Who needs Energy Management? Reducing Energy Consumption in Manufacturing Industries — Early Results of Research into Industrial Energy Management Users

Abstract In this Work-in-Progress report, research into the potential target users for an Industrial Energy Management solution is being discussed with reference to both on-site and remote user interviews conducted in 2010 with Energy Managers of several US companies in high energy-intensity manufacturing industries.

Keywords User interviews, personas, industrial energy management, sustainability, enterprise, manufacturing

ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous.

General Terms Human Factors, Design

Introduction Sustainability has been a recent topic of interest in the CHI community [1-6], with much of the attention focusing on user centered technology solutions targeting e.g. carbon footprint/emissions [e.g. 2] or consumer/home energy & resource management [1-6].

Consumers and Home users seem the predominant focus of current HCI research into sustainability, with some notable exceptions on solutions targeting e.g. small business owners [6].

Enterprise users, however, have received little attention to date, despite the fact that large corporations exert arguably the most significant impact on our environment, ranging from emissions, waste management, water & other resource utilization, as well

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).

CHI 2011, May 7–12, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

ACM 978-1-4503-0268-5/11/05.

Daniela Busse

Director, User Experience

SAP Labs (Palo Alto)

3420 Hillview Ave

Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA

daniela.busse@sap.com

Fifth Author

AuthorCo, Inc.

123 Author Ave.

Authortown, PA 54321 USA

author5@anotherco.com

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as being a predominant locus of energy consumption [8, 11].

This Work-in-Progress reports on user research in the field of Industrial Energy Management. Field research/contextual interviews [7] as well as both open-ended and semi-structured phone interviews were conducted to inform the definition of the target users of an Energy Management solution in highly energy-intensive manufacturing industries.

In the following pages, first a brief introduction to the space of Industrial Energy Management will be given, and an outline of the research conducted. Then the target user definitions will be presented and discussed, with pointers to special insights and research conclusions. Finally, recommended further work will be highlighted.

Industrial Energy Management Large businesses constitute a major source of negative ecological impact, with energy consumption and related carbon emissions topping the list [8-11]. The potential for optimization, however, is significant – corporations do not necessarily have to change their business results or take a hit in their profits in order to be more energy efficient. Examples of this range from retailers employing outdated air-conditioning equipment and practices to cool their malls, to office building facility managers trailing behind in raising employee awareness of the impact of lighting habits or effective reminders to switch off their equipment.

Manufacturing industries alone constitute a significant part in global energy consumption [8, 11].

As high energy consumption equals higher per-unit production costs especially in times of expensive energy (such as the recent hikes in oil price with its related impact on production costs [11]), manu-facturing industries have turned to energy management and optimization in order to keep their expenses in check.

This trend, however, is relatively recent, and energy management – and especially the role of any potential Energy Manager – is still little defined across the industry, often with cross-functional energy management teams or committees filling the void intermittently.

Hence, defining a solution for effective industrial energy management first needs to focus on clarifying its target user profiles before designing a product to support manufacturing corporations in their reduction of energy use.

This Work-In-Progress report presents research into target users of energy management solutions in Manufacturing and sheds some light on the value proposition of such solutions as well as key needs and characteristics of its target users.

Method Two series of interviews were conducted, as well as two on-site field research customer visits, in a period of 6 months in 2010. Interview data of a total of 35 potential target users (from 27 different companies) was gathered in this time period and analyzed with the goal of creating a set of personas or user profile descriptions of critical Manufacturing professionals to be

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supported in their industrial energy management needs through relevant software solutions.

Interviewees were recruited through third party research study recruiting vendors based on participant screeners developed in-house with help of domain experts and the product team.

The key criterion for participant selection was that participants had to self-identify with the role of ‘energy management’ (or any contribution to energy management activities in their company) in a given list of high energy-intensive manufacturing industries.

The interview script was refined in between the separate sets of interviews, and focused initially on a more qualitative overview of the participants’ activities and responsibilities related to Energy Management, and then also focused in on specific needs and requirements with regards to Energy Management analytics and collaboration.

Results Our research yielded a set of overall findings on how Energy Management is tackled in industrial settings today. In this section, we will summarize our key insights into the organizational set-up of industrial energy management, the distribution of roles and responsibilities within these organizations, as well as across company divisions.

Organizational Structure Key Energy Management responsibilities mostly resided within the ‘Operations’ chain of command in the given manufacturing corporations. Often the VP of Operations would double as Head of Energy Management and one

of his or her staff members would be responsible for creating the necessary analytics reports that allowed insight into changes in energy management consumption and if energy management goals were being met.

The second pillar of corporate energy management, however, was often found in the Finance department, as Energy Cost Accounting often provides the final target of corporate energy management strategies.

Cross-functional Energy Management This dual-track set up of Energy Management goals being distributed between Operations on the one hand and Finance on the other, meant that these two organizations had to work together collaboratively for optimal results in the reduction of energy cost and consumption.

Furthermore, Energy Procurement plays a central role in this dynamic, as well as Energy Billing (i.e. related to the companies’ interaction with Utilities and other energy providers).

Dedicated Energy Management Role Very few of the 27 companies on which research was conducted had a clear role definition of Energy Management in place. Frequently, users would ‘wear multiple hats’ and the various facets of energy management would constitute one part of their overall job.

Many of the companies, however, had Energy Management committees or teams in place, often with one person heading up that committee or team and

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reporting up the management chain on Energy Management findings and results.

Multi-faceted Energy Management Energy Management often entailed a variety of responsibilities, i.e. even within one discipline several individuals would cover a range of Energy Management activities.

For instance, high level goal setting and communication with upper management was often delivered by a different person than the one kneading the given energy management data into place in large spreadsheets for analysis. Different skill sets and ranges of responsibilities were mirrored in this distribution of Energy management activities.

Next to yielding these overall findings, our user research also helped to inform a set of Industrial Energy Management personas that would enable us to validate the planned solution’s underlying premises and assumptions.

In the following section we will highlight the key characteristics of the four personas that were developed and reflected the distribution of roles and responsibilities in operational energy management as seen in our research.

Personas Based on user interviews, 4 draft target user profiles within one of the relevant disciplines (in this case, Operations) were defined: Chief Energy Manager, Energy Manager, Energy Analyst, and Energy Data Manager.

Persona 1: Cory, the Chief Energy Manager The Chief Energy Manager is responsible for setting the corporate energy management strategy together with higher level executives, and making sure energy management goals are set and monitored over an up to 5 year timeframe. S/he might head up the energy management committee or have their own team solely dedicated to energy management. The Chief Energy Manager is most likely part of the Operations division in the company.

Persona 2: Keith, the Energy Manager The Energy Manager is the Chief Energy Manager’s right hand, and helps ensure that the corporate energy management strategy is clear and realistic, and that corporate energy management goals are being met. Rather than communicating up the management chain, the Energy Manager works across e.g. different manufacturing sites, and liaises with users at the individual plants, who provide the data on local progress towards energy goals.

Persona 3: Ed, the Energy Analyst The Energy Analyst is often referred to as the “power user” and lives and breathes hands-on analysis of energy management data. Often an expert in databases and statistics, the energy analyst is the “go-to” person for the energy manager for energy management business intelligence and analytics.

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Figure 1 - Industrial Energy Management - Distribution of Roles and Responsibilities

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Persona 4: Ian, the Energy Data Manager The Energy Data Manager provides IT support for the energy management team’s specific needs, including setting up sensors and system integration for collection real-time energy consumption data, implementing data calculation rules, and setting up standard reports that the Energy Analyst and Energy Manager will work with day-to-day. The Energy Data Manager might be part of the IT organization, or hold a specialized role within the energy management team.

Conclusion Energy Management in highly energy-intensive manufacturing industries is still in its infancy. This Work-in-Progress report presented early research insights into the field based on 35 user interviews, and an initial draft conception of a set of potential target user personas in Energy Management Operations.

Further Work Further research will address more detailed scenarios of use as relating to the 4 key user profiles.

Acknowledgements Many thanks to the Industrial Energy management team at SAP Labs (Palo Alto) and SAP AG (Walldorf).

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[8] Gifford, W. and Adler, R. (2002) Energy Use in Manufacturing, U.S. Energy Information Administration, last consulted on Jan 14th 2011 at URL: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/mecs/special_topics/energy_use_manufacturing/energyuse98_02/98energyuse02.html

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