Energy consumption evaluation to reduce manufacturing costs

Industry is a major energy consumer; therefore, manufactures are continuously trying to reduce the manufacturing costs. There are several ways of reducing the manufacturing costs, such as: less consumption and less waste of raw material; better product traceability to avoid the production line stoppage, and also by enhancing machinery management in order to reduce the energy consumption during the manufacturing process. This paper describes a method to reduce the manufacturing costs through the analysis and management of energy in the different phases of the manufacturing process. With this analysis it is possible to identify the phase which consumes more energy and take actions in the manufacturing process and/or in the machinery management to save energy in order to achieve a production process as efficient as possible in terms of energy consumption.