Case Studies
GW Energy Ltd - The Brief
GW Energy are based in Sheffield, and originally specialised in providing control solutions for industrial and commercial plants, processes and buildings. Increasingly customers were looking to GWE to provide controls to save energy across their company in areas such as heating and lighting.
Company Profile
GW Energy are based in Sheffield, and
originally specialised in providing control
solutions for industrial and commercial
plants, processes and buildings.
Increasingly customers were looking to
GWE to provide controls to save energy
across their company in areas such as
heating and lighting. As this demand
grew, GWE decided to focus 100% on
lighting control solutions, which reduced
energy consumption by using standard
time and occupancy controls to turn
lights off when not required.
However, this solution alone did not
help the thousands of companies
across the UK that operated very long
hours, even 24/7, and so would find it
difficult to ever turn lighting off.
GWE set themselves an objective to
look for a solution that would reduce
consumption of electricity for these
companies whilst their lights were on.
After finding a technology being used for
a different application abroad, they
needed assistance to develop the ECOMAX
idea into a saleable, cost effective
product that was right for the UK market.
At this point GWE recruited the help of
MAS, via the Sheffield Manufacturing
Group, to assist with the feasibility of
manufacturing the whole ECO-MAX
control system here in the UK.
GWE now offer a range of fully UK
manufactured ECO-MAX Lighting
Optimisers that reduce electricity
consumption by 20-50% across a
majority of industrial and commercial
businesses. This means that customers
benefit from both substantial financial
savings, as well as contributing to
significant reductions in UK CO2
emissions.
Making it Happen
In the first instance, MAS helped GWE
to fully assess their existing products
developed with imported components,
highlighting their strengths and
weaknesses. A superior design for a
new unit was then developed which built
on the strengths and removed all of the
weaknesses
The feasibility of fully manufacturing the
new unit in the UK was then assessed,
quantifying and sourcing a bill of
materials, and then using Lean
Manufacturing techniques to reduce
costs to a minimum.
It was noted by GWE that there were
still issues with fitting the smaller ECOMAX
products’ pricing into the customers
required return on investment (ROI)
model. Therefore, in the second MAS
project, they focused on two things,
firstly, reducing the production cost of
the smaller units, and secondly,
reviewing the ROI model.
The result was that a further reduction in
production costs was achieved, widening
the market for the product at the smaller
end of the ECO-MAX range.
Alongside the MAS projects, GWE has
been aggressively marketing both the
company and the ECO-MAX products,
culminating in exhibiting at the NEMEX, a
National Energy Management Exhibition
held at the NEC. This was very
successful, and in addition to their target
market, a number of enquiries were made
for a micro business sized ECO-MAX, or
possibly even a unit for the domestic
market.
GWE called in Michael Whiteley from
MAS to discuss this opportunity, and this
soon became the third MAS project,
where a manufacturing strategy was
looked into for breaking into this large
untapped market. The outcomes were
very promising and GWE expect to be
developing the new ECO-MAX products
very soon.
Wayne Cramer, Operations Director
“We have found our MAS interventions invaluable during the development phase of our ‘re-born’ company. We are an engineering contractor and have been providing a string of bespoke services for many years, so the change in direction towards a repetitive manufacturing solution was quite a culture shock. MAS provided the focus, formal processes and support in order for us to make the best of this great opportunity to establish ECO-MAX at the forefront of the energy saving market.”
What GW Energy clients said:
“In today’s climate of ever increasing
energy costs, it made financial sense
for Cepac to install ECO-MAX lighting
optimisers to our factory lighting. The
system reduced our annual electricity
consumption by 365,940 KWhrs and
cut our electricity cost by £10,624,
providing a full return on investment in
just 14.7 months!”
Tim Bradburn
Financial Director, Cepac
“To help meet our energy efficiency
targets, 3M has now installed ECOMAX
lighting optimisers at four of our
UK sites, which last year reduced our
annual electricity consumption by
820,640 KWhrs, and saved us £32,313
in electricity charges. The environment
also benefited from a 352 ton reduction
in the level of harmful carbon
emissions released into the UK’s
atmosphere by needless electricity
generation.”
Geoff Armstrong,
Group Leader Facilities Engineering, 3M
Key Acievements
As a result of a series of MAS
improvement projects covering Lean
manufacturing, strategy and new
product development, the company
has achieved the following
improvements:
- Wider range of cost effective
products developed
- Increased market opportunities
- Client Return on Investment (ROI)
improved by over 25%
- Production costs reduced by an
average of 20%
- Lead times shortened by 35%
- Business far more focused on key
success factors and direction