Usage of a digital eco-factory for sustainable manufacturing

This paper proposes sustainable manufacturing using a digital eco-factory. When a digital eco-factory is used, green performance is examined in addition to productivity and manufacturability at the same time. A digital eco-factory shows green performance with various granularities such as machine level, product level and factory level. A digital eco-factory is a virtual factory and IT platform for sustainable production planning. In a digital eco-factory, the production scenario is examined by simulating manufacturing processes. The digital eco-factory is configured on a digital factory. The digital factory is constructed by applying multi agent technology. In the digital factory, all factory elements such as machine tools and assembly machines are configured as software agents. A digital factory mirrors the structure of the actual factory. At the usage stage, the user of a digital eco-factory can easily customize the configuration of the factory, target production scenario, granularity of simulation parameters, etc. Furthermore, the digital eco-factory supports execution of planned sustainable production by providing reference data for monitoring and online control of the shop floor. In addition, to practically spread the use of a digital eco-factory, e-catalogue library of machines/devices is proposed.