Abstract
Organizations are spending large amounts of money on their energy consumption. The scarcity of energy resources, along with their price volatility, has become a major concern for all industries. Consequently, the need for managing and conserving energy has recently gained larger attention. A good management always pursues savings opportunities with minimum investments; hence, establishing an energy management system can provide the right approach to detect opportunities and sustain improvements. This article proposes the Lean Six Sigma energy management model (LSS_EnMS) based on the framework of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 50001 for energy management, supported by the LSS approach define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC). The LSS_EnMS model applies the DMAIC approach to the energy management process in companies and incorporates the needed tools to define system requirements, analyse energy data, establish a systematic approach to identify energy opportunities and finally to guarantee sustainable system improvements. The model has shown the compatibility of Six Sigma approach with the ISO 50001 framework and has provided guidelines for effective system implementation. A prominent pharmaceutical company in Jordan was taken as a case study to show the significance of this model, and how this approach can lead to valuable and advantageous results in terms of real case application.
Highlights
Sigma b is a Greek letter which has been used in statistics to measure variability and deviation from standards and has become an indicator for the performance level of an organization
The idea of integrating Lean Six Sigma (LSS) with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 50001 evolved after conducting a literature survey on the conventional energy audit processes and the problems associated with poor implementation
This study has proposed a model which uses the Six Sigma DMAIC approach to support the framework of ISO 50001 and its implementation
Summary
Sigma b is a Greek letter which has been used in statistics to measure variability and deviation from standards and has become an indicator for the performance level of an organization. The ISO 50001 EnMS was first published in June 2011, and similar to ISO 9000, it follows the PDCA framework for continual improvement This energy management standard intends to help organizations optimize their energy consumption in a systematic manner and considers the role of management in supporting energy projects, incorporates energy in organizations’ policy, monitors energy consumption and controls improvements. ISO 50001 utilizes technical energy measurements and the experience of energy practitioners when selecting projects for improvements Supporting this energy management framework with a data-driven approach like LSS is anticipated to provide preferable results. Cherrafi et al.[22] presented a framework that methodically guides companies through a five stages and 16 steps process to effectively integrate and implement the Green, Lean and Six Sigma approaches to improve their sustainability performance. It suggests a new road map based on this integration to develop, analyse, improve and control a well-structured EnMS, and it will follow the DMAIC phases of LSS with the appropriate toolset to be used
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