Improving Energy Efficiency in Manufacturing via KPI Intelligence Based on Plant Integration

This paper introduces an ICT-focused, use case driven and prototype based approach to improve energy efficiency in manufacturing through plant integration. The main approach concerns definition of use cases, identification and analysis of requirements for an ICT-based decision support system based on the integration of production IT systems in manufacturing environments for enhanced energy management, elaboration of core architecture of the main system using these requirements and implementation of proof-of-concept prototypes along with synergies and feedback loops between these steps. Using this approach allows integration of disparate data coming from different multivendor production IT systems in a manufacturing plant by creating a central environment to better monitor and control energy related performance indicators. The approach is validated in the EU-funded PLANTCockpit project utilizing case studies in automotive and semiconductor industries. The developed tool based on this research provides plant and energy managers the required visibility to improve decision making on energy related issues. Keywords: Energy Efficiency; Energy Management; Information and Communication Technology; Key Performance Indicators; Plant Integration; Sustainable Manufacturing