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The automotive industry is the largest industry in the United States in terms of the dollar value of production [1]. U.S. automakers face tremendous pressure from foreign competitors, which have an increasing manufacturing presence in this country. The Big Three North American Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)-General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler-are reacting to declining sales figures and economic strain by working more efficiently and seeking out opportunities to reduce production costs without negatively affecting the production volume or the quality of the product. Successful, cost-effective investment and implementation of the energy efficiency technologies and practices meet the challenge of maintaining the output of high quality product with reduced production costs. Automotive stamping and assembly plants are typically large users of compressed air with annual compressed air utility bills in the range of $2M per year per plant.

Productivity is a significant issue in the US auto industry that is often viewed as the success or failure that a vehicle assembly plant can make or break their production schedule. In other words, productivity is often looked at in terms of the number of assembled vehicles produced per year. While high production volume is an important indicator in a manufacturing environment, it certainly does not necessarily imply high productivity. By definition, Productivity is the ratio of output (number of vehicles produced) divided by all input resources such as labor, material, capital, overhead, health and energy costs. Improvement in productivity can be achieved in two ways: a reduction of inputs while output remains constant, or an increase in output while inputs remain constant. Energy is the single most controllable cost parameter in the input parameters of the productivity equation.