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Do you have a story to tell about delivering net zero through digital manufacturing?

Our joint report with Policy Connect and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Manufacturing, Delivering net zero through digital, calls for greater visibility for both digital transformation and sustainability within UK manufacturing. Manufacturers looking to improve the efficiency and productivity of their operations can take important steps towards net zero by embracing and embedding digital technologies, at the same time.

 Previously, digitalisation and sustainability within manufacturing have largely been spoken of, separately, in isolation of one another.

Of course, many of the major manufacturers embraced digital technologies within their factories many years ago, reaping the rewards of faster turnaround times, increased product quality and improved productivity, with sectors and supply chains such as aerospace and automotive, among the early adopters. 

Post-COP26 and with new legislation on industrial decarbonisation and net zero in place, the sector is facing the perfect storm of increased international competition at a time when new investment, talent and leadership is needed to deliver urgent joint action on digital and sustainability now.

Read our report to find out more: Delivering net zero through digital

If you or your manufacturing business have a story to tell about your digital and net zero journey leave your comments below. 

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  •    it will be good to see how our manufacturing sector respond with their accounts of how they made the switch to sustainability using digitization. Switching to a renewable electrical source may for some be a simple matter of switching provider. This is what a number of ISP DataCenters have done. Switching fuel providers for gas  or oil fired boilers may be more of a challenge but not impossible. Switching to a different boiler type may proove most successful

    Regarding efficiencies thereafter, smart metering at Electrical incommers or at key power panels (with a Power management system) will give a clear idea of which electrical systems are least efficient. If I remember and article in E&T ( Vol 10, Issue 4, may-2015) 40% of world electrical consumption was drawn by motors, then 19% by heat (or cooling) and 13% on lights. Looking at motor efficiencies would be a good quick start.  

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member in reply to Alan Rossney

    Many thanks Alan for those positive points! Manufacturers tell me there are always opportunities to save on costs within their factories yet some tell me they don't have time to take on major upheaval of their status quo. With current day concerns over the rising price of energy, the business case for capex to invest in a more efficient boiler will hopefully resonate loudly with FDs and ODs.

    We have to start making waste more visible across the factory floor. That goes beyond just energy and water. Digital can help us to gather the evidence and pull a plan together. Not everyone has discovered that we need to start talking about digital and sustainability in the same sentence. IMHO they are not separate exercises. They are now both urgent and vital. In the meantime, the conversation with IET members and colleagues on the options you raise can only help to shine a light on the opportunities available for all.

  • Hi Alan,

    Just after adding my post above I started thinking on the material waste generation rather than utility and energy wastes. The usual lean pillars of JIT and Autonomation (People, improvements, quality) come to mind. These have been successfully developed in automotive and now in all elements of manufacture. There is always optimization that can be reached by adding some sensors and carrying out further data analysis on flows, throughput, yields and capacities. We have much better tools to Design, Measure, Analyize, Improve and Control than when we originally moved to Centralized Computer Integrated Manufacture, machine learning being one.

    Reducing waiting, motion, conveyance, inventory (most important), rework, processing overproduction & talent gets us some of the way. Reusing materials, parts and equipment is also very helpful followed finally by recycling. I’m starting to wonder however should environmental waste be a 9th waste for lean manufacturing to measure. Particularly if only about 3% of plastics manufactured make it to recycling plants.

    I know there are ISO standard practices, IPCC & national targets to meet, but, I think a mindset change is needed particularly amongst the GenX population like myself. These are the 80’s generation that witnessed social change in the eastern Europe and treaties being signed to de-escalate the cold war. These folks are in postitions of influence now and can make a difference regarding a sustainable future. I know the UK has a Green Deal policies. I have to confess I have only glimpsed at them. One sustainability charter I did read is The Green new deal by Jeremy Rifkin . He is an economist and has been teaching senior executives in business, advising German, European commission and Chinese government officials on how we can move from an extraction based economy to one that is sustainable. You may not like everything he says if, like me, you have an long standing ancestral relationship with the internal combustion engine and its business, but, I think it is good food for thought with none of the rhetoric and a deep understanding of the economics.

    To give a practical example, leaning back around to utilities, one concept I really like is the idea of the industrial eco system, where, used cooling water from a Data-Center can be used as the heating water for adjacent offices (district heating). This cyclic micro-economy has been practised in an industrial estate in Copenhagen for 30 years or more. The waste output of one facility is used as raw materials for another.  Same argument goes for any power surplus realized by the use of turbines or PV Cells shared between organizations. This needs consideration and buy-in at master planning stage for sites to ensure that services, metering and control systems are budgeted to allow one estate resident to sell to others. This infrastructure does need funding or grants from Government to encourage developers to install in industrial estates. I wonder however, what would happen if we were not looking for grants and looking to our commercial, industrial neighbours to co-fund such schemes. The Japanese auto trade was very good with bankrolling these sort of initiatives in its supply chain after the second world war when finance and resource were scarce.

Reply
  • Hi Alan,

    Just after adding my post above I started thinking on the material waste generation rather than utility and energy wastes. The usual lean pillars of JIT and Autonomation (People, improvements, quality) come to mind. These have been successfully developed in automotive and now in all elements of manufacture. There is always optimization that can be reached by adding some sensors and carrying out further data analysis on flows, throughput, yields and capacities. We have much better tools to Design, Measure, Analyize, Improve and Control than when we originally moved to Centralized Computer Integrated Manufacture, machine learning being one.

    Reducing waiting, motion, conveyance, inventory (most important), rework, processing overproduction & talent gets us some of the way. Reusing materials, parts and equipment is also very helpful followed finally by recycling. I’m starting to wonder however should environmental waste be a 9th waste for lean manufacturing to measure. Particularly if only about 3% of plastics manufactured make it to recycling plants.

    I know there are ISO standard practices, IPCC & national targets to meet, but, I think a mindset change is needed particularly amongst the GenX population like myself. These are the 80’s generation that witnessed social change in the eastern Europe and treaties being signed to de-escalate the cold war. These folks are in postitions of influence now and can make a difference regarding a sustainable future. I know the UK has a Green Deal policies. I have to confess I have only glimpsed at them. One sustainability charter I did read is The Green new deal by Jeremy Rifkin . He is an economist and has been teaching senior executives in business, advising German, European commission and Chinese government officials on how we can move from an extraction based economy to one that is sustainable. You may not like everything he says if, like me, you have an long standing ancestral relationship with the internal combustion engine and its business, but, I think it is good food for thought with none of the rhetoric and a deep understanding of the economics.

    To give a practical example, leaning back around to utilities, one concept I really like is the idea of the industrial eco system, where, used cooling water from a Data-Center can be used as the heating water for adjacent offices (district heating). This cyclic micro-economy has been practised in an industrial estate in Copenhagen for 30 years or more. The waste output of one facility is used as raw materials for another.  Same argument goes for any power surplus realized by the use of turbines or PV Cells shared between organizations. This needs consideration and buy-in at master planning stage for sites to ensure that services, metering and control systems are budgeted to allow one estate resident to sell to others. This infrastructure does need funding or grants from Government to encourage developers to install in industrial estates. I wonder however, what would happen if we were not looking for grants and looking to our commercial, industrial neighbours to co-fund such schemes. The Japanese auto trade was very good with bankrolling these sort of initiatives in its supply chain after the second world war when finance and resource were scarce.

Children
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member in reply to Alan Rossney

    Some excellent points here Alan, many thanks! We desperately need something, potentially technology, which will enable manufacturers to spot the opportunities. As you say, one factory's waste is potentially another's wealth. I guess we have to encourage manufacturers, perhaps through their engineering teams, to make their wastes visible. Seeing is believing.