Team members from the North American facilities of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems (Bendix) recently gathered for a treasure hunt at the company’s Bowling Green, Kentucky, manufacturing operation.
The treasure? Energy. Specifically, sources of wasted energy in the plant.
In May, Bendix hosted the three-day, in-plant training event – known as an “Energy Treasure Hunt” – in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) “Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge.”
Seventeen Bendix employees joined, along with one each from two fellow Better Plants partner companies. Participants formed four teams, organized around major plant areas, that walked through the 432,000-square-foot Bowling Green facility searching for opportunities to reduce energy use.
A pair of DOE energy experts facilitated the hunt, training employees on how to conduct assessments, use DOE tools, develop energy-management systems, and implement and replicate energy projects. The DOE’s goal is to empower plant personnel to discover energy-saving opportunities while simultaneously building a culture of continuous improvement.
“Our core sustainability goals at Bendix include reducing energy use and improving energy efficiency,” said Bill Schubert, Bendix director, environmental and sustainability. “The Energy Treasure Hunt gave us a unique opportunity to make further progress toward those goals – in this case by rolling up our sleeves and tackling issues at the plant level. This investment in time, people and resources was made all the more successful by the participation of team members from all Bendix locations, and it helps position us for even more success in the future.”
Luis Quiñones, Bendix corporate sustainability engineer, helped secure the opportunity by leading the DOE application process. Bendix is among a small number of select companies to be awarded the training.
On the Hunt
The Bowling Green manufacturing operation, opened in 2007, employs more than 450 people. The team produces the full lineup of commercially available Bendix brand foundation drum and air disc-brake solutions.
Activities unfolded Sunday through Tuesday, May 21-23.
Participants toured the facility; gathered data; identified, evaluated and quantified energy-saving opportunities; interviewed plant personnel; and, on the last day, reported key findings to Bowling Green plant management.
“By design, the hunt started on a Sunday, when plants typically are not operating,” Quiñones said. “You can start questioning things you hear: Does this piece of equipment need to run? Should that unit have air going to it? The hunt revealed a large air leak up in the ceiling – during any other time, you wouldn’t know that was a problem because the sounds of a plant under production mask the noise of the leak.”
Among other findings were two rooftop units that had no working compressors but blower fans that were still running, and compressed air that was being directed to inactive machines.
“We didn’t expect to find zero air leaks or other issues,” Schubert said. “As well-maintained as this plant is, we knew we’d find problems, just like all industrial facilities. But one of the most powerful takeaways for me was that, when we’re done making repairs and taking care of the major air leaks, we’ll be able to take an entire air compressor offline. The demand of the equipment was a small percentage of the overall air demand. A big chunk of the demand was tied to leaks or unnecessary usage.”
The presentation to plant management included a summary of annual utility use and cost savings that could be realized if problems found in the hunt were addressed. They included a combined electricity and natural gas cost savings of $263,224.09, a 21% yearly reduction. Implementation costs would be made up in less than nine months. Carbon-emission savings would total 1,519.36 tons, also a 21% reduction.
Next Steps
“Now that we have this list of opportunities, the idea is for the Bowling Green plant to redigest them, prioritize them, figure out which ones can be implemented and which ones go on a to-do list and start taking care of them,” Schubert said. “The consensus was that a very large percentage of these were short-term implementable – to the point that some of them were started on the day after the hunt ended. And the items identified – except for one or two – are issues that can be corrected at minimal cost but with long-term impact.”
The hunt was only the start for Bendix.
“We are taking what we learned from the DOE facilitators and from our experiences to schedule treasure hunts at other Bendix facilities, which we will lead,” Schubert said. “We’ll go from site to site, starting with our Huntington, Indiana, location in June.”
Reg Mabey, facilities manager at the Bowling Green plant, participated in the hunt. He was taken by the camaraderie he experienced among the people from different Bendix sites who, in many cases, hadn’t worked with each other before.
“On Sunday, when we all came together, everybody was kind of apart from each other,” Mabey said. “But by Tuesday morning, everybody was elbow to elbow in tight groups, collaborating even beyond the scope of the treasure hunt – sharing strategies and best practices from each of their facilities. It’s the bonding that occurred as part of the process. From that, as we conduct this training at other sites, it becomes a team effect for Bendix – not just Bendix Bowling Green but Bendix as a whole.”
