A Model-based Approach to Energy-saving Manufacturing Control Strategies

The increased energy demand in emerging markets, dwindling oil reserves and the planned nuclear phase-out in various industry nations cause energy prices to increase significantly. In order to sustain their competitiveness, companies need to mind their energy consumption. Through levelling and temporal shifting of power demands, the operative control of factories allows for an energy cost minimised production. Hence, energy efficiency becomes an organisational aim in all management levels of an enterprise which needs to be included as an optimisation objective in MES. This paper discusses model-based manufacturing control strategies, which provide energy-saving resource scheduling and order dispatch in automotive plants.