Development of a framework of key performance indicators to identify reductions in energy consumption in a medical devices production facility

The consumption of energy in manufacturing operations is growing in significance and approaches to reduce the resulting environmental impacts are necessary. Whilst companies have focused on reducing energy at a facilities level, research indicates that specific production processes generate significant environmental impact through energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Potential energy savings have been identified in production processes; however the necessary tools are missing. The development of energy performance indicators have been described in theory but there is little evidence of their successful application in practice. This research proposes the application of a normalised co-efficient to view production and energy data and the development of a rolling energy performance co-efficient to provide alerts to ‘out-of-control’ production operations. Implementation of the approach in a large medical devices manufacturing facility has identified significant savings. Key consideration in the development of energy key performance indicators for production operations are described.