General Motors Company — 50001 Ready | Better Buildings & Better Plants Initiative

Background

The General Motors Co. (GM) is a leader in some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets and employs more than 164,000 people worldwide. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, the company designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes vehicles and parts under the brand names Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC.

GM obtained 50001 Ready recognition from the United States Department of Energy for 25 of its US manufacturing plants for three years in a row and added two additional locations in 2021. Collectively, these 27 plants are responsible for a wide range of functions, including metal casting, machining, manufacturing key components and engines, body shops, paint shops, and general assembly areas that produce finished vehicles.

The 50001 Ready program supports GM’s long-standing commitment to sustainability. GM has practiced energy management for 20 years with the full support of corporate management, and the company established a goal of 20% carbon intensity reduction between 2010 and 2020. Through a combination of energy efficiency and investments in renewables, GM met this target three years early. The company participates in DOE’s Better Plants Program, and in 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored GM with a Green Power Leadership Award and an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award in Energy Management.

“50001 Ready has proven critical in managing operations at GM efficiently throughout this year’s challenges and positioned us well to meet our net-zero 2050 goals. Our implementation enabled us to establish common processes and procedures to increase efficiency, optimize production, and aid in effective remote troubleshooting. These actions have been indispensable in supporting GM’s responsiveness to the operational variabilities and challenges introduced by the COVID 19 pandemic.”

—Bob Baird, Energy Sustainment Manager, General Motors

Solutions

GM’s continued commitment to 50001 Ready demonstrates the program’s usefulness, as well as the effectiveness of energy management systems, in improving automotive facilities’ energy performance and carbon reduction goals. Recognizing these potential benefits of the 50001 Ready process, GM deployed multiple teams: four people at the corporate level and at least two energy conservation engineers, to work on 50001 Ready part-time, at each site. These dedicated efforts helped GM’s manufacturing sites formalize its existing energy management processes to increase accessibility and effectiveness. The 50001 Ready program also enabled GM to compare real-world energy data to modeled predictions. These comparisons help the engineers check or update earlier analyses and engage floor operators in discovering new savings opportunities.

Implementing a 50001 Ready Energy Management System

Engaged staff in finding energy-saving opportunities. With the topic of energy management to the forefront of weekly meetings, GM’s energy conservation engineers quickly identified the most significant energy users (SEUs) at each major facility. The energy team periodically leads energy-saving “treasure hunts” to identify new opportunities to conserve energy and cut costs.
Developed and standardized “sufficiency plans.” For each GM site, an energy conservation engineer maintains a sufficiency plan that captures the plant-level business deployment strategies and processes unique to that location. These plans were maintained in distinct systems and formats. During 50001 Ready preparations, the GM team, which was focused on consistency and communication across sites, recognized an opportunity. The sufficiency plans are now in a common format.
Created a 50001 Ready Manual and made it widely accessible. The GM Team developed a manual that brings together information on SEUs, impacts, projects, treasure hunts, sufficiency plans, etc., and made it available on a centralized, shared system. Instead of having multiple forms, the online manual provides a “one-stop shop” that is useful across all sites.
Customized templates based on the Navigator tool guidance and task playbooks. GM developed a U.S.-wide template encapsulating the 25 tasks in the Navigator tool. Site-specific data and information are included as appendices, so each site can tailor the document to its specific needs. The information is centrally located and each completes the tasks according to its own schedule.
Expanded training. GM offered a two-and-a-half-day, in-plant training session for its energy conservation engineers from all participating plants. This training activity equipped the engineers with uniform templates and tools. The cross-site assembly also allowed workers to build useful connections among the sites.

“50001 Ready is an umbrella for everything we do. It allows us to do a lot of good things with consistency of purpose and process, plant-to-plant, organization-to- organization.”

—Paul Hartmeister, GM Energy and Sustainability manager,
GM energy carbon optimization team

Other Benefits

GM energy teams uncovered significant opportunities to improve energy performance. For example, discussions with plant workers led the engineers to begin using electric fans instead of compressed air to dry auto parts—a move that is expected to save more than $100,000 annually.

Perhaps surprisingly, benefits became most noticeable during the 2020 pandemic. During long shutdowns, facilities are required to continue running at some level or risk not being able to start up again (e.g., some equipment must be kept running to prevent flooding). GM’s goal for these sites was 80% reduction in energy use. It was a stretch goal, but most plants attained it—in fact, a couple saw numbers of 90% or more. As part of the 50001 Ready process, these sites had meticulously established optimal shutdown/startup procedures and prepared detailed task instruction sheets. The energy teams credited 50001 Ready for providing the structure that enabled noteworthy energy savings.

Key Takeaways

The 50001 Ready process has helped the GM plants improve their staff knowledge and understanding of energy needs. GM achieved this information-sharing in two ways: corporate training and a centrally available 50001 Ready Manual system. Through the latter, energy conservation engineers share information and lessons learned. Plants see what others are doing and can quickly find ideas for improving energy performance of, for example, a body shop, stamping plant, or lighting project. As these best practices are adopted, sites across the company are beginning to see energy performance better align with predicted performance based on weather, production volume, and other variables.

The cross-company training also allowed for consistent messaging and instructions, as well as building useful connections among the sites. At the GM training, all the company engineers—working at sites from Texas to Michigan—gathered and met for the first time. As a result, someone confronted with a challenge now picks up the phone and works through it with a peer.

Interaction was spurred by the 50001 Ready Navigator tool, which serves as a useful “scorecard” to track progress and stimulate friendly competition among GM facilities. The established targets and trackable progress encourage facilities to push themselves and each other to achieve more.

These successes build on each other, with results not only inspiring colleagues but also increasing buy-in from leadership which, in turn, fosters even greater results. The GM teams see tremendous support at every level because of the savings that are being realized.

50001 Ready Sites at GM (27)

Vehicle Assembly
- Arlington, TX
- Bowling Green, KY
- Kansas City, KS
- Flint, MI
- Roanoke, IN
- Lansing, MI (Delta Township)
- Lansing, MI (Grand River)
- Orion, MI
- Spring Hill, TN
- Wentzville, MO

Metal Centers
- Flint, MI
- Marion, IN
- Parma, OH
- Pontiac, MI

Propulsion
- Bay City, MI
- Bedford, IN
- Defiance, OH
- Flint, MI
- Romulus, MI
- Saginaw, MI
- Toledo, OH
- Tonawanda, NY

Components
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Lockport, NY
- Rochester, NY

New 50001 Ready Recognitions in 2021
- Milford, MI
- Warren, MI

General Motors Company — 50001 Ready

ANNUAL ENERGY USE

ANNUAL ENERGY COST

ANNUAL WATER USE

ANNUAL WATER COST

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY USE

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY COST

IN BUILDING ENERGY USE

IN BUILDING ENERGY COST

ACROSS NETWORK USE

ACROSS NETWORK COST

ANNUAL EMISSIONS

USE

COST

ANNUAL WASTE COST

ANNUAL WASTE USE

50001 Ready Training Group Photo at Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant. Photo Courtesy of Dr. Sachin Nimbalkar, ORNL

More than 1,400 new robots are part of the new, 1-million-square-foot body shop at GM’s Arlington Assembly plant. Photo credit: GM Archive Photo

Looking for energy savings opportunities during a treasure hunt. Photo courtesy of DOE

50001 Ready In-Plant Training Classroom Session. Photo Courtesy of Sachin Nimbalkar, Oak Ridge National Laboratory