Ford factory energy efficiency improved 15.7% by 2010 compared with Ford’s 2006 baseline. How did the automaker do it? It removed an oven from the paint line, upgraded more than 50,000 light fixtures, and tracked how much energy its plants used when production stopped. Those changes helped Ford earn its sixth consecutive ENERGY STAR award in 2011, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized the company for Sustained Excellence. (energystar.gov, epa.gov, greenlivingguy.com)
Ford’s 3-wet paint process cut out an oven
Painting a car takes more energy than you might expect. The ovens need heat to cure the finish. Meanwhile, the spray booths need fans and conditioned air. So Ford changed the order of operations at its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. Workers could apply primer, base coat, and clear coat before curing all three in a single bake. (prnewswire.com, energystar.gov)
That change eliminated an oven and let Ford consolidate its spray booths into a smaller space. At Michigan Assembly, Ford projected that the new paint process would save about $3 million in natural gas and electricity costs. The savings came from changing how the plant painted cars. Once Ford removed the extra bake, every vehicle through that line skipped a heating step. (prnewswire.com, energystar.gov)
More than 50,000 lighting upgrades and better energy tracking
Ford also tackled the lights. EPA reported that the company upgraded more than 50,000 fixtures and projected electricity savings of more than 18 million kilowatt-hours. Ford used an energy performance contract to complete the project without upfront capital. (energystar.gov)
Meanwhile, better meters gave plant managers a way to compare energy use during production with energy use between shifts. That comparison helps answer a basic question on any factory floor. When the line stops, which systems are still drawing power? Ford also retooled parts of its powertrain operations and eliminated some heated parts washers. (greenlivingguy.com)
Solar and battery storage at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant
Ford and DTE Energy added a 500-kilowatt solar array at Michigan Assembly. The project paired the array with a battery system rated at 750 kilowatts of power and 2 megawatt-hours of storage. The solar array supplied some of the plant’s electricity, while the battery could store energy for later use. The plant was also preparing to build the Focus Electric. For a look at the car that came out of that factory, see my Ford Focus Electric test drive. (energy.gov, prnewswire.com, greenlivingguy.com)
What Ford’s sixth ENERGY STAR award recognized
EPA reported that Ford’s efficiency improved 13.6% in 2009 and 15.7% in 2010, both compared with the same 2006 baseline. The agency associated the improvement with roughly 6.4 million MMBtu of avoided energy use and 500,000 metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. Separately, nine Ford commercial facilities and assembly plants earned ENERGY STAR recognition in 2010. (energystar.gov)
What other manufacturers can learn from Ford
Start by measuring what runs during production and what stays on after the last shift. Then look at the process itself. Could you remove a heating step, reduce the space you ventilate, or shut down equipment between runs? Ford’s paint line shows how much that question can matter. Removing one oven changed how much energy the plant needed to paint every car that went through the line. (energystar.gov, prnewswire.com, greenlivingguy.com)
Sources
- ENERGY STAR — 2011 Profiles in Leadership, Ford Motor Company
https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/pt_awards/2011_profiles_in_leadership.pdf - U.S. EPA — 2011 ENERGY STAR Award winners announcement
https://www.epa.gov/archive/epapages/newsroom_archive/newsreleases/d9ce35c18f05a83485257870004c59e1.html - Ford Motor Company — Michigan Assembly Plant and Ford Focus production announcement
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ford-opens-flexible-green-michigan-assembly-plant-with-production-of-all-new-ford-focus-118182259.html - U.S. Department of Energy — DTE Energy distributed energy resources presentation
https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2017/08/f35/Detroit_Edison_DTE_Energy_Application_Distributed_Resources.pdf - ENERGY STAR — Energy Efficiency in Motor Vehicle Manufacturing
https://www.energystar.gov/industrial_plants/measure-track-and-benchmark/energy-star-energy-8
