Driving towards energy efficiency and sustainability

Automotive leader Forvia, collaborating with Siemens and Industrial Energy Management Services, piloted energy cost reduction at its Almussafes, Spain plant. Comprehensive energy flow monitoring achieved over 5% consumption reduction.

Clear focus on efficiency and productivity

The automotive industry is a shining example of investment in efficiency and productivity. Far beyond car manufacturers known as 'vehicle OEMs', the entire production chain requires compliance with highest levels of productivity.

As one of the top ten global automotive suppliers, Forvia is an example of innovation and digital transformation in the automotive industry. Its R&D centre for the Interiors Division, in Paterna (Valencia), is in charge of setting worldwide standards for all of its production centres. Committed to the present challenges of a huge conglomerate with a global footprint, Forvia is strongly focused on sustainability and decarbonisation across its various production sites.

A person is standing in front of a white wall with a blue and white sign on it.

Faurecia (a Forvia company) R&D centre in Paternia

Energy efficiency as the key for sustainability

Production facility in Almussafes

To achieve such productivity in combination with being sustainable, focus on energy efficiency is a must. Transparency of energy consumption on the machine level, per produced unit or production cycle has always been important for Forvia. But there was still room for improvement to achieve full transparency and thus optimised energy consumption.

For example, there was a lack of reference values in terms of fluid consumption. Without such reference values there is no way to analyse deviations of critical variables and to evaluate how stable the process is. Another example: There was no transparency of the energy consumption of the production machines depending on their operational status e.g. whether they are idle or in operation.

Energy map as blueprint for a new standard

As a starting point a joint scoping workshop was conducted where the energy map was designed: energy consumption of the control areas (plant, production line, auxiliary service rooms and even machines), the values affecting energy performance (electrical, thermal, cooling etc.) and definition of the energy performance indicators. The energy map sets the basis for the implementation in other Interior Division factories at Forvia. The transparency gained allowed the customer a much better understanding, enabling it to analyse and make decisions on various aspects.

Data analytics increase production efficiency

After connecting over 250 data points for different types of energy through the SIMATIC Energy Manager PRO and SIMATIC automation hardware, it was possible to record and analyse a considerable volume of data which was able to be turned into value for Forvia. It is important for Forvia that the data is stored on a server at their plant, to avoid critical data leaving the factory and to enable a leaner and faster decision-making process.

The monitoring solution includes a batch analysis mainly focused on the injection-moulding machines. Each produced part is analysed along with the amount of energy consumed. Using this data, it is possible to adjust the production equipment and to enable predictive maintenance. Forvia can determine which injection-moulding machine is the most efficient depending on the parts to be produced.

Alerts were configured on SIMATIC Energy Manager PRO to notify the supervisors via SMS whenever machines were consuming energy while not producing.

Dashboard overview of energy consumption in the production lines

Quick wins enabled by transparency on energy data

By correctly measuring the right data from the cooling circuits (such as the temperature of the supply water), it was possible to implement initial measures to reduce energy consumption. Chilling units could be disconnected if they were no longer needed.

Another positive impact was immediately experienced by Forvia through analysis of the chiller's Coefficient of Performance (COP). These insights enabled the operators to control and adjust the cooling circuits depending on the demand for cooling energy in production, temperature and external humidity. Such simple energy-saving measures carry no extra costs and create immediate returns on investment.

Based on the available data, Forvia also discovered that boilers can be switched off thanks to the solar thermal energy at certain times of the year.

A promising starting point for decarbonisation

In close collaboration between Forvia and Siemens, a series of additional KPIs have been defined to compare processes and plant performance. Subsequently, this will help to standardise such KPIs across all Interior Division plants and others. They will be able to easily compare data between plants in the future. Transparency and automated reporting across sites will allow Forvia to make the right decisions based on valuable data.

After the successful implementation, the Almussafes plant has become a leading example for further production sites. Presently Siemens service experts are implementing Industrial Energy Management Services in other Spanish factories as part of the initial phase. A pilot project within Forvia's Clean Mobility division is planned for the first half of 2022, with the goal of achieving energy savings comparable to those at Almussafes.

Forvia is currently working on implementing the solution in other countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and the United States. This initiative could be used in almost 40 countries and represents a significant step towards the fight against climate change.

Thanks to Siemens's technology and services, Forvia now knows that it can reduce its plants' energy consumption by up to 10%.

Miguel Aránega Fernández, Equipment Care & Energy Efficiency Manager, Forvia