of Management Consultants, visit www.cmc-canada.ca.
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LEDs winning lighting race to save energy and the environment
Written by EB Mag staff Monday, 17 September 2012
Today’s light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs have a slight environmental edge over compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and U.K.-based N14 Energy Ltd., that gap is expected to grow significantly as technology and manufacturing methods improve in the next five year.
“The [LED] lamp is a rapidly evolving technology that, while already energy efficient, will become even more so in just a few short years,” said Marc Ledbetter, who manages PNNL’s solid-state lighting testing, analysis and deployment efforts. “Our comprehensive analysis indicates technological advancements in the near future will help people who use these lamps to keep shrinking their environmental footprints.”
The report examines total environmental impact, including the energy and natural resources needed to manufacture, transport, operate and dispose of light bulbs. 15 different impacts were considered when evaluating environmental footprints, including the potential to increase global warming, use land formerly available to wildlife, generate waste and pollute water, soil and air. The report examines the complete life cycles of three kinds of light bulbs: LEDs, CFLs, and traditional incandescents.
Completed for the Solid-State Lighting Program of DoE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, this is the first public report to examine the environmental impact of LED manufacturing in depth, say the report’s authors.
(Manufacturing processes contribute substantially to a light bulb’s overall environmental impact, but companies generally keep manufacturing information private. The research team was able to gather manufacturing data with the help of industry consultants and some companies on the condition that the final report would not reveal individual company data.)
To do the analysis, the team chose specific bulbs that best represent what’s most typical and widely available for each of the three types of lights they studied. They then used a database to calculate the resources needed to produce the various components of the three light bulbs. That analysis revealed both LEDs and CFLs are substantially more environmentally friendly then traditional incandescents, which consume far more electricity. For example, the specific incandescent light bulb the team studied consumes 60 watts of electricity, while the LED model they studied uses just 12.5 watts and the representative CFL only uses 15 watts to create about the same amount of light.
“By using more energy to create light, incandescent bulbs also use more of the natural resources needed to generate the electricity that powers them,” Ledbetter said. “Regardless of whether consumers use LEDs or CFLs, this analysis shows we could reduce the environmental impact of lighting by three to 10 times if we choose more efficient bulbs instead of incandescents.”
The energy consumed by lights when they’re turned on makes up the majority of their environmental impact. But, with power consumption being similar between LEDs and CFLs when they are lit, the research team found the difference between those two bulbs’ overall environmental performance is largely determined by the energy and resources needed to make them.
CFLs were found to cause slightly more environmental harm than today’s LED lamp in all but one of the 15 impact areas studied. The one standout area was generating hazardous waste that must be taken to a landfill. This is because LED lights include a component called a heat sink, a ribbed aluminum segment that is attached to the bottom of LED bulbs. Aluminum heat sinks absorb and later dissipate heat that’s generated by the light bulb, preventing it from overheating. The process to mine, refine and process the aluminum in heat sinks is energy-intensive and creates several byproducts, such as sulphuric acid, that must be taken to a hazardous waste landfill.
R&D is expected to further improve LED efficiencies which, in turn, will reduce the amount of heat they produce and the size of heat sink they require, says the research team. The team found that this, and other improvements in manufacturing processes and electronics, will lead LED bulbs to be even more environmentally friendly than CFLs within five years. The team expects the LED bulb of 2017 will have 50% fewer environmental impacts than today’s LED lamps, and 70% fewer impacts than those found in today’s CFLs, which are not expected to change significantly.
“The [LED] lamp is a rapidly evolving technology that, while already energy efficient, will become even more so in just a few short years,” said Marc Ledbetter, who manages PNNL’s solid-state lighting testing, analysis and deployment efforts. “Our comprehensive analysis indicates technological advancements in the near future will help people who use these lamps to keep shrinking their environmental footprints.”
The report examines total environmental impact, including the energy and natural resources needed to manufacture, transport, operate and dispose of light bulbs. 15 different impacts were considered when evaluating environmental footprints, including the potential to increase global warming, use land formerly available to wildlife, generate waste and pollute water, soil and air. The report examines the complete life cycles of three kinds of light bulbs: LEDs, CFLs, and traditional incandescents.
Completed for the Solid-State Lighting Program of DoE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, this is the first public report to examine the environmental impact of LED manufacturing in depth, say the report’s authors.
(Manufacturing processes contribute substantially to a light bulb’s overall environmental impact, but companies generally keep manufacturing information private. The research team was able to gather manufacturing data with the help of industry consultants and some companies on the condition that the final report would not reveal individual company data.)
To do the analysis, the team chose specific bulbs that best represent what’s most typical and widely available for each of the three types of lights they studied. They then used a database to calculate the resources needed to produce the various components of the three light bulbs. That analysis revealed both LEDs and CFLs are substantially more environmentally friendly then traditional incandescents, which consume far more electricity. For example, the specific incandescent light bulb the team studied consumes 60 watts of electricity, while the LED model they studied uses just 12.5 watts and the representative CFL only uses 15 watts to create about the same amount of light.
“By using more energy to create light, incandescent bulbs also use more of the natural resources needed to generate the electricity that powers them,” Ledbetter said. “Regardless of whether consumers use LEDs or CFLs, this analysis shows we could reduce the environmental impact of lighting by three to 10 times if we choose more efficient bulbs instead of incandescents.”
The energy consumed by lights when they’re turned on makes up the majority of their environmental impact. But, with power consumption being similar between LEDs and CFLs when they are lit, the research team found the difference between those two bulbs’ overall environmental performance is largely determined by the energy and resources needed to make them.
CFLs were found to cause slightly more environmental harm than today’s LED lamp in all but one of the 15 impact areas studied. The one standout area was generating hazardous waste that must be taken to a landfill. This is because LED lights include a component called a heat sink, a ribbed aluminum segment that is attached to the bottom of LED bulbs. Aluminum heat sinks absorb and later dissipate heat that’s generated by the light bulb, preventing it from overheating. The process to mine, refine and process the aluminum in heat sinks is energy-intensive and creates several byproducts, such as sulphuric acid, that must be taken to a hazardous waste landfill.
R&D is expected to further improve LED efficiencies which, in turn, will reduce the amount of heat they produce and the size of heat sink they require, says the research team. The team found that this, and other improvements in manufacturing processes and electronics, will lead LED bulbs to be even more environmentally friendly than CFLs within five years. The team expects the LED bulb of 2017 will have 50% fewer environmental impacts than today’s LED lamps, and 70% fewer impacts than those found in today’s CFLs, which are not expected to change significantly.
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Why do we struggle with change management?
Perhaps the biggest reason is because we do not like to be changed: if it is not our own choice, intentional or not, then we resist. By not making a conscious choice to change, even after we’ve declared our support for it, we set ourselves up to resist.
Let’s take a hypothetical situation to help illustrate this. One client is implementing a new computer system to overlay on a well-known and “user-hostile” enterprise system. Enter a new superintendent, newly arrived from a sister plant, who has mastered the “user-hostile” system at his old site and is used to it. Naturally, he doesn’t believe they can make the new system work, even though it is clearly easier to use and well liked by those at his new site. His lack of belief is real trouble because he can use his position to throw barriers in the way of implementation in his attempt to force the site to use his preferred system. His belief is that it won’t work. His action is to force a change the site doesn’t want. He is setting them up to fail — and ultimately, he will look bad for it.
There are many ways to resist change. Perhaps the most easy and least obvious is our “self-talk”; to ourselves we say things like, “This is really tough to do,” “This will pass” and “I know a better way.” All these are ways of shooting yourself in the foot. We express, to ourselves or even openly, our belief that it cannot happen. Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you cannot, you are right.” He was right, too. We can shoot ourselves in the foot if we don’t believe and say that we can do it. That superintendent needs to believe they can and will make the new system work.
Coaches do not let a team that’s losing mope and sulk. They give them a pep talk. Sometimes it sounds like a kick in the pants, but it is their way of inspiring the team to do what the coach already knows it can do. It works. When was the last time in your plant or operation you had a pep talk that really roused you and your team? The superintendent is giving orders, not a pep talk.
Talk and words matter. When you speak, your mind listens. The superintendent believes the old system is better and that belief is leading him down a path destined to failure. He needs to believe in his team. He needs to prove to himself the new system can work. Why not go out and look at another site that uses it?
He needs to join the party — not spoil it.
James Reyes-Picknell of Barrie, Ont.’s Conscious Asset Management is a certified management consultant specializing in operations excellence and asset management. You can reach him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Perhaps the biggest reason is because we do not like to be changed: if it is not our own choice, intentional or not, then we resist. By not making a conscious choice to change, even after we’ve declared our support for it, we set ourselves up to resist.
Let’s take a hypothetical situation to help illustrate this. One client is implementing a new computer system to overlay on a well-known and “user-hostile” enterprise system. Enter a new superintendent, newly arrived from a sister plant, who has mastered the “user-hostile” system at his old site and is used to it. Naturally, he doesn’t believe they can make the new system work, even though it is clearly easier to use and well liked by those at his new site. His lack of belief is real trouble because he can use his position to throw barriers in the way of implementation in his attempt to force the site to use his preferred system. His belief is that it won’t work. His action is to force a change the site doesn’t want. He is setting them up to fail — and ultimately, he will look bad for it.
There are many ways to resist change. Perhaps the most easy and least obvious is our “self-talk”; to ourselves we say things like, “This is really tough to do,” “This will pass” and “I know a better way.” All these are ways of shooting yourself in the foot. We express, to ourselves or even openly, our belief that it cannot happen. Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you cannot, you are right.” He was right, too. We can shoot ourselves in the foot if we don’t believe and say that we can do it. That superintendent needs to believe they can and will make the new system work.
Coaches do not let a team that’s losing mope and sulk. They give them a pep talk. Sometimes it sounds like a kick in the pants, but it is their way of inspiring the team to do what the coach already knows it can do. It works. When was the last time in your plant or operation you had a pep talk that really roused you and your team? The superintendent is giving orders, not a pep talk.
Talk and words matter. When you speak, your mind listens. The superintendent believes the old system is better and that belief is leading him down a path destined to failure. He needs to believe in his team. He needs to prove to himself the new system can work. Why not go out and look at another site that uses it?
He needs to join the party — not spoil it.
James Reyes-Picknell of Barrie, Ont.’s Conscious Asset Management is a certified management consultant specializing in operations excellence and asset management. You can reach him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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As the busiest port on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system, the Port of Hamilton plays an integral role in supporting trade between Canada and the U.S. as well as overseas destinations. With thousands of jobs dependent on the cargo that is transported in and out of this port, one 12-person maintenance team is responsible for ensuring a variety of buildings, warehouses and infrastructure remain in good working order year-round.Check out the full story in the March/April 2013 issue of PEM.
- Western Manufacturing Technology Show (WMTS) (June 04.06)
- PTDA Canadian Conference (June 06.06)
- Maintenance Management Professional - Module 2 (June 18.06)
- Partners in Training - Electrical Maintenance & Reliability (June 18.06)
- SAIA Convention and SAF-T Conference (July 21.07)
- European Power Transmission Distributors Association Convention (September 18.09)
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