Digital Transformation Value Indicators for a Sustainable and Circular Economy
Smart manufacturing execution system ( MES ): IoT can help reduce the carbon footprint by collecting and analyzing data from various sources such as machines , workers , or materials , which would improve production planning , scheduling , tracking , or reporting and enable better resource utilization and optimization [ 6 ][ 7 ].
An effective and well thought digital strategy and roadmap can bring valuable benefits and insights to reducing waste , increasing process visibility , decreasing cost , improving quality and building a more effective and efficient workforce . In this article we present two examples to illustrate how IoT systems combined with an effective digital transformation strategy and program can support and augment an organization ’ s ability to achieve its sustainability goals .
This article will focus on one particular sustainability goal and measure which is the reduction of harmful greenhouse gases , namely CO 2 [ 8 ]. The majority of the carbon footprint calculations in this paper are based on the US Environmental Protection Agency [ 9 ] and the US Energy Information Administration [ 10 ].
The explosion of IoT devices and connected factory floor has provided many organizations with direct visibility to operations , equipment performance , process performance , equipment reliability and more . A good business and IoT strategy have proven and driven efficiency improvements as high as 20-30 % in some cases and significant ROI savings .
However , as this technology has advanced many organizations have been aligning these projects with sustainability goals .
A simple example of how IoT devices impact a sustainability goal is to look at a typical threephase , 20-HP motor operating 24 hours a day . Online sensors that monitor motor temperature and electrical power can detect when a motor is not running as efficiently and wasting energy . A 20-HP motor with a power unbalance between phases of 2.5 % will result in a motor winding temperature increase of 12.5 %. Correcting the power unbalance from 2.5 % to a recommended 1.0 % results in 1311 Kw / h savings equivalent to 0.57 Tons CO2 per year [ 9 ]. The accumulative savings of CO2 would greatly increase by the number of motors operating in a typical plant and motor horsepower .
However , an average factory in the US uses about 95.1 kWh of electricity per square foot annually with almost 70 % of the power consumed by electrical motors [ 9 ]. Expanding the example case above to an average manufacturing plant could result in a reduction as high as 106,010 kWh or 45.9 Tons CO2 per 100,000 square foot facility .
Adoption of simulation and digital twin has been increasing each year and across many industries since 2010 . The advent and improvement in high performance computing and software has allowed many organizations to use simulation to advance and improve product designs ( Finite
140 April 2023