Why is decarbonizing factories so difficult? | The energy dilemma faced by manufacturing sites

"Heating and cooling" are at the core of manufacturing.

Many products that support our daily lives, such as automotive parts, semiconductors, food products, and chemical products, involve process of "heating" and "cooling."

In order to finish a metal to a specific property, carry out a chemical reaction, or bring a product to a desired state, it is sometimes necessary to heat it to the required temperature and maintain that state.

Generating heat using furnaces and boilers, and maintaining the necessary conditions, is itself related to a factory's energy consumption.

It's not simply a matter of changing the conditions because "it's energy-saving."

For manufacturing sites, maintaining quality is one of the top priorities.

Therefore, even if heating conditions are changed or processing time is shortened for the purpose of saving energy, the original objective cannot be achieved if product quality or process stability is compromised.

What's needed is not "reducing" but "finding waste."

Therefore, it becomes important to distinguish between the conditions that are truly necessary to maintain quality and the conditions that are set on the safe side based on past experience.

To achieve this, it is necessary to understand the state of process using objective data.

Heat moves from areas of higher temperature to areas of lower temperature.

Heat has the property of moving from areas of higher temperature to areas of lower temperature.

No matter how efficiently heat is generated by factory equipment, heat will still be transferred to the surroundings through the walls, pipes, and openings of the equipment.

Where and to what extent is heat escaping?

Even with insulation, it's impossible to completely eliminate heat transfer.

What makes it even more difficult is that it is hard to accurately perceive heat transfer and temperature distribution with the naked eye alone.

Therefore, measuring temperature and recording its changes over time and location is the starting point for improvement.

On-site, observations based on experience, such as "This equipment seems a little hot" or "This area looks like it's quite hot," can sometimes be the starting point for improvements.

However, relying solely on that feeling makes it difficult to determine, using common criteria, where the problem lies and what level of countermeasures are needed.

Decarbonization is not simply about reducing energy consumption through self-denial.

We deliver the necessary heat to the necessary locations, identify unnecessary heat loss, and bring equipment and process closer to a state where they can be used more efficiently.

The first step in achieving this is to "measure and understand the current situation."​

Manufacturing sites possess an intuition and experience honed over many years.

Does replacing that with data mean negating the skills of veterans?

In Episode 2, we explore the theme of "The True Nature of Intuition and Experience," considering what quantification can bring to the workplace and organizations.

Read Chapter 2: "The True Nature of Intuition and Experience"