Badrinath Belgaumkar and SR Venkatapathy discuss about the growing significance of sustainability in manufacturing industry Business transformation for manufacturing enterprises cannot happen without addressing society’s needs. Today, value addition on the shop floors necessarily needs to consider the environmental issues. Manufacturing sustainability is closely linked to environment sustainability—ensuring enough for future generations. For a typical manufacturing plant in India, sustainability concerns have just started to become relevant on the corporate level. Several leading Indian manufacturers recognise that sustainable production goes beyond green energy, and they require longterm solutions to overcome the rising costs of energy, raw materials, environmental regulations, workers’ compensation, and product liability. Several of them are also encouraged to pursue sustainability in manufacturing, as such efforts translate into improved bottom lines. ARC’s recent research on energy-intensive industries reveals that several companies are pursuing sustainability in manufacturing and deriving the benefits. For example, cement manufacturing is an energy intensive industry which releases significant amount of greenhouse gases due to calcination of limestone and use of fossil fuels as an energy source. A leading cement manufacturer in India found ways not only to raise production but also reduce energy consumption, while cutting down on emissions and wastes. The company adopted a holistic approach related to energy, water consumption, environment, and human resources towards achieving manufacturing sustainability. The company also reduced its conventional cycle times for project execution as part of manufacturing sustainability. The energy conservation measures taken by the company reduced the Specific Power Consumption (SPC) of around 3KWH per ton of cement produced in a short span of time. All this was achieved while the company continued adding its production capacity. The measures included replacement of equipment, use of variable frequency drives, energy efficiency motors, and process improvements. Believing that reduction of waste and consumption is preferable to recycling, reuse, or recovery efforts, the company achieved significant savings in water consumption through additional investments that had a measurable impact on its bottom line as well. Another initiative involved use of alternative materials drawn from waste for generation of captive power that the plant consumed. The alternative waste materials considerably reduced use of fossil fuels both for generation of power and transportation of the fuels (and hence CO2 emission levels). Alternative materials were also considered for replacing conventional raw materials, such as fly ash, petroleum coke, Lead-Zinc slag. Several other manufacturers across industries are considering conventional approaches leveraging existing and additional automation infrastructure to achieve manufacturing sustainability objectives. Sustainability initiatives that address consumption require solutions that monitor, analyse, and control processes. Manufacturers need to gather and analyse data within and across facilities with the goal of maximising asset availability, utilisation, and efficiency, while minimising environmental impact. Simple as it may appear, often deploying smart positioners with partial stroke function on valves for reject discharge could ensure that no accidental discharge of harmful chemicals takes place. Across industries such as steel, oil and gas, chemicals, and cement, deployment of Advance Process Control (APC) solutions are not new. However, when used with the specific objective of accomplishing in quick time, changes that ensure product changes in terms of grades and specifications can result in absolute terms reduction in energy and resources. Similar applications in boiler controls could result in reduction in use of fossil fuels even as emission levels are brought down. Manufacturers will tend to regard investments under the umbrella of manufacturing sustainability programs as business enablers. India, as it embraces the global marketplace, will invest in information, automation, machinery, and processes that help reduce consumption and avoid waste of water, air, gas, electricity, steam, and raw materials. Gaining the ability to do so is an evolving process and regulatory requirements are only accelerating these processes. Badrinath Belgaumkar is Senior Analyst, Process Automation, ARC SR Venkatapathy is Head, Research, ARC - India and South East Asia |
