Metso Power in Fairmont, West Virginia, is a 58,000 square foot facility with 50 employees producing tube shield, plate work fabrication, and machining. Under a grant from the West Virginia Division of Energy, the West Virginia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WVMEP) conducted an E3 assessment at Metso in August 2010. E3 consists of an energy audit, an environmental assessment, a carbon footprint calculation, and a lean manufacturing assessment. The energy audit was performed by the Industrial Assessment Center at West Virginia University.

The E3 project at Metso identified the following potential cost savings and efficiency improvements:

• Energy savings of more than 20 percent annually—most resulting from improved lighting efficiency.
• Opportunities to reduce scrap and rework, cut work in process inventory, increase machine availability, and raise productivity through implementation of continuous improvement and lean manufacturing principles.
• Opportunities to improve the existing environmental policy by increasing training and providing more documentation to raise employee awareness and ensure the policy is followed.

As a result of the E3 project:

• Metso has replaced all lighting in the plant with T5 fixtures and bulbs, per the E3 recommendations. This change is estimated to save nearly $12,000 per year.
• Metso has initiated a continuous improvement and lean implementation plan.
• Value stream mapping (VSM) provided by WVMEP has resulted in changes to the plant layout, resulting in better workflow, improved use of space (with commiserate energy savings), and new product introduction from the increased capacity. VSM has also been used to identify and work through bottlenecks and problems in the engineering department.
• WVMEP provided problem solving training to all management level employees to reduce downtime, increase productivity, and reduce costs.
• Quality improvements as a result of implementing E3 lean recommendations have achieved over $200,000 in savings from reduced scrap and rework.
• Additional lean implementation steps are planned, including TPM (total productive maintenance) and 5S (visual system).
• Increased use of computer-aided design has lowered cost of new product introduction and CNC machine programming.

"I am very pleased with the E3 and follow-up services provided by WVMEP. We have already saved a lot of time and money and will see much larger benefits as we continue to implement the E3 recommendations."

— Metso Plant Manager Chuck Kuretza