Enterprises are paying a lot of attention these days to energy efficiency and sustainable operations. So too are manufacturers. Clearly, the factory floor is a major consumer of energy. Surprisingly, however, there is not much precedent for integrating a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with energy management decision-making in any kind of dynamic way.

Is there the potential for important new applications in this area? Some recent discussions with customers and colleagues make me believe the answer is definitely “Yes.” And maybe closer to happening than people might think.

Consider what manufacturers are already doing. On the energy management side, there are many systems and applications for monitoring and reporting energy and water use, and companies use the reports generated by these systems to make decisions about energy and to initiate cost-saving practices. Some of these systems can even be dynamic—for example, turning off lights and HVAC systems when rooms are unoccupied, or adjusting settings based on time of day.

On the manufacturing side, energy use in a plant can be easily tracked and monitored, through sensors in the facility and also via the production equipment. For example, energy consumption by equipment is often monitored as part of an enterprise asset management program, as deviations in energy use can predict failing equipment.

So why not take these two silos of critical information—process control and energy consumption—and integrate them in real-time to give management a truly holistic view of manufacturing? It’s not a very big leap, and it’s easy to imagine that the results could be quite significant.

Here’s one example. Suppose a manufacturer pays more for energy after a certain level of consumption has been reached for the day—a variable pricing policy that is practiced in many areas of the world. This information could be linked dynamically to the MES to reduce energy costs. If it’s five minutes until midnight when the rate resets, and you can slow down the production line to avoid paying a big surcharge, why wouldn’t you? Other things being equal, this would be a “no brainer.”

You’d have to know the cost-savings would be worth the delay, taking into consideration other production runs, customer expectations, current scheduling flexibility, and so on. These would be complex decisions for a person to make in real-time, but they’re exactly the sorts of decisions that automated systems excel at making. The MES could monitor the energy usage in real-time, balance the considerations, and pace the production run accordingly.

Or here’s another example: production runs could be scheduled to take advantage of peak-hour and off-peak-hour energy charges, based on the energy requirements of the various runs involved and balanced against other scheduling issues. Again, this might be too complicated for mere humans, but it would be a snap for the ERP, MES and energy management systems working together. If you add Business Intelligence component on top of it – you may gain additional value of long lasting trends analysis over weeks or months.

Some companies are even talking about moving the energy cost to the Bill of Materials, so that energy costs are hardwired into the process control systems. This could get a manufacturer on the path to the “golden” production run where all factors are perfectly balance to achieve truly optimal manufacturing performance.

The two biggest investments to make this happen—flexible, dynamic process control systems and energy monitoring systems—have already been made by most large manufacturers, and are present in virtually all new plants. So it’s just a matter of leveraging existing resources to reduce operating costs and improve sustainability, something upper management will likely be happy to hear about.

What do you think? Is “MES as energy manager” around the corner in your company? Might your competitors already being doing it? I’m guessing the answers are “Yes,” and “Yes.”