Energy efficiency driven process analysis and optimization in discrete manufacturing

Energy efficiency poses some significant challenges for most factories. To achieve fine-grained monitoring and control of energy consumption, thorough research is needed in terms of energy management models, information infrastructure and the process itself. Generally, there are three main phases that enable factory optimization: monitoring, analysis, and management. In order to reach optimal energy efficiency these steps need to be applied under the prism of energy. A coherent ICT infrastructure can provide a valuable support in terms of monitoring and control. In this paper, we focus on discrete manufacturing domain, and investigate production systems operation in terms of energy efficiency. We present a procedure which effectively supports the analysis, management, and control of discrete manufacturing systems in terms of energy efficiency and/or environmental impact. Moreover, a comparison and discussion among three different usage levels is performed through the description of different scenarios.