PROCESSES&POWER
19
McDONALD’S NETWORKS
WAY TO ENERGY SAVINGS
M
cDonald’s Corporation has been frequency (RF), but found Echelon’s power line the data, saving labour costs spent on reading
using the latest power management technology to be the most reliable and cost- thermometers and creating reports.
technology to network its restaurant effective solution. “Open, standards-based technologies
kitchen equipment and create the “kitchen “We are committed to being a market are very important for McDonald’s because
of the future,” which aims to lower energy leader in environmental responsibility and energy we believe the food service industry will
consumption and increase operational ef½ ciency. management, so it’s great to have a proven follow suit and realise the bene½ ts of
The fast-food giant is using Echelon’s platform that we can use to address such an networked equipment, including streamlined
LonWorks power line networking technology important issue,” said Bob Langert, McDonald’s operations and energy reduction,” said
to provide communication and data exchange vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility. Bernard Morauw, McDonald’s Corporation
between various pieces of kitchen equipment He added that Echelon’s technology would Worldwide Equipment Systems senior director.
in its restaurants to allow the development of also enable franchisees to create restaurants “The LonWorks platform allows multiple
business process improvement applications, that are easier to operate, facilitate preventive manufacturers around the world to have clear
manage energy use, and reduce maintenance maintenance and provide new services, while open standards to provide integrated solutions
costs. saving energy.” to McDonald’s restaurants.”
This communication occurs over existing Echelon’s i.LON Internet Server will be
power lines, making for easy installation and used to collect data from McDonald’s kitchen
retro½ tting of equipment, while enabling equipment, reducing labour costs spent on
LAURA ASHLEY STORE
McDonald’s to install the equipment without gathering data and creating reports while
tearing out walls. McDonald’s tested various reducing potential data compilation errors.
LOOKS TO MORE
alternative technologies, including radio While food safety regulation can be met with
EFFICIENT COOLING
Laura Ashley needed to replace an outdated
POWER OUTAGES THREATEN
and inef¼ cient split system in an existing
store in Derby.
BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Staff had been ¼ nding the in-store
environment uncomfortable due to the
ageing cooling system, and the high store
Chloride, the European uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and services supplier,
temperature was proving prohibitive to
is strongly advising UK businesses to deploy resilient UPS systems in order to protect their
customers shopping experience and staff
mission critical equipment and processes.
productivity.
Recent reports from Capgemini have con½ rmed the growing fears of the business As a specialist installation and
community regarding power availability, stating that electricity output has fallen by 2.2%, to its
maintenance provider of environment
lowest level in 10 years.
managed solutions, GK Industrial was called
Chloride carried out an analysis of its 2,300 UPS systems currently connected to its
upon by Laura Ashley to ¼ nd a solution to
LIFE.net monitoring system in the UK and found that, during an average month, the system
their in-store environmental issues.
recorded more than 450,000 voltage spikes, dips, irregularities and breaks in the electricity
To tackle this problem GK Industrial
placed the existing system’s condensing
supply, all of which can be harmful to mission critical equipment and processes. Additionally,
units back inside the store, resulting in the
the supplier found that power failures occurred every 832 hours and alarmingly, brownouts
excess heat being distributed with the
occurred every three hours.
store overloading the systems capacity to
“By analysing the information from our LIFE.net system, we found that each of the 2,300
effectively converse the warm air into cold
UPS systems monitored in the UK protect organisations from disturbances 200 times a
air.
month, or seven times per day,” con½ rmed Chloride technical support manager, Rob Tanzer. GK Industrial liaised with the landlord to
“Last year the National Grid reported 49 single events of power loss to customer premises.
the store and placed the condenser unit
While this highlights the potential risk to business continuity, it must be remembered that
outside the building with a ducted indoor
brownouts, spikes and surges can all harm sensitive electronic equipment.”
unit coupled into the existing ductwork, so
“There is more to back up power than simply installing a UPS or a generator,” added
that all excess heat was not exhausted
Tanzer. “Facility managers are often employed by organisations to look after backup
back into the building.
The system installed by GK saved Laura
power systems, but often lack the in-house resources or technical expertise to carry out
Ashley 40% on running costs compared
appropriate maintenance. Clearly, it is important to work with a power protection specialist
to the old system. Staff are now more
to ensure that systems are designed, implemented and maintained appropriately. Where
comfortable in their new cooler environment,
mission critical applications exist, serious consideration needs to be given to backup power
resulting in increased productivity and a
systems as a critical element of business continuity plans.”
more pleasant experience for the customer.
APRIL/MAY 2009 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
14-19 Processes & Power.indd 19 6/5/09 9:51:46 am
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