Environmental Targets - supported by your CMMS

Large corporations are compelled by share-holders to account for the triple bottom-line: profitability, social responsibility and environmental impact. Recent reports indicate that 85% of SME's in the UK, driven in part by rising fuel prices, are also focusing on strategies to reduce environmental impact. Increased energy efficiency helps reduce carbon footprints and deliver financial savings. There are big wins to be made with the aid of a CMMS as minimising planned and unplanned downtime has been shown to have an enormously positive impact on energy saving.

Most companies have already implemented a wide-range of energy related programmes with varying degrees of success, including switch-off campaigns or installing sensors to turn lights off automatically. Other energy-reduction measures have included intelligent production scheduling at a lower time-tariff, the installation of new energy-efficient equipment, and improving maintenance procedures to reduce leaks. All of these programmes are necessary to reduce energy consumption but they are not sufficient on their own to provide step-changes in energy efficiency.

The true cost and level of usage if a plant suffers a breakdown is significant, and the impact is not isolated to the asset that needs maintenance - but also all the kit that is left running during the downtime.

Improving asset availability and performance (minimsing downtime and slow running) can have a staggering impact on energy efficiency - and with an effective maintenance strategy in place that is both preventive and responsive, the engineering team can drive the benefits directly to the organisation's bottom line.