Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Methodology for Mass and High-Mix Low-Volume Productions

Manufacturing industry is the largest end-users of energy around the world. Continuous improvement of energy efficiency is seen as a key approach to reduce energy consumption, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and achieve sustainable manufacturing. Energy efficiency benchmarking is a technique to identify best practices to serve as possible benchmarks for measurement and management of energy efficiency improvement. However, it is a challenging task to identify the best practices and quantify the energy saving potentials in manufacturing environment, particularly when the operation is high-mix low-volume (HMLV). This paper presents an Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Methodology (E2BM), which can be applied for both mass and HMLV production environments. E2BM allows the quantification of energy efficiency gaps between manufacturing operations and the corresponding best practices, and hence reveals the potentials for achievable energy savings. Examples are given to illustrate the application of E2BM in different manufacturing operations.