Unlocking water efficiency improvements in manufacturing — From approach to tool support

Abstract Water represents an irreplaceable resource for manufacturing companies and yet many fail to exploit hidden potentials in optimizing their water system and its operations. This issue is often indicated by ad-hoc water efficiency efforts leading to only sub-optimal results. A prevailing lack of transparency and unattractive amortization times further complicate a continuous improvement process. This paper presents a structured approach with prototypical tools for systematically unlocking water efficiency improvements in manufacturing companies exemplified by a consistent case from the automotive industry. Seven consecutive work steps demonstrate the identification and visualization of water related hot-spots, the derivation of basic water improvement principles, the consideration of water reuse options as well as the assessment of resource interdependencies before closing with a holistic evaluation.