How MCC Verstraete saves €135,000 a year with Enelyzer
The need for energy monitoring
As the world’s largest in-mould label manufacturer, with several production sites worldwide, MCC Global IML produces around 80 million labels every day. These labels can be found on packaging for products such as butter tubs and ice cream containers.
David, Facility Manager, and Benedict, Quality & Regulatory Manager at the Belgian division, joined forces with colleagues from production and maintenance. Together, they wanted to visualise their energy data in a clear and structured way to better understand where energy was being consumed and where opportunities existed to reduce consumption.
Visualisation, reporting and smart alarms
MCC Verstraete chose Enelyzer and has been visualising and monitoring its production data for more than 10 years using around 100 meters.
“We quickly realised that effective energy monitoring does not mean measuring every single machine individually. For example, we have 17 printing presses that are very similar. By monitoring four of them in detail, we obtain a representative picture of the entire group, while still being able to work in a targeted and cost-effective way.”
Energy meters and other measurement devices were connected, allowing MCC Verstraete to monitor both historical and real-time consumption in Enelyzer.
The next step was to move from “How much are we consuming?” to “What should our optimal consumption be?”
Following further analyses based on insights from the monitoring data, limits were configured for the machines in Enelyzer. This allowed MCC Verstraete to respond quickly whenever an alarm was triggered.
€15,000 saved thanks to a single alarm
“We can give several examples of machines that were incorrectly adjusted, leaks that went unnoticed, or wear and tear causing unnecessary standby consumption. Without Enelyzer, these issues would have remained under the radar and could have cost us a lot of money.
One striking example involved our polypropylene extraction system, one of our larger energy consumers and a crucial part of our label production process. We received an alarm indicating unusually high consumption. In the past, we would automatically have suspected the quality of the machine’s blades, but the alarm prompted us to investigate further.
It turned out that the machine’s rubber components were worn. By identifying the problem quickly, we avoided having to take the machine out of service for months of investigation and maintenance, resulting in a €15,000 saving.”
Enprove’s expertise
Dashboarding alone is not enough. MCC Verstraete realised this relatively quickly as well.
That is why the company called on an external energy expert from Enprove for additional support. Every two years, the cross-functional team comes together to identify new optimisation opportunities. In the meantime, the energy consultant continuously monitors the energy data and translates it into concrete improvement proposals every quarter.
“And this really is necessary,” Benedict explains. “The Energy Manager as a Service approach forces you to keep looking at your energy data, which is not always easy for a company to do consistently without external support.”
Annual savings of €135,000
MCC Verstraete has been working on energy-saving and sustainability initiatives since 2001, including ISO 14001, the replacement of lighting with LED technology, the implementation of Enelyzer, targeted actions following alarms, and a focus on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
In total, the company invested approximately €525,000.
The result of all these proactive measures? Today, that investment generates annual savings of €135,000, supported by targeted monitoring in Enelyzer.
Five practical tips for companies that want to make better use of their energy data
What lessons has MCC Verstraete learned along the way? David shares five practical tips for companies looking to get more value from their energy data.
1) Dashboarding alone is not enough.
Alarms are essential too. Keep your focus on the data and, above all, on the actions you can take based on it.
2) Work with an external energy consultant.
This ensures continuous monitoring of your energy data and helps translate insights into targeted optimisation measures.
3) Build a cross-functional team.
Bring together people from different departments to generate better ideas and identify optimisation opportunities more efficiently.
4) Measuring more machines does not automatically mean better monitoring.
Identify comparable machines and select representative ones for detailed monitoring rather than measuring everything.
5) Make your data visual.
Dashboards and templates in Enelyzer make results immediately understandable, including for your CFO, for example when demonstrating the savings that have been achieved.