OBS in practice - reducing standby times
In our mechanical production facility in Bielefeld, the machines run in standby mode with a high base load. Reason enough for our OBS team to look for optimization potential here - and to implement energy-saving measures.
Recognizing potential savings in the base load
Our OBS team is mostly involved in process improvement on the Böllhoff site, for example in the automation of packaging processes or the improvement of transport routes. However, in the course of our sustainability activities, energy savings, and thus the improvement of our energy balance, are coming to the fore.
A specific example here: the standby times of our machinery in the mechanical production facility in Bielefeld. Functionally relevant components for assembly systems are manufactured there - i.e. for the systems with which our fasteners can be installed. Five machine tools run continuously in mechanical production. The base load of a machine tool accounts for around 60 percent of its total energy consumption. This means that even if no order is being processed or the machine is not being set up, it has a considerable basic turnover. The peripherals, such as a water cooling system or an air conditioning unit, are responsible for this.
The energy measurement revealed a total potential of 75,000 kWh per year. This is roughly equivalent to the energy consumption of 20 single-family homes with 4 people in the household per year.
»"By constantly looking for potential savings, we are killing two birds with one stone: on the one hand, we are reducing costs and, on the other, we are saving resources - and that naturally has a positive impact on our energy and carbon footprint."
Initiate and evaluate measures
Various measures, such as a change to the program control and a switch-off at the end of the working day, have already reduced energy consumption in the base load by around 90 percent.
Continuous measurement and monitoring will enable us to identify further potential savings in the future. However, it will not be possible to completely eliminate the downtime caused by programming, set-up, running-in and similar activities.
Optimizing Böllhoff System (OBS)
Continuous improvement with a system
At Böllhoff, we take a systematic approach to continuous improvement: with our Optimizing Böllhoff System, OBS for short. Behind OBS is an entire team that is exclusively dedicated to identifying and implementing process improvements. The team's aim is to use process optimization to coordinate all activities that are necessary for value creation in the company in the best possible way. The aim is to avoid waste and superfluous activities.
When it comes to sustainability, OBS also plays a decisive role when it comes to the responsible use of resources. This is because, as in this project, some process optimizations go hand in hand with concrete resource-saving potential, for example in terms of energy.
»"This project is a good example of the potential that arises when seemingly small details are focused on - for example, machine downtimes or their base load. In this case, we were able to achieve very relevant savings with relatively little effort and resources."
