At Seco, our purpose is »Together we make manufacturing fast, easy and sustainable.» As manufacturing companies work towards more sustainable manufacturing, there are challenges regarding the collection, analysis and management of relevant data. As highlighted by future legislation, data connected to the machine and machining environment will become key to drive sustainability in the most effective way.
The project
To address this challenge, Seco has partnered with the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre North West (AMRC), in Samlesbury, UK, which plays a key role in driving recovery, growth, productivity, and innovation. The collaboration aims to drive utilization of Internet of Things (IOT) hardware, various industrial communications, and IOT Protocols to produce a single source of truth for facility use and machine data, relevant for environmental impact assessments and improvements.
This project segments the manufacturing ecosystem into three interrelated domains: the machining process itself, the immediate machine environment, and the broader facility context. By monitoring each area individually and then analyzing how they influence one another, stakeholders gain both detailed diagnostics and a holistic perspective on sustainability challenges.
- For the machine - The approach enables monitoring and hotspot analysis of the machining process directly. This includes information on the energy consumption of the machine, broken down by sub-process, cutting fluids and other material consumption. This can then be directly converted into real time costs and CO2 impact through live grid carbon intensity factors and cost per kilowatt hour.
- For the machine environment - The monitor tracks the humidity and temperature, which can impact the energy required to ensure environment stability for the machine.
- For the facility - The monitor tracks the entire manufacturing plant and identifies high level patterns that can negatively impact energy and cost. The relationship between - Did the humidity around the machine increase the required energy for cooling? Are open windows requiring more energy? Or are closed windows not providing sufficient natural ventilation and thereby increasing cost to maintain the required temperature? Are the machines optimized?
This approach will help to identify patterns and factors that can help companies reduce their CO2 and costs most relevant to the customer´s specific context. Within this monitored environment, Seco UK can analyze a machining program and processes in fine detail - and further refine the programs by associating power consumption and CO2 emissions within the machine.
The future
By harnessing independent monitoring of power consumption and facility usage, we can pinpoint the hidden costs of inefficiency and translate every kilowatt hour into real-time CO₂e and expense metrics. This level of insight allows us to compare the energy demands and carbon footprints of any two products, programs or machines - empowering our teams to make data-driven decisions and embed sustainability at the heart of manufacturing design.
The test environment, complete with integrated monitoring for both Seco products and guest supplier machines, bridges Life Cycle Assessment of Seco with live machine data. By doing so, we gain precise, component-level environmental scores and open the door to targeted innovation and validation of greener machining strategies.
Looking ahead, we are building toward an AI-powered, automated feedback system that continuously optimizes processes in real time. This solution will balance productivity and cost imperatives with environmentally responsible best practices, ensuring every adjustment drives us closer to net-zero goals. Together with the AMRC and our customers, we´re turning comprehensive data intelligence into actionable sustainability, living our purpose of making manufacturing fast, easy and sustainable.
