Johnny Lu | Facilities Manager, NXP Guangdong, China
2007 was a remarkable year for our manufacturing facility in Guangdong - compared to 2006, they increased production by 20%, yet managed to use 13% less electricity and 21% less water on a per-product basis.
The savings came from a combination of projects, big and small, and a site-wide commitment to conservation. “There‘s a worldwide shortage of resources,” says Johnny Lu, Facilities Manager for the site. “Saving water and electricity helps us cut costs and stay competitive, but it also helps us create a better world for everyone.”
The bigger projects involved improving the efficiency of specialized systems. In one effort, they installed a reverse-osmosis system to recycle waste water from the plating step in manufacturing, saving 220 m3 of water per day. In another, they added a variable-speed driver (VSD) to their air-conditioning system so the water pumps could use less electricity during cooler days and at night, when temperatures are lower. The results were “even better than predicted,” saving 25 thousand kWh per month
In a third project, they balanced the capacity of the site‘s compressed dry air (CDA) system by installing a pipe that connected the building‘s compressors. They were able to make full use of one building‘s high-efficiency, high-capacity machines while retiring several low-efficiency, low-capacity machines in another, saving 50 thousand kWh per month and reducing repair and maintenance fees on the retired machines.
The smaller projects looked at possibilities for saving in everyday ways. In the warehouse and production workshop, for example, they measured lighting levels and found that the areas were brighter than industry guidelines recommended. They installed light-reflecting lampshades to distribute light more effectively in certain areas, and experimented with combinations of fewer lights in others. In the end, they eliminated more than 1400 lamps site-wide, while keeping brightness levels well within the recommended range. The site also uses the remaining lights less than before, shutting them off at noon, when nobody is in the office.
Johnny‘s team did other things, too, guided by the idea that little things add up, and that “conservation doesn‘t always need a high-tech solution.” The site now has stickers on computer monitors and light switches reminding people to turn them off when not in use, and there are posters with helpful hints on how to conserve energy and water. “We need everyone to contribute,” says Johnny, “since conservation is everyone‘s concern. We‘re all responsible for the earth.”