Our industries are on the front line of the current energy crisis and the rise in gas and electricity prices. Before taking radical decisions such as stopping your production completely or passing on the increases in sales prices, 3 options can be considered:
High electricity and gas prices have a significant impact on the competitiveness of industries. For some energy-intensive sectors, energy can even represent 40% of the cost of the finished product!
However, before taking any decision that could affect competitiveness (total production stoppage, Stop&Go, impact on the customer's selling price, etc.), it is necessary to quantify this impact precisely.
Is it necessary to maintain the production of the plant at a high rate?
There is no easy answer to this question. This choice will depend on the impact of energy on your production costs.
To reduce your energy bill without stopping production completely, you will have to look for the optimal rate that guarantees you a certain profitability.
However, this assumes that you have sufficiently accurate information about the energy consumption of your equipment!
The following actions can be implemented quickly:
The successive increases in energy prices have pushed some factories to stop production lines. This was the radical decision taken at the end of 2021 by the managers of the LME steel plant (near Valenciennes, France), when the electricity bill had almost doubled. The solution they had found was to work only during off-peak periods, that is, at night. This may sound like a good idea, but unfortunately it is not so simple, as any decision has to be taken on a case-by-case basis.
So ask yourself 3 questions:
Answering these three questions requires, once again, a good knowledge of the energy consumption of your equipment.
By using Energiency's solution, the SKF plant in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire has implemented better management of workshop shutdown periods, particularly on weekends (outside of production).
Solutions exist to face these price increases: