Energy efficiency: track industrial phantom energy

Introduction: Energy efficiency as a driver for industrial transformation

Performance and sustainability in industry: a strategic synergy

In France, fewer than 50% of factories exceed an OEE of 80%. By comparison, Tesla, thanks to real-time analysis and systematic waste elimination, approaches 90% on its assembly lines. The gap represents thousands of tonnes of CO2 avoided each year. This reality disrupts: European industry’s lag exposes a deficit in environmental impact.

Reconciling operational performance and resource conservation is no longer a choice, but a survival strategy. The Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) reflects this transformation: every point lost means wasted carbon and evaporated margin.

Why do operational inefficiencies have a direct ecological impact?

Every minute of idle energy use generates greenhouse gases without economic value. Operational waste becomes a double burden: it destroys value and worsens the industry’s carbon footprint.

Inefficiency increases the ecological cost of production while undermining profitability. Industrial transformation means making industrial efficiency indicators the sensors for environmental performance.

Its central role in industrial competitiveness

French factories display energy efficiency gaps of up to 25% between two workshops of the same group. This gap is a symptom of an organization where performance and ecology rarely interact.

The solution lies in integrating OEE as a unifying indicator. Optimizing this ratio means acting on all fronts: lowering costs, speeding up production, and reducing unit carbon impact.

I. OEE: a key indicator for industry

Analyzing availability: impacts on energy consumption

Machine availability remains the neglected aspect of conservation plans. When a production line is stopped but kept powered, it continues to draw “phantom energy,” generating hidden costs and degrading overall energy efficiency. Detailed analysis of these inactive periods reveals immediate levers for reducing energy bills, while optimizing the workshop’s carbon footprint and industrial performance. The goal: turn every minute of downtime into measurable, lasting savings.

Each minute of unavailability means baseline consumption without value creation. Reducing these dead times cuts the share of unproductive energy—a direct gain for energy bills, carbon footprint, and the workshop’s overall energy efficiency.

Performance and nominal speed: optimizing kWh per product

When speed drops to 80% of nominal, a machine still uses 95% of its total power. Result: production slows, but energy spent per unit soars, significantly degrading global energy efficiency.

The solution? Seek the optimal saturation point. At Renault, optimizing batch sequences cut specific consumption by 12% per vehicle by maximizing nominal speed and improving energy efficiency.

Reducing rejects to lower carbon and energy cost

Each rejected part is a double penalty: energy consumed to make it, and extra energy to reprocess or dispose of it. Add wasted raw materials, higher carbon footprint, and extra logistics, all of which significantly reduces the workshop’s global energy efficiency. Optimizing quality directly impacts energy consumption, profitability, and environmental performance.

Operational excellence becomes a direct lever to cut carbon cost per compliant part delivered and boost energy efficiency.

II. Availability and optimization: reducing phantom energy

Identify and eliminate unnecessary consumption

A stopped machine keeps consuming electricity, generating CO2 with no value creation for the company. This “standby power,” often overlooked, can account for up to 20% of a workshop’s energy bill. It directly harms overall energy efficiency while reducing industrial competitiveness. Identifying and eliminating these unnecessary consumptions delivers quick savings and environmental improvements.

SMED optimization: conservation and reduced downtime

SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) reduces batch changeover times. Every minute saved is a minute less in “phantom energy.” By optimizing setup procedures, machine downtime is limited, improving workshop energy efficiency. This supports better profitability and a significant reduction in CO2 linked to extended stoppages. SMED fits into a global industrial performance approach, turning every minute saved into competitive advantage and direct contribution to sustainability.

MTBF and predictive maintenance: ensuring optimal energy continuity

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) measures equipment reliability and its ability to operate without interruption. A high MTBF means fewer unexpected breakdowns, limiting stop/start cycles that are often energy-intensive. This operational stability improves energy efficiency, reduces losses, and secures continuity of industrial processes.

III. Energy performance: balancing speed and consumption

Optimal saturation: lowering energy per item produced

Producing slowly is not synonymous with conservation. A machine below optimal capacity wastes energy, penalizes energy efficiency, and increases cost per item produced. Adjusting speed, based on energy consumption data analysis, identifies the optimal saturation zone. This balance point maximizes productivity while minimizing unnecessary energy waste. Thus, energy efficiency becomes a lever to improve workshop profitability and support industrial competitiveness.

Why slowing a machine doesn’t always reduce the carbon footprint

Slowing a line extends run time, increasing “fixed” energy share per batch produced. Smart speed management, backed by real-time data, is the key to superior, sustainable energy efficiency.

Maximize speed while controlling energy intensity

Maximizing speed does not mean ignoring consumption. Industrial players who combine automation and smart motor control achieve notable energy efficiency gains.

IV. Quality and sustainability: the impact of non-conformities

Measure and reduce the hidden cost of rejects: embedded energy and raw materials

Making a non-compliant part means consuming energy for nothing, wasting the embedded energy of raw materials, using machine time, generating rejects to be reprocessed, and increasing the carbon footprint—all direct obstacles to overall energy efficiency.

Integrate energy analysis into continuous improvement

Continuous improvement must include energy data to target optimal energy efficiency, systematically analyzing consumption by workstation, identifying deviations, and implementing regular corrective actions. It means tracking precise indicators, involving teams in energy diagnostics, and adapting improvement plans to results. This dynamic management cuts waste, boosts industrial performance, and ensures lasting energy efficiency.

Reduce losses from non-quality: economic and ecological gains

Every 0.1% gain in compliance translates immediately into kWh saved, lower emissions, and stronger energy efficiency. This progress cuts waste, optimizes resource use, and improves long-term industrial competitiveness.

V. From OEE to EEE: a new paradigm for industry

Merge productivity and environmental responsibility with EEE

The Energy Efficiency Effectiveness (EEE) goes beyond classic OEE by integrating energy at every stage of the industrial process. It measures the value generated per kWh consumed and is an advanced indicator of energy efficiency.

A shared dashboard for CSR and industrial strategy

Industrial management and CSR management must equip themselves with common tools, where energy data is as important as production KPIs. Setting up a shared dashboard aligns strategies, steers energy efficiency objectives, and facilitates decisions by cross-referencing productivity, energy consumption, and environmental impact. This alignment enables rapid deviation detection, action optimization, and strengthens sustainable industrial competitiveness.

Modernize to achieve ambitious energy goals

Modernizing machine parks must prove energy ROI and deliver tangible improvements in energy efficiency. At a naval player, installing smart converters achieved -22% consumption on propulsion at constant power.

VI. Innovative technologies: levers for industry

Industrial automation: optimize energy processes

New-generation PLCs manage power in real time, avoid consumption peaks, and adjust production to actual demand.

Include renewables in industrial operations

Renewable energies provide a concrete answer for energy transition and help improve energy efficiency at industrial sites.

Use digital technologies to monitor and improve consumption

Digital technologies transform energy management. IoT sensors offer real-time visibility on each segment of the production chain, identifying consumption anomalies at their source. Artificial intelligence analyzes this data to anticipate deviations, recommend precise adjustments, and automate corrective actions. This data-driven approach accelerates continuous improvement in energy efficiency while securing industrial performance.

Energy efficiency is not an end, but a dynamic process that redefines industrial performance standards. Every kWh saved strengthens profitability and enhances the company's environmental responsibility. Data from OEE, EEE, and digital tools help steer the transition, identify optimization levers, and trigger concrete improvements in the field. The gains go beyond the energy bill: they create lasting competitive advantage, speed up ramp-up, and make it easier to integrate innovative technologies. French industry has untapped potential to combine growth, conservation, and operational excellence. Adopting a structured approach based on analysis and continuous improvement turns energy efficiency into a driver of progress, for an industry that is high-performing, reliable, and respected.

Dillygence supports industrial companies of all sizes in their transformations with the Factory Roadmap program.