Top 3 insights from observing 40 manufacturers collaborate on energy efficiency

What can we learn from watching how 40 manufacturing and distribution businesses tackle energy efficiency with a ground-breaking new way of working?

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The aim of M2030 bee is simple – make it easy to investigate, prioritise and execute energy efficiency actions within manufacturing operations. To spend less time and make more progress. To be more bee.

The bee buzzed into life in July, with facility teams from 40 businesses taking part in a ‘beta’ testing period to the end-August. It was put through its paces by seasoned professionals from the likes of: Mars; Allergan Pharmaceuticals; Assa Abloy; Beckers Group; Brenntag AG; Coty; DuPont; Freshtime; Mettis Aerospace; New Balance Athletic; PepsiCo; Reckitt Benckiser; Rolls Royce; and many more big and small.

The teams working at these companies manufacturing & distribution facilities could access a growing index of 200+ good practice energy saving projects – from preventative maintenance, through to operational processes, and new technology installs.

In the index, each project’s potential impact was highlighted, allowing quick comparison, as well as practical tips and advice to help them investigate and execute appropriate projects. As they found out though, it’s not just an index. Aside from providing an easy way to speak to other practitioners with helpful experience (which is unique to the bee), each facility teams’ data is anonymised and fed back into bee’s growing project index and tool set. The more it’s used, the better it gets.

So what did we find? Here are the Top 3 insights we found from the first 2 months of M2030 bee…

1. Even highly sophisticated sites still see opportunities to improve colleague behaviour

Outside all the hard engineering, some of the most selected, and actioned, projects involved colleague behaviour and engagement. These included the likes of:

• Creating (or refreshing) colleague led ‘Energy Champion Teams’
• Systematically reviewing and aligning all key performance metrics against the behaviours being encouraged.

These projects are tough to quantify, often need ongoing attention, but with the right support can deliver big impacts. As a bee participant put it to me, ‘you might have the most efficient kit in the world, but if someone overrides the controls to leave it running all day then you’re back to square one’. Learning from other practitioners how to keep these fresh, and delivering real change, is vital to maintain momentum without burning out.

2. The most popular single project was…‘To ensure a robust program of compressed air leak detection and remediation was in place’

As projects go, air leak remediation sits within the ‘quick win’ bucket within M2030 bee's index.

The publicly available industry data we saw suggested 80% of facilities would be confident they’d have this already in place. However, data from M2030 bee participants – including multiple industries and sizes – suggests that while many businesses do have leak detection regimes, they aren’t always followed up with effective remediation and are seen as an area of common opportunity to improve.

What's great is that we’re already now seeing bee participants from Pharma and Food businesses swapping contacts and ideas to help improve their leak detection & remediation programs.

3. The average facility identified 8 ‘quick wins’ they hadn’t previously completed.

Again, across the wide spectrum of facilities and industries represented – across the globe – there were still a lot of low/no cost projects shortlisted by bee participants. More than we initially anticipated.

When researching and building M2030 bee’s project index, with the help of our expert reviewers (including the likes of Star Refrigeration, Byworth Boilers, TSC, Eriks, BCAS, SA Partners, JRP, and RUMM), we took pains to provide projects right across the spectrum – from no cost to large CapEx.

There are ~50 quick win projects in M2030 bee, a couple of popular examples (none of which will be a big shock) include:

• Refloating and optimising the discharge pressure of your refrigeration system.
• Repairing and replacing faulty steam traps.
• Checking and fixing vibrations on compressor packs.
• Installing boiler interlocks to avoid dry-cycling.

We’re working with bee participants to understand the major blockers to progressing both the bigger CapEx projects – usually budget, skills, and disruption – and the quick wins – so far mostly cited are engaging the right colleagues, and time.

If you’d like to know more about M2030 bee - including how you can get a free two-week trial for your manufacturing and distribution centres – just let me know or book a 10min demo here.