Toyota’s New Energy Management Venture: A Shop-Floor Solution for Managing Factory HVAC Systems by Smartphone
- 安田 和貴／Yasuda Kazuki
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
As manufacturers face growing pressure to achieve carbon neutrality and cope with rising energy costs, improving energy efficiency at large-scale factories has become an urgent priority. Optimizing HVAC systems, which account for a significant share of electricity consumption in factories, is particularly challenging because companies must balance two seemingly conflicting goals: maintaining a comfortable working environment and reducing energy use.
Toyota Motor Corporation has responded to this challenge by developing an innovative factory HVAC management app based on the expertise accumulated at its own manufacturing sites.
In this article, we spoke with Mr. Kazunori Kato of Toyota Motor Corporation, who previously worked in tProduction Engineering Group to improve HVAC operations at Toyota’s factories and now leads the commercialization of this solution as a new business. He shared the full story behind the solution, the results achieved at Toyota’s own factories, and the company’s plans for future expansion.
Toyota's Small-Team Challenge Inside a Global Company
Although Toyota Motor Corporation is a major global company with tens of thousands of employees, this factory HVAC app originated from an internal call for new business ideas. Today, the project is being driven by a small, highly capable team within the Business Development Division. The team operates with the speed and flexibility of a startup.
I originally worked in Toyota’s Production Engineering Group, where I was involved in improving HVAC systems at the company’s automotive plants. We believed that the practical knowledge and expertise developed through these activities could also benefit customers outside Toyota. This led us to begin commercializing the technology as the solution we offer today.
A Solution Born from Real Challenges on the Factory Floor
While working to improve HVAC operations at Toyota’s own factories, I began asking a fundamental question: Why had forgetting to turn off HVAC equipment become such a persistent problem on the factory floor?
Large factories face a unique challenge: changing HVAC settings directly from the worksite is extremely difficult. Factory ceilings are often filled with a complex network of HVAC ducts, making it nearly impossible for workers to determine which HVAC unit is connected to the duct directly above them .An even more serious issue is the physical difficulty of reaching the controls. The switch for the HVAC unit cooling a particular work area may be located far away. In some cases, workers must take a long detour around logistics areas just to reach it .After finishing a full day’s work, it is not realistic to expect workers to walk a considerable distance simply to turn off the HVAC system. As a result, equipment is often unintentionally left running.
Another challenge was the conflict of interests between managers seeking to promote energy efficiency and workers who wanted to maintain a comfortable working environment. Changing HVAC settings without sufficient coordination could easily lead to complaints from the factory floor. We therefore developed a solution that eliminates unnecessary energy use while maintaining workplace comfort.
Intuitive Operation and COmpatibility with a Wide Range of Equipment
Our app has three major features designed to solve the challenges encountered on the factory floor.
Intuitive Smartphone-Based Setting Changes
When workers point their smartphone camera at an HVAC duct, the app displays the relevant ducts on the screen, color-coded according to their respective HVAC systems. Workers can immediately check whether the HVAC system is on or off, review its current settings, and operate it directly from their location. The app also visually shows the area affected by each adjustment, allowing workers to determine for themselves how much of the system they should change.
Detailed Automatic On/Off Control
In addition to automatically switching equipment off during non-operating hours through a calendar-based timer, the app can control equipment based on temperature data. For example, it can be configured to turn on the HVAC system in the morning only when the temperature exceeds 23°C. If the temperature is below that threshold, the system remains off. This flexible automation reduces unnecessary energy use without compromising comfort.
Retrofittable to Any HVAC System
Large factories such as Toyota’s have often been expanded repeatedly over time. As a result, they typically contain HVAC systems from many different manufacturers. Our app is compatible with almost all existing HVAC equipment, regardless of manufacturer, ranging from large-scale air-handling units to small and medium-sized packaged air conditioners.
A Wide Range of Features for Optimizing Factory Operations
To make the system easy to use for both factory workers and managers, we have implemented five major functions that take advantage of the capabilities of smartphones.
AR Function: By pointing a smartphone camera at the factory floor, users can visualize the coverage area of each HVAC system through augmented reality. They can check the area affected by a particular unit and operate it intuitively from the same screen.
Map Function: The app displays a map of the factory building, allowing users to identify and operate HVAC systems in specific areas from an easy-to-understand, bird’s-eye view.
List Function: Users can view a list of all HVAC units registered in the system, enabling them to quickly understand the operating status of the entire factory.
HVAC Control Function: Users can directly turn HVAC equipment on or off and smoothly adjust temperature settings from within the app.
Scheduling Function: Detailed schedules can be configured according to operating days, non-operating days, and specific times of day. This eliminates the need for daily manual operation and enables HVAC systems to be switched on and off automatically.
Case Study at a Toyota Factory: Approximately US$1,000 in Monthly Energy Cost Savings
One example is the introduction of the app at a parts manufacturing area in one of our factories. The site had 15 large air-handling units that could be operated remotely through a central monitoring system. It also had 13 small and medium-sized HVAC units that could only be operated using remote controls located on the factory floor. Because these different systems could not be centrally managed together, it was impossible to control the entire HVAC environment through a single platform.
After implementing the app, we made it possible to centrally manage all the HVAC equipment, including units that had previously been incapable of remote operation.
This provided detailed visibility into the operating status of each unit. As a result, we identified numerous sources of unnecessary energy consumption, including equipment left running during summer holidays and weekends, as well as HVAC systems operating unnecessarily at night while the factory was shut down. By using the app’s automatic control functions to switch off this equipment at the appropriate times, we confirmed monthly energy savings of approximately US$1,000 in an area covered by only four HVAC units. On an annualized basis, this demonstrated the potential to reduce energy costs by approximately US$5,500. Workers also highly valued the benefits of automation because they no longer had to walk long distances to switch off HVAC equipment manually.
Expanding Beyond the Automotive Industry and Addressing Global Environmental Challenges
We are currently introducing the app primarily across Toyota Group companies while also proposing the solution to other large-scale facilities facing similar challenges, including automotive assembly plants and automotive parts manufacturers.
However, these challenges are not limited to automotive facilities. Factories in many different industries experience similar issues, and we therefore intend to expand the solution across a wide range of manufacturing sectors.
Our ambitions are also not limited to Japan. We are considering expansion into European markets, where environmental awareness is particularly high and companies face strong demands to reduce CO₂ emissions. To support this expansion, we are also considering adding multilingual capabilities to the app. Although the project is being driven by a small team of only a few members in the Business Development Division, including myself, we hope to make this practical technology, born from real manufacturing operations, available to society more broadly and contribute to improved energy efficiency throughout the industrial sector.
Tracking Global Envirionmental Challenges Through Collaboration with Partner Companies
To accelerate the further growth of this business, we are actively seeking partners for a wide range of collaborative opportunities. These may include companies considering the introduction of the app at their own manufacturing facilities, sales and business partners who can jointly bring the solution to customers, and technology partners interested in co-creating new energy-saving solutions based on HVAC control.
Conclusion
Toyota Motor Corporation’s factory HVAC app was developed by confronting the real challenges faced on manufacturing floors and bringing together the company’s accumulated operational expertise. More than simply a cost-reduction tool, it is an innovative solution that helps bridge the gap between management and frontline workers while achieving both workplace comfort and energy efficiency. Its ability to be retrofitted to a wide range of existing equipment gives it significant potential across diverse manufacturing environments, well beyond the automotive industry. The app is expected to make a meaningful contribution to advancing carbon neutrality at factories.
Interviewed Company
Company: Toyota Motor Corporation
Interviewee: Mr. Kazunori Kato (Business Foundation Development Department Energy Solution Business Division)
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