Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1388570
24 / July 2021 powderbulk.com COMPRESSED AIR — PART III: IMPLEMENTING AND SUSTAINING A POSTAUDIT PLAN Part II of this article, which appeared in PBE's June issue, explained what a compressed-air system audit entails and the ben- efits of doing an audit. Part III of this three-part article describes the necessary steps to implement a postaudit plan to sustain your compressed-air improvements and savings. Paul Edwards and Mauricio Uribe, Compressed Air Consultants compressed-air system audit's potential savings and ensure that they don't dissipate into thin air. The three components of a successful postaudit plan are: detailed design, project management, and sustained effort. Before discussing each of these com- ponents in detail, here are some thoughts to consider about outsourcing. The return on investment (ROI) for most compressed-air projects allows for as much I n PBE's June issue, we described how to structure your compressed-air system audit to optimize finan- cial gain. However, the audit is just one step in the overall process of optimizing your compressed-air system. Experience is often the best teacher, and we've seen quite a few plants miss out on savings oppor- tunities due to poor postaudit processes. This article describes the additional steps required to realize the FIGURE 1 In this scenario, the compressed-air system improvement project cost is $500,000 with a savings of $240,000 per year. If the company outsourced this improvement work, it would cost $40,000 extra (a total of $540,000) but would speed the project up by 9 months. This trade-off means the company would begin saving money sooner than if it performed the improvements in-house, which would result in only 75 percent of the savings stream ($180,000) retained. The plant may have saved $40,000 by waiting and executing the project in-house, but waiting until it had the resources to do the project ultimately cost the company more money ($60,000 per year). Time (months) Outsourcing Impact Cumulative Project Cash Flow 800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 -100,000 -200,000 -300,000 -400,000 -500,000 -600,000 -700,000 Case summary • Basic project implementation cost: $500,000 • Projected savings (full implementation): $240,000/yr • Outsourcing costs: $40,000 (but speeds project up by 9 mos) • In-house implementation: leaves out part of action plan, results in 75% effectiveness Outsourced project In-house project Net cash flow by year 5: $660,000 Net cash flow yr 5 : $265,000 ROI – 27 months ROI – 42 months In-house project: $500,000 investment, implemented month 9 Outsourced project: $540,000 investment, implemented month 0 0 6 9 12 24 36 48 60