Data-Driven Savings Potential with Smart Operations
When combined with artificial intelligence, digitalization continuously opens up new opportunities for increasing efficiency. In this interview, Dr. Hans Rüdiger Lange, Head of EnEffCo® Technology & Product Management at ÖKOTEC, talks about how data-driven optimization of systems can be achieved across processes, the advantages of working with ÖKOTEC, and why the EnEffCo® software is a key success factor for the transition to smart operations.
Before joining ÖKOTEC, Hans Rüdiger Lange spent more than 15 years working in operational energy optimization in energy-intensive industries. He is the initiator and scientific coordinator of the Ko-Innovationsplattform Industrieautomatisierung (KOI) research network and a founding member of the Lausitzer Zentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (LZKI).
H.R. Lange: Optimization has developed significantly in recent years. Whereas in the past, limited data availability often meant that the focus was only on selective actions on individual systems or process steps, today we are increasingly able to benefit from cross-process and cross-company approaches..
This means that it is no longer just the savings potential of a single system that can be leveraged, but that of an entire production process, a value chain, or even a value network. Our proprietary software solution EnEffCo® connects and integrates our clients’ business processes. The EnEffCo® modules for “Smart Operations” enable companies to improve their business processes in real time and sustainably.
H.R. Lange: ÖKOTEC has the necessary expertise and cross-industry experience to optimize operating processes and systems in their market environment using data and software. Our Integrated Solutions and Energy Markets teams combine engineering knowledge and data science to analyze existing operating processes and identify suitable AI solutions..
Our EnEffCo® software acts as a central tool in this process: The software collects, cleans, and contextualizes high-quality data, enabling the company to make a wide range of data-driven optimization decisions in real time.
H.R. Lange: Due to increasing digital connectivity, companies today must coordinate more and more business processes efficiently and simultaneously—from plant engineering, production planning, and control to commercial processes and changing market prices. Added to this is the digital integration of collaboration with partners and service providers.
At the same time, this connectivity opens up new possibilities for “smart operations”: many small optimization decisions can be automated and made in real time. EnEffCo® takes on these tasks, thereby reducing the workload of the operating team. At the same time, inefficiencies are reduced and costs are lowered..
Head of EnEffCo® Technology & Product Management
Dr. Hans Rüdiger Lange
„It is an incredibly exciting time: Together with our Clients, we are unlocking the next wave of productivity gains and decarbonization by integrating machine intelligence into production processes.“
H.R. Lange: EnEffCo® is designed to optimize not only individual operating processes, but also complex, cross-location production chains and value-added networks. For example, our software intelligently links energy generation and consumption, production planning, and peak load management. External factors such as CO2 emissions or market requirements can also be included in the optimization. This enables companies to control their processes flexibly and in line with demand.
H.R. Lange: Our strength lies in our deep specialization in energy and resource management in an industrial context. On the one hand, EnEffCo® quality-checks all data with the relevant contextual information for subsequent use. On the other hand, EnEffCo® enables us to apply the simplest and most robust approach for your optimization solution from a wide range of algorithms – whether classic mathematical optimization or machine learning.
EnEffCo® was developed jointly with and for industry and is optimally tailored to the specific requirements of manufacturing companies. Our software is not just an analysis tool, but a digital ecosystem for the continuous improvement of operational processes and the controlled use of artificial intelligence – from individual plants to cross-organizational value networks.
H.R. Lange: With ÖKOTEC and EnEffCo®, companies are relying on a partner with practical experience and a future-proof solution to optimize their energy management and production processes in a sustainable manner. The result is lower energy costs, greater transparency, improved plant availability, and enhanced competitiveness—both today and in the future.
The interview was conducted by Mareike Hoffmann.
Launched as a research and development project, EnEffCo® is now the standard software solution at over 220 production and 1,500 commercial locations in 35 countries, including Mercedes, BMW, Berliner Stadtreinigung, Deutsche Rockwool, Duo Plast, Ineos, Innospec, N-Ergie, Ornua, Speira, Veolia, and Wela-Plast.
Head of EnEffCo® Technology & Product Management
Power prices for electricity have been pointing in one direction in particular since 2024: upwards. This increases the incentive for all companies that have not agreed individual grid fees to reduce their peak loads in order to save costs.
A highlight for ÖKOTEC every year: the user conference for our EnEffCo® software. Users from industrial and commercial enterprises, experts from ÖKOTEC and partner companies come together for this event once a year.
At the end of 2018, Daimler began rolling out EnEffCo® in more than 15 plants worldwide. The rollout will initially focus on Europe, with several hundred thousandlicense data points to be connected worldwide.
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