Driving Manufacturing Productivity: Tackling Inefficient Energy and Material Use with Shop Floor Excellence

In manufacturing, inefficiencies don’t just show up in the numbers they show up on the floor. Unmonitored energy use.

Pallets of unused material. Processes that never got revisited after the last big changeover. Over time, these issues compound and quietly drag down your margins. They’re also signs that Shop Floor Excellence (SFE) isn’t fully embedded in your operation.

This ninth post in our ten-part SFE series outlines the top 10 ways inefficient energy and material use hurts performance, and what to do about it. These aren’t abstract issues. They’re daily realities that cost real money, limit capacity, and create sustainability risks manufacturers can no longer afford to ignore.

1Excessive Energy Consumption:

When energy usage is left unchecked, even small inefficiencies can lead to outsized utility costs. Outdated equipment, lack of shutdown protocols during idle times, and poor machine scheduling all contribute. What’s often missed is how these incremental wastes accumulate shift after shift, season after season, until they become a major budget line item that no one saw coming.

Solution: SFE begins with visibility. Energy audits, real-time tracking, and clearly defined accountability standards are essential. Once you identify the high-consumption areas, you can phase in upgrades and better scheduling based on actual use, not assumptions. In many cases, something as simple as refining startup and shutdown routines can result in double-digit energy savings.

2Material Wastage:

Scrap from defects, overruns from guesswork, and excess packaging are just the tip of the iceberg. Material loss is often tied to process blind spots and poor standards at the point of use. Waste tends to be normalized, until the actual costs are made visible.

Solution: Lean practices like 5S and standardized work can reduce waste at the source. But that only works when operators are trained to see waste and empowered to act on it. Daily tiered accountability meetings can help surface issues early and prevent recurring losses. Material yield reporting should become a key metric, not just for engineering, but for frontline supervisors as well.

3Underutilized Resources:

A machine running below its rated capacity or a technician waiting for materials isn’t just a missed opportunity, it’s a symptom of planning and coordination gaps. And when these gaps aren’t tracked, they become part of the norm.

Solution: Dig into performance data. OEE tracking, resource leveling, and cross-training can help close the gap between what’s scheduled and what’s possible. The goal is to align workforce availability and machine uptime with real demand. Every hour of underutilization has a cost, often hidden in overtime, overtime fatigue, and missed delivery windows.

4High Operational Costs:

When energy and materials aren’t managed proactively, the costs are often buried, spread across multiple budgets and rarely traced back to root cause. The result is a fragmented view of performance that makes cost control nearly impossible.

Solution: Use structured problem-solving and cost mapping to connect the dots. Look beyond line-item reductions and start targeting systemic drivers of waste, such as poor changeover practices or long material handling routes. Treat waste as a lagging indicator of deeper process misalignment, and use that insight to drive corrective action.

5Poor Process Optimization:

Old processes that “still work” are often the biggest drag on throughput. If you haven’t reassessed your workflows since the last equipment upgrade or product mix change, chances are they’re costing more than they should. Operators may be working harder, not smarter, just to keep up.

Solution: SFE calls for regular process reviews. Lean Six Sigma methods can help identify unnecessary steps, eliminate delays, and reduce variability that drives up material and energy use. Map out current workflows and compare them against ideal future states, not just on paper, but in practice, then engage teams in closing those gaps incrementally.

6Lack of Sustainable Practices:

Sustainability is no longer a side initiative. Customers, regulators, and employees all expect a cleaner, more responsible operation. Skipping this conversation doesn’t just impact your footprint, it limits your market access and your ability to recruit top talent.

Solution: Integrate sustainability into core operations. That might include switching to recycled materials, recovering heat from equipment, or reducing reliance on single-use consumables. The key is to align environmental goals with financial performance. Even modest gains, like reducing packaging material or optimizing compressed air usage, can build momentum and improve both brand value and bottom line.

7Ineffective Inventory Management:

Over-ordering to avoid shortages often leads to expired materials, overcrowded floors, and excess waste. And under-ordering leads to rush shipments, downtime, and missed deadlines. Either way, waste piles up in both physical space and operating capital.

Solution: Implement just-in-time (JIT) principles where appropriate, but combine them with real-time inventory visibility and robust forecasting. Inventory should move in sync with production, not ahead or behind it. A well-run inventory system doesn’t just reduce waste, it also reveals systemic issues with demand planning, procurement timing, and material staging.

8Inadequate Employee Training:

Operators can’t be expected to conserve resources if they’ve never been shown how. And even experienced employees may default to wasteful habits without a shared standard or clear metrics.

Solution: Make resource awareness part of the training curriculum. Use real examples from your facility to show how energy and materials are being wasted, and what better performance looks like. Reinforce with daily metrics, visual controls, and team-based problem solving. Training should focus on why habits matter, not just what the rules are.

9Lack of Process Automation:

Manual steps are often slower, more prone to error, and more resource-intensive. When automation opportunities go unrecognized, efficiency gains go unrealized. This isn’t just about robotics, it’s about using your workforce effectively.

Solution: Not every process needs a robot, but many would benefit from even modest automation. Use time studies and task analyses to spot opportunities where automation could reduce waste and improve consistency. Digital checklists, sensor alerts, and basic PLC logic can go a long way in streamlining repetitive tasks without a massive capital investment.

10Inefficient Facility Layout:

When workers, parts, and products travel farther than they need to, the energy costs rack up quickly. Poor layout also increases cycle time and injury risk. In many cases, the layout made sense years ago, but production demands have shifted while the floor hasn’t.

Solution: Reevaluate your facility layout using spaghetti diagrams and motion studies. Reorganize high-traffic areas to support flow, not just storage. Even modest changes, like repositioning workstations or simplifying transport routes, can yield big results in efficiency, throughput, and safety.

How POWERS Can Help

At POWERS, we don’t just talk about efficiency, we help you achieve it with a system that works where it matters most: the shop floor.

Our Digital Production System (DPS) is built to give manufacturing leaders and frontline teams real-time insight into energy and material usage, turning data into action across shifts, lines, and departments.

DPS doesn’t just highlight inefficiencies. It embeds accountability, drives corrective behavior, and helps your teams make smarter decisions daily.

Here’s how we help you close the gap between potential and performance:

Built-In Accountability from the Floor Up
With DPS, frontline teams gain visibility into the impact of their decisions. We help build daily operating rhythms, like tiered huddles and shift-level dashboards, that keep performance aligned with production goals and resource efficiency.
Leadership Coaching That Sticks
Tools alone don’t drive change, people do. That’s why we pair DPS with hands-on leadership development. We train supervisors to lead resource-conscious operations, hold consistent performance conversations, and coach teams toward improvement.
Sustainable Gains, Not One-Time Wins
Whether you’re upgrading equipment or refining existing processes, we help you build the habits, routines, and infrastructure that keep savings locked in. With DPS in place, improvements aren’t just projects, they become part of how your team works every day.

If you’re serious about lowering operating costs, reducing your environmental footprint, and unlocking hidden capacity, let’s talk. POWERS and DPS can help you go from reactive to strategic, without waiting for a full system overhaul.

Contact us at +1 678-971-4711 or info@thepowerscompany.com for a comprehensive solution that aligns your manufacturing processes with the highest efficiency and sustainability standards. Let’s work together to drive your manufacturing productivity to new heights.