Situation
Manufacturing site energy review flagged compressed air as top discretionary load. Maintenance suspected leaks but had only handheld gauge spot checks. Leadership wanted trending tied to work orders without a full EMS capital project.
Problems encountered
- No central monitoring—compressors ran flat out because pressure at distant drops was unknown.
- Existing PLC had spare analog channels but no structured alarming.
- CMMS did not auto-create tickets from SCADA events.
Engineering response
We installed pressure transducers at header and critical drops, plus flow monitoring on the main header. PLC logic calculated rolling baselines by shift; deviations triggered prioritised alarms. SCADA trends exposed overnight pressure decay indicative of leaks. Integration to CMMS used scheduled CSV export initially—low cyber friction—then upgraded to API once IT approved.
Outcomes
Several significant leaks were found in the first month of trending and repaired during scheduled maintenance. Compressor run hours eased on monitored weeks, and utilities billing over the following quarter supported the maintenance team’s savings estimate. Weekly trend review became part of the standard routine.