Energy Efficiency in Industrial Energy Systems:

• From “lower cost” energy focus we moved into the energy service contract approach when purchasing energy,
• Instead of “energy savings”, attention was driven to the “optimal use of energy” as a way of reducing the overall energy use
• We already checked that materials efficiency technologies, circular concepts, and materials management methodologies did not match energy flows nor they delivered in sustained results for energy efficiency
• Mapping the productive mainstream process lead us to an almost linear, sequential and narrow end of pipe view of energy flows and effects
• The “smart grid concept” helped us to further elaborate on energy information and metrics yet gave us an organic grown structure narrowing alternatives and trapping our views on energy efficiency potential
• Equipment and technology upgrade, delivered in equipment and technology upgrade; that´s it

Thus, we keep wondering:

Why is it relevant the introduction of Systems Management methodology to improve energy efficiency in industrial energy systems?

What is the right path to identify and select systems, set up their internal autonomous processes and explore their interactions?

How the systems’ parts play their role within the overall systems’ autonomous function?

Process Offset Design, Modelling, Transforming:

Breaking through the standard manufacturing processes design is not an easy endeavor as long as it has been a major target focus while we were striving to setup quality systems operating in the manufacturing environment. Fortunately these days process oriented manufacturing already provided grounds for building on excellence, quality and safety. Unfortunately this process design has become part of the “regime” or “business as usual”, that we do tackle when we are redesigning and figuring out the bests scenarios for energy efficiency management in industrial systems.

Despite of our current primarily focus on energy efficiency management in industrial energy systems we do assume that current operating structures will be part of the future manufacturing landscape and only those structures that will be overcome as a result of a smooth change management process will be adapted, modified or eventually eliminated. In order to help and accomplish the task, digitization will play a preliminary role for systems emergence. And for the sake of categorization we will be using four different digitization strategies, in our case strongly oriented to systems’ emergence:

• Developmental
• Massive
• Selective
• Connected

As soon as a portfolio of systems is identified within the manufacturing environment, it happens to be crucial:

• Setting up an individual and autonomous systems design (system’s own rules, processes and subsystems)
• Keep the energy systems analysis safely disconnected from productive and manufacturing views (mode: off, stand-by, operating)
• Fulfill the overall range of systems design before start analyzing what are the main energy interactions between systems
• Identify each systems interaction with the process flow in terms of energy
• Design information feedback loops with the systems selected information system

Somehow we got close to a system of systems in which the manufacturing processes are embedded in a kind of a systems matrix. Next challenge to be the the remodeling of business processes by means of the transformation of the system of systems matrix. During the next stage to be considered that a hybrid structure composed of the original  ground (departments, processes, equipment, technologies…) coexists with an evolving systems scenario.