February 2024 | The energy transition presents companies with major challenges. Renewable energies and energy-efficient work have become a significant economic factor. The new energy monitoring tool toii®.Energy from thyssenkrupp Materials IoT, a spin-off from thyssenkrupp Materials Services, supports manufacturing companies in optimizing their energy efficiency and achieving sustainability goals.
With the new energy monitoring tool toii®.Energy, the software developer and digitalization service provider thyssenkrupp Materials IoT is expanding the range of services of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) platform toii®. The integrated tool forms the basis for successful energy management and creates transparency in manufacturing companies regarding the power consumption of machines and systems.
Transparency through energy measurement
Until now it was unclear how much electricity the machines use and when load peaks are reached, but now this data is visible and can even be assigned to individual orders and products. In this way, toii®.Energy supports companies in achieving their sustainability goals and permanently reducing operational energy costs.
“Through our digitalization expertise, we create transparency on the shop floor, make energy consumption visible across locations and identify savings potential – a crucial prerequisite for effective energy management,” says Sebastian Lang, CEO at thyssenkrupp Materials IoT.
Measuring devices with an Ethernet connection can be connected to machines and systems via an interface and read out by toii®. Relevant data on energy consumption is continuously recorded and evaluated. The collected data is then interpreted and visualized in dashboards on the web-based user interface of toii®.Energy. Here, users can view the power consumption of all machines on the shop floor and flexibly divide them into machine groups according to their own needs. By integrating production planning from the ERP system, electricity consumption in production can also be retroactively assigned to individual customer orders. An alarm function warns when power consumption exceeds a previously defined threshold. This means that appropriate measures can be taken immediately.
Diverse challenges for companies
Companies face a variety of challenges when it comes to energy management. This includes, among other things, meeting certification requirements, reducing our own emissions and energy costs, and customers’ expectations that the products they purchase have been manufactured in the most environmentally friendly way possible. The international standard ISO 50001 specifies requirements for an energy management system and serves as a guide for the continuous improvement of operational energy efficiency. To obtain certification, companies must comply with the goals and requirements set by the standard. Since 2015, the Energy Services Act has also required regular energy audits for all companies that are not small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). toii®.Energy addresses precisely these challenges and creates transparency in energy monitoring in order to determine savings potential.
thyssenkrupp Materials IoT GmbH was founded in September 2019 as a spin-off from thyssenkrupp Materials Services. The team includes Industry 4.0 expertise that has been built up in production digitalization at thyssenkrupp for 15 years. As part of the strategic development of “Materials as a Service”, thyssenkrupp Materials Services is consistently expanding its supply chain service business. This includes, among other things, the development of innovative, data-driven business models such as toii®. thyssenkrupp Materials IoT accompanies its customers on their way to Industry 4.0 throughout the entire process: from advice to the implementation of IIoT technologies to support throughout the entire life cycle of the solutions and the operation of the underlying platform.