Artificial Intelligence for an Energy and Resource Efficient Manufacturing Chain Design and Operation

The energy and resource efficient manufacture of consumption and investment products is becoming a competitive advantage and companies are increasingly interested in optimal manufacturing chain design and process operation. Based on the discrete events modeling approach empirically parameterized process models for heating, hot-rolling, forging and turning are combined to two alternative manufacturing chains for the manufacture of countershafts. The discrete events also consider specific NC codes (e.g. for turning) and allow for time-depended consumption profile calculations. Further defining and structuring all parameters of the manufacturing chains with all their processes in so-called system entity structures provides the basis for a numerical optimization by artificial intelligence tools. A genetic algorithm in combination with a fitness function has been employed to find the manufacturing chain design and process parameter set with the lowest energy and resource consumption for the manufacture of the shafts in an effective way.