Energy efficiency of Scania's automation industry : A study that aims to improve Scania's energy efficiency tool, MDC-EE and to eliminate non-useful energy for a machine tool and an industrial washing machine

Scania have set a goal to reduce 25% of its energy usages in the production to provide sustainable transport solution by 2025. Scania have studied their current production processes over the years for energy efficiency and have developed a tool named Machine Data Card - Energy Efficiency (MDC-EE) for a group of equipment (e.g., washing machine, machine tool). The developed MDC-EE for an equipment, consist of six levels and allows suppliers to grade their product according to Scania’s standard. This means that Scania can choose an energy efficient solution in the early procurement phase of a new equipment or facilities. We have studied two existing machines (i.e., a washing machine and a machine tool) at Scania with the energy efficiency method (i.e., MDC-EE) and propose improvements for energy efficiency. Later we evaluated the MDC-EE method and proposes improvement opportunities so the method can be generalised. A yearly saving of about 83 MWh can be achieved on the two machines by optimizing their operation time in relation to the real need in the process. Therefore, Scania has the possibility to save a large amount of energy, with little or no investment cost, if those improvements are implemented in machines like the examined units. We continued to focus on the improvement opportunities on Scania’s energy efficiency method and suggests new definitions for different MDC-EE by clarifying the existing MDC-EE levels. In addition, we introduced an energy classing so that an equipment can be assessed by considering both operation time and installed power for all MDC-EE levels. For the time being there is no information about which components should prioritized to increase the energy efficiency in a machine. If MDC-EE is used together with a weight factor, the correct components can be prioritized. As a recommendation, we suggested that Scania should continue working on a new method, based on the weighting factor, so that components can be prioritized in the initial stage of procurement.