Hong Leong Yamaha Motor Sdn Bhd, one of the top four motorcycle assemblers and distributors in Malaysia, has volunteered to participate in the energy-use benchmarking programme introduced by the Malaysian Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Project (MIEEIP).

According to Hong Leong Yamaha Motor (HLYM) senior maintenance executive Mr. Chai Koh Peng, the company has just formed a plant-wide Energy Action Team (EAT) to look into ways of improving the efficiency of their energy use.

"After our discussions today with the MIEEIP, we hope that we can do no-cost and low-cost measures and then progressively implement the higher investment activities.

"Energy is a significant part of our production costs and we need to look into ways of cutting down the overall costs. Energy efficiency is one tool to make the company more competitive, given the pressures of the current market," he said after a meeting at PTM.

The HLYM staff left with some ideas on common low-cost energy savings measures involving compressed air system and boiler operations. They were impressed by the project's state-of-the-art energy audit equipment and were convinced that Energy Management with Facts would not be an issue with the availability of such equipment.

The EAT, comprising six members and led by the Engineering Manager, is tasked to identify energy and cost savings measures through continuous awareness programmes and monthly audits of the plant.

Energy savings fall under the company's Key Results Area on Cost, the other two being Quality and Delivery. The company has won numerous productivity-related awards and it will have to comply with the parent company's move towards obtaining the ISO14000 certification. This is in line with the group's environmental policy to reduce emissions of CO2.

The e-benchmarking system is hosted by the National Productivity Corporation (NPC), where an Industrial Energy Efficiency Community has been established. To conduct benchmarking, each cluster in the community must be represented by at least four members. To date, eight clusters representing the industrial sub-sectors targeted by the MIEEIP have been created, with total participation of 65 companies.

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