ISO 50001 for mechanical engineering

A machine builder sells equipment, but also operates a lot of it. Machining centres run for hours, hardening furnaces hold temperature, compressors never switch off completely. Larger customers know this. Their purchasing departments add energy management to the supplier questionnaire, next to quality and environment.

Tenders from industrial buyers and public bodies can contain energy criteria as well. An ISO 50001 certificate answers that line with a single document instead of a page of free text. The same applies to a customer audit: the auditor asks who knows your largest energy consumers, and you can point to a baseline and a list of measures.

There is also an internal reason. Energy is a cost line that rises with every extra shift. A company that knows which machines and hall services cause most of it can decide where an investment pays back.

• ISO 50001 at a glance

ISO 50001 does not prescribe a technology. It asks you to find your significant energy uses and manage them. In mechanical engineering these are usually the following.

Machining and coolant

Milling, turning and grinding machines draw power in cutting and in standby. Coolant pumps and filtration often run longer than the spindle.

Compressed air

Leaks, oversized pressure and compressors running at night and at weekends are a classic finding in machine shops.

Heat treatment

Hardening and tempering furnaces consume gas or electricity per batch. Load planning and idle temperature make a measurable difference.

Surface and cleaning lines

Washing, degreasing and painting lines heat large volumes of liquid and air.

Test bench and commissioning

Running a finished machine under load before delivery uses energy that is rarely recorded per order.

Hall heating, ventilation and lighting

Large production halls with extraction systems add a base load that does not depend on output.

The six key requirements of ISO 50001:2018 translate into concrete work in a plant. Here is what each one can look like.

1. 01

   Establish an energy baseline

   Collect twelve months of electricity, gas and district heat invoices and, where available, sub-meter readings. This is the reference against which later savings are measured.

2. 02

   Identify significant energy uses

   Rank the consumers from the list above by their share of total consumption. Usually a few of them account for most of it.

3. 03

   Define energy performance indicators

   Link consumption to output, for example electricity per machine hour or gas per kilogram of hardened parts. A raw kWh total hides the effect of a busy or a quiet quarter.

4. 04

   Set objectives and action plans

   Write down measures with an owner and a date: repair air leaks, switch off coolant pumps outside shifts, lower the idle temperature of a furnace.

5. 05

   Procure energy-efficient products and services

   When you replace a compressor, a drive or a lighting system, energy consumption becomes a criterion in the purchasing decision, and you record that it did.

6. 06

   Monitor and improve

   Review the indicators regularly, compare them with the baseline and adjust the plan. This corresponds to clauses 9 Performance evaluation and 10 Improvement.

Each company chooses its own indicators. The table shows examples that fit common processes and the data you would typically already have.

You take an online self-assessment with 32 yes/no questions. Thirteen of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Of the other 19, at least 13 must be yes. You can start without registration and without an account.

SICE reviews every assessment. The certificate is then issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE, within 4 hours after you have passed and paid. Every certificate carries a number and a QR code that lead to a public verification page, so a purchasing department can check it in seconds.

The price is CHF 749 (€749) in the first year, then CHF 499 (€499) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. The yearly subscription renews automatically and can be cancelled at any time to the end of the current year in your customer account. Customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein pay prices including 8.1% VAT. If you hold ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 already, the multi-standard discount is 20% for two standards and 30% for three or more, also on the yearly fee.

• Start the free self-assessment
• See pricing
• ISO 50001 standard page

The classic route means an on-site audit by a certification body. It takes longer and costs more, and some customers name it explicitly in their requirements. Read the supplier questionnaire or tender text first: if it only asks for an ISO 50001 certificate, a verifiable certificate from an online assessment may be enough. If it prescribes the route, ask the customer.

The Zertify certificate rests on an online self-assessment, without an on-site audit. A short online re-audit confirms it every year. That suits small and medium machine builders who need proof for a quote or a questionnaire now, and who already track their energy bills.

• Compare the certification routes
• Certification cost explained