Three little pigs

During my childhood, I found great joy in reading the fairy tale about the three little pigs. I wonder what would have occurred if these pigs existed in today's contemporary world. Let's explore this scenario...

Once upon a time, there lived three little pigs named Jimmy, John, and Janice along with their mother pig in a small house located in a forest. The father pig had previously owned a large truffle mayonnaise factory but had decided to sell it to a conglomerate to motivate his children to start their own business from the beginning. He invested the proceeds from the sale, which amounted to 4000 gold nuggets, into a family fund and planned to give each of his children 1000 nuggets once they left the nest. However, a few months later, the father pig was struck by lightning and passed away, leaving the mother and her three children behind.

The day finally arrived for the three pigs to leave their nest and embark on their own journeys. As promised, their mother gave each of them 1000 nuggets, and they set out to begin their new lives. The youngest pig, Jimmy, was a creative but somewhat indolent pig. While wandering through the forest, he encountered the forest owl, who warned him not to put all his eggs in one basket. However, Jimmy disregarded the owl's advice and decided to construct a low-cost truffle factory that relied on swamp gas for heating, similar to his father's factory. He remembered that his father had made a lucrative deal with a wolf named Rasputin, who controlled the entire swamp gas distribution network in the forest. Rasputin presented Jimmy with a tempting offer to pay only one nugget per 100 pints of gas.

Jimmy's factory was up and running in no time. The first year he was able to sell a lot of truffle mayonaise and he made a big profit. Thus, he made the decision to expand his factory and increase the usage of swamp gas to produce more mayonnaise.

Johnny pig decided to live his fathers' dream as well, and built a factory in the west side of the forest. Before he started the factory, he went to the forest owl for some advice. The owl warned him 'never put your eggs in one basket' and Johnny decided to do so. He built a factory using dead wood from the forest, and combined this with swamp gas as an energy source. In this way, he would be able to switch between energy sources. He also set aside some funds to invest in a small windmill that could be used to chop truffles, but the catch was that it could only operate when there was sufficient wind. Nevertheless, Johnny found a solution to this problem by constructing a large storage shed where he could store chopped truffles from two seasons.

Janice, the youngest pig of the three, was also the most intelligent. Despite her abilities, her older brothers often teased her. They didn't really believe in her skills as an entrepreneur.?But they had it all wrong. First of all, Janice went to the forest owl to get some advice. The forest owl told her: Don't put all eggs in one basket! Ok, said Janice, anything else? Yes, said the owl. Be aware of Rasputin, as he cannot be trusted. Anything else? 'Yes said the owl, make sure to plan ahead and monitor your progress, so you know where you can improve'. Janice took this advice to heart. First, Janice looked at various methods to produce truffle mayo and made efficiency calculations for each method. And on top of that, she was thinking about circularity. She read about it and she thought,?"if I can make my products circular and use only renewable sources, I could survive this in the long run". So she decided to build her factory at the edge of the forest, near a creek, with plenty of sunlight and wind available. So she could use all three energy sources for her factory. And she discovered an ancient recipe, which did not require truffle chopping. So she produced prosperously and independent of any third party energy supplier.

After some time, the Owl turned out to be right. And here's something interesting - those Russian wolves are a whole different breed. Unlike your typical wolf, they don't go chasing after pigs! They are vegetarian, and they are only interested in gold nuggets.?So one year later, when there was little wind, Rasputin raised the price for swamp gas. Not by one, not by ten, but by three hundred percent.?So within a couple of weeks Rasputin's assistants came along to collect his remaining nuggets. Jimmy ran out of business and wished he had listened better to the forest owl. Jimmy ran to Janice, who offered him a job in her factory. Johnny still had his stock of chopped truffles, but a month later, he ran out of stock. And there was no back up plan anymore! So also Johnny ran through the forest, and applied for a job at Janice. He got a job as energy manager.

Janice's factory turned out to stay safe. There was nothing that Rasputin could do.?Her factory was still producing because she was independent of swamp gas. So Rasputin had to think of another plan. He decided to destroy her water mill and her windmill. He ran to her factory with some tools and jumped into the water near the mill. But the water was strong. And the wolf was not in his prime age anymore. He drowned miserably and was chopped into little pieces. The three pigs heard his loud screams and rushed over to see what was happening. When they arrived, they discovered a piece of his tail lying on the river shore. They knew that the forest was safe again! On top of this, they also found some gold nuggets, which Rasputin always kept in his backpack.

After finding the gold nuggets, the three pigs realized that they no longer needed to rely on Rasputin's swamp gas or any other non-renewable sources for energy. They used the gold to invest in sustainable technology and equipment for their factories, such as an energy management system, solar panels and wind turbines. They also shared their knowledge with the other animals in the forest, encouraging them to switch to renewable energy sources as well. The pigs threw a big party to celebrate their success and to promote their new sustainable lifestyle to the rest of the forest. From that day on, the forest was a cleaner, healthier place to live for all its inhabitants, and they all lived happily ever after.

So what can you do, as an owner of a manufacturing plant and turn this fairy tale into reality?

• Make sure your energy sources are exchangeable and redundant.
• Make sure to monitor your energy consumption
• Implement continuous optimization, as energy savings and increase in reliability go hand in hand.

At VPInstruments, we can help you with monitoring and optimization. Want to learn how? Contact us today to learn more. We are happy to help!