External Site Benchmarking

No matter how good your internal benchmarking results are, and how much progress you are making internally, the key question is: “How do we compare to other plastics processors?” You need to know if you are better or worse than the competition to see if you are making the progress that you need to be making to stay in the market.

External benchmarking of plastics processing is difficult because energy efficiency is strongly related to the volume throughput. Some people give a “benchmark” for a plastics-forming process based simply on specific energy consumption (SEC, in kWh/kg)—this is not only wrong, but can actually send you in the wrong direction. Benchmarking data for plastics processing must take into account both the process and the volume throughput rate.

Never try to apply an “average” SEC for a plastics-forming process to your site.

Unfortunately, the only real-world benchmarking data available is Tangram Technology data. We have published this widely, and a web search should allow you to find the relevant graphs and equations for your site.

Actions:

Find the Tangram Technology site benchmarking curves for your process (see www.tangram
.co.uk/TI-Energy_in_Plastics_Processing-Benchmarking.html). These are older curves and have been updated for Tangram’s book (see below).
If you want the latest full data for site benchmarking of most plastics processes, see the book Energy Management in Plastics Processing: Strategies, Targets, Techniques and Tools, 2nd ed. (available via www.amiplastics.com/tech/).
Use the data to externally benchmark your site and understand how competitive you are in terms of energy.
Take action to improve your operations.

Note: Dr. Robin Kent is the author of Energy Management in Plastics Processing, published by Plastics Information Direct, and managing director of Tangram Technology Ltd., consulting engineers specializing in energy management in plastics processing. rkent@tangram.co.uk.