A powerful, pre-built solution correlates energy costs with manufacturing production, rapidly enabling operational excellence, sustainability, and energy cost savings
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, NOVEMBER 9, 2009 GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, today announced the availability of the Proficy® SmartStart for Manufacturing Energy Management Solution®, a packaged software and services solution that offers a low-risk, proven approach to energy savings within manufacturing. Providing critical insight into energy usage, the SmartStart Manufacturing Energy Management Solution helps customers reduce energy costs, improve production planning, identify sources of energy waste, and drive energy management best practices, while correlating energy costs with manufacturing production.
"As energy price volatility continues," said Sheila Kester, General Manager, Operations Management Software for GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, " manufacturers are coming under increasing pressure to proactively manage their energy consumption. Most companies have not factored energy consumption into their tactical production planning/execution decisions or strategic planning because they don't have the right data in the appropriate context. Timely visibility to this important data at a local level (manufacturing area, equipment, and product) will allow companies to optimize their production-related energy consumption."
The SmartStart Manufacturing Energy Management Solution, developed by GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Premier Solution Provider EnteGreat of Birmingham, Alabama and Mississauga, Ontario, is a value-added application of Proficy software components that can be rapidly deployed to provide comprehensive insights into the energy profile and consumption at each manufacturing site within an enterprise. EnteGreat has combined the power of GE Fanuc's Proficy software with its deep understanding of production efficiencies to deliver this Manufacturing Energy Management Solution. The package provides:
- Manufacturing context (product, batch, lot, equipment) to energy usage
- Real-time visualization of contextualized energy information which enables manufacturing personnel to optimize planning and execution decisions
- Integrates Manufacturing Energy Management into Operational Excellence programs
- Provides timely and accurate energy consumption data for performance management reporting and analysis
"Our customers find that they can work towards managing energy as a 'plant controllable direct cost' and create standard processes, metrics and reports based on best practices to make it business as usual," said Noel Peberdy, President of EnteGreat. "Continuously monitoring energy utilization throughout each site and accounting for base and peak loads, production volume and weather seasonality, allowed forward-thinking companies to identify significant energy conservation and cost savings opportunities that will benefit their business well into the future."
Proficy SmartStart for Manufacturing Energy Management Solution is one of a series of SmartStart offerings designed to help GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms' customers achieve value quickly and with minimal risk by packaging of our full-featured software, a proprietary rapid-engagement methodology, high-impact best practices and application templates, all combined with the right delivery and domain expertise to ensure results.
SmartStart offerings deliver standard, configurable capabilities of Proficy while avoiding the cost and risk of custom coding or system development. They capitalize on the extensive application expertise of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms' solutions ecosystem and the structured evaluation period to improve time-to-value and reduce total cost of ownership for our customers. They also offer scalability and extensibility by establishing a foundation that enables rapid expansion to other production lines and/or additional Operations Management functionality.
"With a detailed understanding of the energy consumption for specific production areas, equipment, and products, manufacturers can better manage production planning and execution as well as strategic contracting in an informed and responsible manner," said Ryan Cahalane, Product Manager for GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms' Proficy SmartStart. "This Proficy-based energy management solution provides our customers with a low-risk, rapid way to gain insight into energy usage, and establishes the right foundation for ongoing cost reduction and sustainable manufacturing practices."
For more information: www.entegreat.com and www.gefanuc.com/smartstart.
About EnteGreat, Inc.
EnteGreat is a manufacturing consulting and systems integration company, serving Fortune 500 as well as mid-market manufacturers. EnteGreat has a singular mission: to help manufacturing companies succeed. As a GE Premier Solution Provider, EnteGreat has been collaborating with GE FANUC to deliver Proficy-based solutions to our clients since 2000. EnteGreat's technical expertise with the GE FANUCs Proficy products is complemented by its lean / process re-engineering, energy management, and enterprise integration skills as well as focused change management and knowledge transfer capabilities. These skills and capabilities enable EnteGreat's clients to accelerate their return on investment and achieve sustainable business process improvements. For more information, visit www.entegreat.com.
About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile, advanced and ultra-reliable technology that provides customers a sustainable advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company headquartered in Charlottesville, VA and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com.
About GE Enterprise Solutions
GE Enterprise Solutions elevates customers' productivity and profitability with integrated solutions using sensors and non-destructive testing; security and life safety technologies; power system protection and control; and plant automation and embedded computing systems. Enterprise Solutions' high-tech, high-growth businesses include Sensing & Inspection Technologies, Security, Digital Energy, and GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. The business has 17,000 problem-solving employees in more than 60 countries around the world.
Proficy is a registered trademark of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Ian McMurray
GE Energy Management
[email protected]
+44-(0)-1327-322821