Energy saving policies for a machine tool with warm-up, stochastic arrivals and buffer information

One of the measures for saving energy in manufacturing is the implementation of control strategies that reduces energy consumption during the machine idle periods. Specifically, the paper proposes a framework that integrates different control policies for switching the machine off when the production is not critical, and on either when the part flow has to be resumed or the queue has accumulated to a certain level. A general policy is formalized by modeling explicitly the power consumed in each machine state. A threshold policy is analyzed and the optimal parameter is provided for an M/M/1/K system. Numerical results are based on data acquired with dedicated experimental measurements on a real machining centre, and a comparison with common practices in manufacturing is also reported.