Knowledge Transfer aids resource efficiency for Plymouth
manufacturing company
Plymouth based Becton Dickinson (BD) are worldwide leaders in
the design and delivery of healthcare devices, systems and
services. The Company manufacture a variety of medical and clinical
blood collection systems from plastic and glass, trademarked
Vacutainer® that are used by healthcare institutions, life-science
researchers, clinical laboratories, industry, academic research
institutions and the general public.
Underpinned by an excellent reputation for the
exceptional quality of their manufactured products, the Company is
focusing strategically on achieving market growth but recognises
the need to reduce energy consumption throughout its manufacturing
processes.
Turning to the experts
Political and
public environmental pressure is high on the agenda for the
manufacturing industry to reduce their energy usage and to
have greater awareness of the impact their activities have on the
environment. In light of this, BD turned to the University of
Plymouth’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) team and academic
experts from the School of Engineering to help address their goal
of reducing carbon emissions and energy costs, leading to greater
profitability and further enhanced reputation.
Dr Murray Bell, and Mr Robert Allen, whose
research interests are in thermodynamics and Combined Heat and
Power systems (CHP), are supporting KTP Associate Eva Espanol, a
MEng Chemical Engineering graduate, in undertaking an initial
review of existing company environmental energy saving initiatives.
Eva has gained a sound understanding of production process energy
impacts and has developed an Energy Policy and Resource Efficiency
Team. She has identified and prioritised energy saving initiatives
and implemented improvements to the manufacturing process.
Impressive progress
With the implementation of a variety of
actions and constant scrutiny by collection and analysis of data,
weekly metered monitoring of consumption is showing a reduction in
usage to the lowest level ever (8% reduction in electricity, 4%
reduction in gas). Communication of the energy efficiency message
to all levels of staff in the Company is progressing well with
awareness campaigns underway taking the form of posters, briefings
and interactive screens. The Resource Efficiency Team now involves
Engineering Leaders, Facilities and Finance personnel with the aim
of using this forum to inspire further cultural change to generate
even greater impact across the Company.
David Slade, Facilities Engineering Supervisor
at Becton Dickinson explains:
“Having a dedicated Energy Saving Engineer
through our KTP collaboration with the University of Plymouth has
made a huge difference at BD and actions that have been difficult
to advance past the 30% completion mark are now making good
progress”.