“If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it”.
Performance monitoring is essential to make sure your conservation efforts are going in the right direction (or not). Also to know where your utilities (energy, water, or other resources) are consumed most and how they contribute to your production objectives.
The development of performance monitoring requires deep understanding of the process and utilities to provide the appropriate KPIs (EPIs for energy) that represent the intensity of utilities utilization.
There are three levels of KPIs:
- Product KPIs, that show the intensity of utilities utilization for each product. This can be also related to the feed or combined products. The product KPIs are excellent tools to compare the utilities cost for producing the same product from different plants.
- Process Area KPIs, that help to drill down to see each process area contribution to the overall KPIs. The Process Area KPIs will clearly indicate which units are the major consumers, and can pinpoint specific areas of the plant that need attention both in terms of operating problems and opportunities for major cost reduction
- Equipment KPIs, that show equipment efficiencies or utilization intensity. They can be used to compare the efficiencies/effectiveness of similar equipment, as well as to monitor the deterioration of equipment over time