Driving Process Innovation: A Structured Method for Improving Efficiency in SMEs

This paper proposes a method to drive process innovation toward the increase in efficiency of a production plant.The work defines a structured method, supported by a classification tool, to correctly organize whole plant information with a mayor focus on energy consumptions. The method was tested in a medium enterprise with the target to increase the efficiency of the entire production plant. The method is the basis for a web application tool. A correct data management permits to plan the best practices to improve processes and systems involved in terms of environmental and economic impacts, meaning a process sustainable innovation.