3 Real-world examples of Energy Efficiency in Industry 4.0

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The fourth industrial revolution: an unavoidable shift

We are already in the phase of a new industrial revolution where interconnectivity, real-time data and artificial intelligence are key drivers: Industry 4.0. If you are not sure what this revolution is and how this impacts the industry, read our previous blog: What is industry 4.0 and how does this impact industrial production?

Requirements for an Industry 4.0 Energy Efficiency solution

As mentioned above, interconnectivity is dominant in industry 4.0. An Energy Management System (EMS) is a common solution for energy efficiency, and it is used to measure energy usage and to display data. Becoming data-driven comes with its own set of challenges, and choosing the right EMS is of paramount importance to your success in implementing Industry 4.0. A typical Industry 4.0 solution offers the following features:

• Data needs to be easily stored.
• Maintenance and security of data itself should be of utmost importance.
• Analysing the data or performing energy audits should be almost effortless.
• The solution should provide practical tools like alerts to optimise the production process.
• The effects of implementing the EMS should increase profit in the short term and also have a secure return on investment in the long term.
• Ideally, the solution suggests saving opportunities.

When your (future) solution meets the requirements as stated above, you will see the practical benefits of a smart energy management system.

To start with Industry 4.0, you need:

• Energy sensors to measure data on the energy consumption of the machines.
• Software to get insights into your energy consumption on a machine-level.
• Algorithms to analyse the saving potential and track the implemented savings.

Here are three real-world examples of how Industry 4.0 can practically look like and thereby improve energy performance. Sensorfact offers a plug-and-play EMS and the examples are based on real data from our own systems.

Example 1: Cost price calculation

Calculating the cost price per product is a great example of interconnectivity – a key factor of Industry 4.0. By combining energy consumption and production data, product’s cost prices per machine can be calculated. In this way several machines can be compared, for instance large vs. small machines. With Sensorfact Connect you can automatically import data from the Sensorfact sensors into your servers and compare machines in your online dashboard.

Example 2: Detect compressed air leaks

This graph clearly shows that the air compressor turns on and off at night, indicating leaks. With an Industry 4.0 solution you can run a continuous analysis to check if peaks occur out of production times. Our Sensorfact Alerts feature checks for unwanted events and sends an alert in case of occurrence, indicating energy waste or drawing attention to assets that require immediate intervention.

Example 3: Effortless reporting

With the amount of data that will be collected when switching to Industry 4.0, creating reports should be effortless. This is a huge time-saver compared to manual reporting. With our reports feature, our energy consultants can help you create customised reports with automated weekly or monthly scheduling.

Reports are easily shared with colleagues to show the impact of their efforts to save energy, and can even show the numbers of actual savings achieved.

Explore solutions

Are you exploring solutions for implementing Industry 4.0 but are you hesitant to make large investments upfront? At Sensorfact we developed a plug-and-play solution that will give you insight on your machine-level energy consumption. After measuring, our Energy Consultants can help you identify relevant energy savings and give you recommendations for further performance improvements.