Final Report Summary - ENEPLAN (ENergy Efficient Process pLAnning system)
Executive Summary:
Today’s manufacturing plants provide a number of different processing possibilities for manufacturing a specific product. Each one of these processing possibilities poses different advantages and limitations that are function of both geometry and lot size of the part to be manufactured. However, one of the main driving forces in today’s production is the environmental friendliness and the energy efficiency of the production itself. Additionally, the manufacturing processes are needed to be able to quickly shift between diverse manufacturing operations with short transfer, program and set-up times without compromises to quality, reliability and life-cycle costs. In the proposed project the main objective was the development of manufacturing systems that are highly flexible, and, at the same time, closely adapted to the single product.
These manufacturing systems need for an engineering tool able to cover the whole plant operation, from the overall planning of the plant operation (such as the routes that the product follow within the plant and the scheduling of the production) down to the individual process programming (such as process operation, energy efficiency etc). The process planning approach of today is based on expert systems that are able to propose alternative process plans for the manufacturing of a specific product. Additionally, there are tools able to simulate the operation of each machine station both from technological (process parameters, energy efficiency, etc) and economical point of view. All of the available systems though are able to cover only portion of the production, requiring exchange of data between different systems and thus making the overall optimization of the plant operation a hard task. The proposed project delivered a manufacturing planning decision support tool for the optimization of the plant operation that is able to be used from the conceptual phase of the product to the final dispatch of the product to the customer.
The main objective of ENEPLAN project was the development of a network-based Meta-CAM tool towards energy-efficient multi-process manufacturing and optimum process planning from a given set of production requirements, adapted to the functional specifications of metal formed or machined parts for automotive, aeronautic and domestic appliances. The development of the Meta-CAM tool helps industry towards green and flexible manufacturing, energy efficiency, environmental friendliness and quick respond to market demands.
More specifically, the goals of ENEPLAN project that have been achieved are:
• Environmental footprint reduction for the selected components by selecting a more energy efficient combination of process among those available in the already existing supply chain.
• Energy efficiency improvement of the whole production line
• Multi-process, multi-company distributed control
Project Context and Objectives:
The main objectives of the ENEPLAN project were the following:
• Definition of the automotive, aeronautics and household industrial sector business case
• Definition of specifications and requirements for meta-CAM tool
• Assessment of state of the art on energy and eco-efficiency of processes and machine tools
• Development of the total evaluation concept for the key technologies and innovations of the project
• Development new market need models using open source software algorithms for the definition of the production scenarios in the Meta-CAM tool software
• Development of process simulation models for the calculation of the energy efficiency of various conventional and non conventional processes
• Development of machine tool “green” assessment method
• Development and experimental verification of the intelligent monitoring system and its integration in the various software used by SMEs and OEMs of monitoring system
• Definition of strategy for the energy efficient planning
• Definition of the architecture and interfaces of the meta-CAM system
• Collection and organization of developed process models integrated with the corresponding production machines
• Development of a multi-optimization methodology followed in Meta-CAM tool in order to produce an optimized production schedule.
• Assessment of state of the art on methods for energy efficiency optimization based on production line level.
• Development and classification of Meta-CAM tool modules
• Presentation of instruction on installing Meta-CAM and all software required for the tool to function properly and tool features
• Development of the methods and technologies used in connecting the monitoring system with Meta-CAM tool
• Development of monitoring systems
• Description of the final outcome of ENEPLAN project considering the development of monitoring systems that support Meta-CAM tool.
• Demonstration of projects results after applying Meta-CAM tool in automotive pilot case.
• Demonstration of projects results after applying Meta-CAM tool in aeronautics pilot case.
• Demonstration of projects results after applying Meta-CAM tool in domestic appliances pilot case.
• Demonstration of the Meta-CAM tool capabilities, extensions, limitations and future ideas
• Presentation of the dissemination activities of the ENEPLAN project
• Development of a plan with the exploitation activities of the ENEPLAN project
• Integration of the ENEPLAN technologies in the industry’s working practices
• Development of a report with the exploitation activities and roles regarding the commercial exploitation of the project's results including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
• Development and analysis of a structured training activity plan of Meta-CAM tool
• Development the final version of Meta-CAM tool
Project Results:
The ENEPLAN project is finished and all goals set for this 2nd and final period have been achieved. Three business cases have been defined one in the automotive sector, one in the household sector and one in the aeronautics sector. These business cases have been adequately studied and refined. Several alternatives production plans for all three of them have been proposed and used as tests in simulation for the final software development and the evaluation of the tool. At the final stage of the project, the Meta-CAM tool applied to them for the physical run.
The specifications and requirements for the Meta-CAM tool have been defined. Based on them, the architecture and the interfaces for the Meta-CAM tool software have been designed. A modular approach has been adapted. Each of the modules required a series of scientific and software tools to be developed.
A very important part of the Meta-CAM tool was the simulation modules. The research required for those parts was one of the most challenging parts of the project. Considerable research on the current state of energy and eco-efficiency of processes and machine tools was performed. Based on this research a series of process simulation models of the conventional and non-conventional processes involved in ENEPLAN business cases was developed. The aforementioned models were focusing on energy and eco-efficiency aspects of the manufacturing processes that are not widely studied in the literature.
Another important part of the Meta-CAM architecture was the real-time interaction and evolution of its modules based on information coming from a monitoring system. For the purpose of the project, several monitoring systems were developed and experimentally verified.
The most-complicated module of the Meta-CAM tool if the so called “high” level Meta-CAM tool which is responsible for the decisions related to production planning of the whole production line, but also for the control of each one of the processes. This module needs input from all the aforementioned simulators and moreover, as the project is not academic but targets to physical application in the industry, the market demand associated with the considered products. For this purpose new market needs models for the definition of the production scenarios in the Meta-CAM tool software have been developed.
The “high” level Meta-CAM tool has a complicated structure containing many elements. This module, as well as models and algorithms for deriving alternative process plans, optimization algorithms for the production planning and multi-objective optimization (MOO) of the production planning towards energy efficiency and environmental impact have been developed.
In addition to the following, a complete exploitation plan for each partner after has been designed. Additionally, a complete dissemination plan has been followed and produced several scientific publications and other important dissemination activities.
Finally the total evaluation concept for the key technologies and innovations of the project has been designed and decided and the ENEPLAN KPIs have been selected.
In addition to the following a first exploitation plan for each partner and a first dissemination plan have been designed and more than four scientific publications and other important dissemination activities have taken place.
Potential Impact:
The impact of the final results of the project proved to be considerable. The meta-CAM tool that developed for the optimization of the plant operations could be enabled to be employed from the conceptual phase of the product (final blueprints) to the final dispatch of the product to the customer. The optimization lie to the best compromise between energy and cost efficiency. Following this approach, i.e. selecting the most appropriate process for a certain product, the competitiveness and sustainability of these processes proved to be significantly increased.
ENEPLAN aimed at reducing the global resources consumption, in particular energy usage, more than 20%, by developing methods for the on-line (or short-time) configuration of the manufacturing system for a specific workpiece, in order to obtain maximum productivity with less resources. Based on the results of the project, this fact is solidly demonstrated ENEPLAN project achieved the promised objectives and in most cases Meta-CAM tool managed to overachieve the project objectives, proving the success of the final built tool.
ENEPLAN disseminated to automotive, aeronautics and domestic appliances as well as other industry markets innovative environmental technologies related to energy efficient production planning. The industries involved in ENEPLAN are related to several SMEs, and as end-users of innovative environmental technologies passed and will pass in the future, this know-how to their suppliers and related SMEs aiding at increasing competitiveness and employment opportunities.
ENEPLAN aimed at strong contribution to EU policies related to scientific, technical, economic and social factors. ENEPLAN enforced the implementation of the innovation policy towards bringing into industrial practice cutting edge technology that may be available but has not been possible to apply yet. This innovation policy can increase the competitiveness of European automotive and related industry as providing also employment and economic factors. Moreover, ENEPLAN in order to straighten social factors proved that can move towards EU action against climate change through the Meta-CAM it developed for energy efficient production planning. ENEPLAN envisages having a strong contribution towards international standards (ISO, SAE, etc) as providing guidelines, new practices and innovative manufacturing solutions for energy efficient production planning.
Major dissemination activities:
Clustering with other EU projects
Project Name Cooperation Webpage link
EM2 FACTORY • Knowledge
• Simulation
• Factory design http://www.emc2-factory.eu/en/home
ENEPLAN • Management
• Modelling
• Monitoring http://www.eneplan.eu/
REFORM •Production
•Simulation http://reform.eu.com/
KAP •KPIs
• Strategy towards higher
energy efficiency achievements http://www.kap-project.eu
AREUS • Modelling http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/108857_en.html
AREUS, ENEPLAN, EMC2 factory and Reform worked together in order to:
•Avoid repetition and reduce workload
•Work together to obtain specific goals
•Share information – access to expertise
•Have different POVs on similar processes
•Wider audience for results
For this reason two events promoting clustering have taken place until now. The first was a workshop held on March 2013 at Brussels and its scope was to exchange ideas regarding PPIs management and structuring of PPIs with EU funded project KAP. Then, on October 2013 a clustering event with a detailed agenda took place in AMRC Sheffield focussing on promoting agreements among projects for specific development which are of common interest.
These clustering activities are helping the projects towards accelerating needed time for common developments, improve the quality of results and follow new and more advanced communication and “selling” methods. Additionally joint publications and guidelines for energy and eco-efficiency may be produced, affecting and accessing on the same time, a wider community.
Three physical meeting took place.
1.Clustering meeting at AMRC (Sheffield, England, 15 OCT 2013): First clustering meeting
2.Industrial Technologies conference 2014 (Athens, Greece, 9-11 APR 2014): Clustering booth
3.Politecnico di Milano Eco-Clustering : (Milan, Italy, 8 MAY 2014) Presentation of cluster and each project
4.TPA Italia 2014 (Milan, Italy, 9 MAY 2014) : Clustering booth and presentation of cluster and each project
Dissemination towards scientific community (Authors/Date/Title/Location)
-PRIMA, LMS/ Sep 2012/ Energy Efficient Process planning System – the ENEPLAN Project/ APMS 2012: International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems
-LMS, PRIMA/ Oct 2012/ A process planning system for energy efficiency/ MITIP 2012: 14th International Conference on Modern Information Technology in the Innovation Processes of the Industrial Enterprises
-LMS/May 2013/Energy Efficiency of Manufacturing Processes: A Critical Review/ 46th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems 2013
-CNR-ITIA/ June 2013/ Energy Driven Process Planning and Machine Tool Dynamic Behaviour Assessment/ 2nd CIRP Web Conference - Beyond Modern Manufacturing: Technology of the Factory of the Future
-CNR-ITIA/ Nov 2013/Machine tool energy analysis in general milling operations/ANIPLA Motion Control 2013 Conference, Milano, Italy
-IDEKO, AMRC, LMS, TEKS, VTT/ Apr 2013/ Specific method for the life cycle inventory of machine tools and its demonstration with two manufacturing case studies/ UCIMA, Baggiovara, Bologna
-LMS/ March 2014/ An Approach to Modelling Evaporation Laser Pulsed Drilling and its Energy Efficiency/ International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
-IDEKO, AMRC, LMS, TEKS, VTT/ May 2014/ Specific method for the life cycle inventory of machine tools and its demonstration with two manufacturing case studies/ Journal of Cleaner Production
-LMS/ May 2014/ On a Generalised Approach to Manufacturing Energy Efficiency/ International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
-LMS/ Sep 2014/ An Approach to Increase Energy Efficiency Using Shutdown and Standby Machine Modes/ APMS 2014: International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems
-LMS/ Under review / Handling Production data Using a Manufacturing Indicators’ Semantic Mode/ International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing
-LMS/ Under Development/ Weather Forecasting and its Influence in Manufacturing Energy Efficiency N/A
-LMS/ Under Development/ On the Energy Consumption of the Robot Motions N/A
Dissemination towards academic and engineering communities
Workshops within ENEPLAN's activities (Responsible/ Date/ Title/ Location/Description)
-PRIMA LMS/ 24-25 Mar 2014/ Impact of the Factories of the Future PPP/ Brussels/ Exchange of Ideas regarding PPIs management and structuring of PPIs with other EU funded project of the green manufacturing cluster
-VTT/ Feb 2014/ Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies/ Helsinki/ Workshop/seminar where VTT will present their activities to Finnish industry. The topic is sustainable manufacturing technologies and ENEPLAN has a vital role in the seminar.
-PRIMA LMS/ 12-14 June 2013/ Imagine FoF2020 - Factories of the Future towards Horizon 2020/ Geneva/ The Joint Dissemination Conference FoF-H2020 firstly addresses the European companies who are currently involved in research in the domain of manufacturing under the aegis of the FP7 PPP programme.
-IDEKO, ITIA/ 19 Mar 2013/ Energy Efficiency in Machine Tools/ UCIMU, Cinisello Balsamo, Milano/ Presentation at a workshop on eco-friendliness and energy saving in the machine tool field, organized by UCIMU, the Italian Association of Machine Tools and Robot Builders
-PRIMA LMS/ 11-12 Mar 2013/ Impact of the Factories of the Future PPP/ Brussels/ Exchange of Ideas regarding PPIs management and structuring of PPIs with EU funded project KAP
-IDEKO, ITIA/ 8 Nov 2012/ Energy Efficiency in Production Machinery/ UCIMA, Baggiovara, Bologna/ Presentation at a workshop on eco-friendliness and energy saving in the field of production machinery, organized by UCIMA, the Italian Association of Automatic Packaging Machines
GORENJE/ September 2012/ Internal workshop/ Gorenje Orodjarna Slovenia/ Internal workshop in Gorenje Orodjarna for disseminating interim results
ENEPLAN's events (Responsible/ Date/ Title/ Location/ Description)
-GORENJE/ 16-19 Apr 2013/ FormaTool 2013/ Celje Showground Celje, Slovenia/ Presentation during event, leaflets and poster.
-GORENJE/ Jun 2014/ Industrial Forum IRT 3000/ Portoroz, Slovenia/ Presentation and technical article of project ENEPLAN
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Forum: Advanced Manufacturing Forum on Unconventional Machining / AMRC/ Forum for local businesses on different areas of manufacturing. The event on 29 Jan was on unconventional manufacturing and the research being carried out in this area (including ENEPLAN) was highlighted.
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Waterjet Open Day/ AMRC/ Open day at the AMRC to discuss the new waterjet capabilities and associated research
-GORENJE/ Oct 2012/ Hannover 2012 trade fair / Hannover Germany/ Trade fair during which leaflets were given away and posters and presentations were made.
-AMRC, TEKS/ Oct 2012/ School event: Make. Innovate. Create/ AMRC/ Training Centre Rotherham Event to encourage 14-16 year-old pupils into engineering, encouraging them to think about the energy-implications of different manufacturing technologies
Project's news releases / website references (Responsible /Date /Title /Media /Description)
-AMRC /Nov 2011 /FP7 projects on AMRC website http://www.amrc.co.uk/research/support/european-projects// Link on AMRC Research projects webpage
-CADCAMation/ Dec 2012/ Energy Efficient Process planning System – the ENEPLAN Project/ Club Suisse de la Presse
Route de Ferney 106 CH-1202 Geneva /Press release submitted to Club Suisse de la Presse during the ENEPLAN consortium meeting
-IDEKO/ Feb 2012/ News: IK4-Ideko trabaja en la simulación y modelado de procesos/ http://www.izaro.com/contenidos/ver.php?id=es&se=2&su=22&co=1329406276 News
-IDEKO/ Feb 2012/ IdekoNews http://www.ideko.es/news/ Several ENEPLAN project related News
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Showcase for waterjet capabilities AMRC website and selected journalists Press release and website info for waterjet open day
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Waterjet Open Day AMRC website/ Outreach
-AMRC/ Feb 2013/ Wardjet Showcases Waterjet Capabilities/ Composites today http://www.compositestoday.com/2013/02/wardjet-showcases-waterjet-capabilities/ Report in composites today on waterjet open day, mentioning research in ENEPLAN into environmental manufacture of components
-IDEKO/ Feb. 2013/ Standardization: ISO committee 14955 meeting: machine tools, energy efficiency, standardization /http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development/list_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_technical_committee.htm?commid=48354/ Preparation of ISO Standard 14955: Energy-saving design of machine tools
-AMRC/ Mar 2013/ Quick links of REFORM website /http://reform.eu.com/ A clustering page is planned
-AMRC/ May 2013/ Article on ENEPLAN case study /http://www.amrc.co.uk/featuredstudy/eneplan/ An article published on AMRC website about the application of project’s results on Newburgh.
-LMS/ July 2013/ Published article in Modern Technical Review Magazine http://www.technicalreview.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1958 An article published by Modern Technical Review magazine describing the goals of the project and the way that they will be achieved.
-GORENJE/ Oct 2014/ Article in GIB - An article published in Gorenje Internal Bulletin that will present project’s results along with exploitation and dissemination activities.
-IDEKO/ Jun. 2014/ Standardization: ISO committee 14955 meeting: machine tools, energy efficiency, standardization http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development/list_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_technical_committee.htm?commid=48354 Preparation of ISO Standard 14955: Energy-saving design of machine tools
-VTT/ End of 2014/ Common summary of Projects - Common summary of four EU-projects concerning eco-efficient manufacturing. Projects are: EPES, SustainValue, Euroenergest and ENEPLAN
Main exploitation strategy
The overall objective of the exploitation of the ENEPLAN project is the commercialization of the ENEPLAN Meta-CAM tool. To take the ENEPLAN tool to the market, further investment on the platform and on the ENEPLAN methodology will be needed. It is foreseen that, based on the project exploitable results, a new business (a joint venture with ICT vendors, RTDs and other interested partners) will be established to provide services for the set-up, installation and maintenance of the ENEPLAN platform in industrial applications.
It is foreseen that, during the project activities, some of the platform components can be exploited as independent products from Meta-CAM (e.g. machine monitoring, energetic milling machine simulator, etc.). The first step to achieve that is to define a list of results that makes more clear how and who will benefit from using parts of MetaCAM. Then, investigation of the risks will be made so that exploitable results will profit the final user
After the end of the project a number of models, techniques and tool will be ready to be used either as a whole or in parts. A list with brief description of what the final user of ENEPLAN’s outcome can use to benefit from is as follows:
Meta-CAM tool
It is the main outcome of ENEPLAN project that will be directly used on real production line scenarios. However, this tool is based on a number of technologies, theoretical models and modules which can be used and will be exploited separately. Modularity of the Meta-CAM tool was also discussed during ESS seminar and possible independent uses of tool’s parts were analysed. The exploitable results are listed below.
Process and production planning
It is the main module of MetaCAM tool that performs alternative formation, simulation and evaluation. Combined with the appropriate interfaces it can be used in a variety of applications and can be combined with other modules that will serve as input to the simulation process. It is also the module that contains implementation of all optimisation algorithms
Process alternatives
Process and production planning will be based on a repository of alternative ways to perform a process (ex. Laser cutting or Punching) The data of this repository can be used as a guide for altering a production line or usage in other tools or projects.
“Green” assessment method
The machine tool “green” assessment method provides a new procedure, which improves the transparency and consistency of the life cycle inventory phase (LCI) for machine tools. This method can be used independently to assess a list of production lines and enable the user to compare several factors affecting their environmental impact.
Process monitoring
Systems of monitoring every process and interfaces through which acquired data will be fed to low level process algorithms will be developed. In the project several monitoring techniques will be used and wherever needed enhanced or developed. An attempt of a generic monitoring system will be done and finally it can be a standard way for building monitoring systems which need to be connected with a decision planning tool.
Process simulation algorithms (models for energy efficiency calculation)
These algorithms can be used for performing calculations on a process or simulating specific processes by examining process characteristics based on different input parameters. They can be used in other projects related to energy efficiency or even enhanced to better describe a specific manufacturing process.
Theoretical model adaptation
Acquiring experimental data from processes will be done in order to adapt theoretical models into a hybrid new model, which will describe more accurately the production line. As a result, methods for adapting the theoretical model will be developed. Thus, as process simulation algorithms are applicable in other projects or tools, in the same way adaptation of such models will be useful for integration of these theoretical models to real production lines.
Production performance indicators (PPI)
MetaCAM tool will evaluate the given production line and will display its results based on specific KPIs. These KPIs can be used in energy efficiency or environmental impact related methods or tools.
Finally, the knowledge gained during the project can be also exploited as background for future RTD activities related to product development and CAM-CAPP and for the provision of consultancy services/training.
Exploitation focuses on transferring the ENEPLAN project results to the lead users by means of identifying and establishing the most effective strategy of utilization of project results linking the project results, the respective lead users, and the transfer processes together. The first step was to identify which aspects of the ENEPLAN project results are important regarding the exploitation plan of the ENEPLAN project.
Even though business cases are about three specific production lines, the developed tool and technologies can be used in any production line. This means that industry can benefit from Meta-CAM tool by assessing every production line and use the tool as a guide for better tuning of the line towards energy efficiency or as a guide for changing the general production plan. The development of tool requires the development of modules and use of technologies that can be individually exploited.
List of Websites:
http://www.eneplan.eu
Today’s manufacturing plants provide a number of different processing possibilities for manufacturing a specific product. Each one of these processing possibilities poses different advantages and limitations that are function of both geometry and lot size of the part to be manufactured. However, one of the main driving forces in today’s production is the environmental friendliness and the energy efficiency of the production itself. Additionally, the manufacturing processes are needed to be able to quickly shift between diverse manufacturing operations with short transfer, program and set-up times without compromises to quality, reliability and life-cycle costs. In the proposed project the main objective was the development of manufacturing systems that are highly flexible, and, at the same time, closely adapted to the single product.
These manufacturing systems need for an engineering tool able to cover the whole plant operation, from the overall planning of the plant operation (such as the routes that the product follow within the plant and the scheduling of the production) down to the individual process programming (such as process operation, energy efficiency etc). The process planning approach of today is based on expert systems that are able to propose alternative process plans for the manufacturing of a specific product. Additionally, there are tools able to simulate the operation of each machine station both from technological (process parameters, energy efficiency, etc) and economical point of view. All of the available systems though are able to cover only portion of the production, requiring exchange of data between different systems and thus making the overall optimization of the plant operation a hard task. The proposed project delivered a manufacturing planning decision support tool for the optimization of the plant operation that is able to be used from the conceptual phase of the product to the final dispatch of the product to the customer.
The main objective of ENEPLAN project was the development of a network-based Meta-CAM tool towards energy-efficient multi-process manufacturing and optimum process planning from a given set of production requirements, adapted to the functional specifications of metal formed or machined parts for automotive, aeronautic and domestic appliances. The development of the Meta-CAM tool helps industry towards green and flexible manufacturing, energy efficiency, environmental friendliness and quick respond to market demands.
More specifically, the goals of ENEPLAN project that have been achieved are:
• Environmental footprint reduction for the selected components by selecting a more energy efficient combination of process among those available in the already existing supply chain.
• Energy efficiency improvement of the whole production line
• Multi-process, multi-company distributed control
Project Context and Objectives:
The main objectives of the ENEPLAN project were the following:
• Definition of the automotive, aeronautics and household industrial sector business case
• Definition of specifications and requirements for meta-CAM tool
• Assessment of state of the art on energy and eco-efficiency of processes and machine tools
• Development of the total evaluation concept for the key technologies and innovations of the project
• Development new market need models using open source software algorithms for the definition of the production scenarios in the Meta-CAM tool software
• Development of process simulation models for the calculation of the energy efficiency of various conventional and non conventional processes
• Development of machine tool “green” assessment method
• Development and experimental verification of the intelligent monitoring system and its integration in the various software used by SMEs and OEMs of monitoring system
• Definition of strategy for the energy efficient planning
• Definition of the architecture and interfaces of the meta-CAM system
• Collection and organization of developed process models integrated with the corresponding production machines
• Development of a multi-optimization methodology followed in Meta-CAM tool in order to produce an optimized production schedule.
• Assessment of state of the art on methods for energy efficiency optimization based on production line level.
• Development and classification of Meta-CAM tool modules
• Presentation of instruction on installing Meta-CAM and all software required for the tool to function properly and tool features
• Development of the methods and technologies used in connecting the monitoring system with Meta-CAM tool
• Development of monitoring systems
• Description of the final outcome of ENEPLAN project considering the development of monitoring systems that support Meta-CAM tool.
• Demonstration of projects results after applying Meta-CAM tool in automotive pilot case.
• Demonstration of projects results after applying Meta-CAM tool in aeronautics pilot case.
• Demonstration of projects results after applying Meta-CAM tool in domestic appliances pilot case.
• Demonstration of the Meta-CAM tool capabilities, extensions, limitations and future ideas
• Presentation of the dissemination activities of the ENEPLAN project
• Development of a plan with the exploitation activities of the ENEPLAN project
• Integration of the ENEPLAN technologies in the industry’s working practices
• Development of a report with the exploitation activities and roles regarding the commercial exploitation of the project's results including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
• Development and analysis of a structured training activity plan of Meta-CAM tool
• Development the final version of Meta-CAM tool
Project Results:
The ENEPLAN project is finished and all goals set for this 2nd and final period have been achieved. Three business cases have been defined one in the automotive sector, one in the household sector and one in the aeronautics sector. These business cases have been adequately studied and refined. Several alternatives production plans for all three of them have been proposed and used as tests in simulation for the final software development and the evaluation of the tool. At the final stage of the project, the Meta-CAM tool applied to them for the physical run.
The specifications and requirements for the Meta-CAM tool have been defined. Based on them, the architecture and the interfaces for the Meta-CAM tool software have been designed. A modular approach has been adapted. Each of the modules required a series of scientific and software tools to be developed.
A very important part of the Meta-CAM tool was the simulation modules. The research required for those parts was one of the most challenging parts of the project. Considerable research on the current state of energy and eco-efficiency of processes and machine tools was performed. Based on this research a series of process simulation models of the conventional and non-conventional processes involved in ENEPLAN business cases was developed. The aforementioned models were focusing on energy and eco-efficiency aspects of the manufacturing processes that are not widely studied in the literature.
Another important part of the Meta-CAM architecture was the real-time interaction and evolution of its modules based on information coming from a monitoring system. For the purpose of the project, several monitoring systems were developed and experimentally verified.
The most-complicated module of the Meta-CAM tool if the so called “high” level Meta-CAM tool which is responsible for the decisions related to production planning of the whole production line, but also for the control of each one of the processes. This module needs input from all the aforementioned simulators and moreover, as the project is not academic but targets to physical application in the industry, the market demand associated with the considered products. For this purpose new market needs models for the definition of the production scenarios in the Meta-CAM tool software have been developed.
The “high” level Meta-CAM tool has a complicated structure containing many elements. This module, as well as models and algorithms for deriving alternative process plans, optimization algorithms for the production planning and multi-objective optimization (MOO) of the production planning towards energy efficiency and environmental impact have been developed.
In addition to the following, a complete exploitation plan for each partner after has been designed. Additionally, a complete dissemination plan has been followed and produced several scientific publications and other important dissemination activities.
Finally the total evaluation concept for the key technologies and innovations of the project has been designed and decided and the ENEPLAN KPIs have been selected.
In addition to the following a first exploitation plan for each partner and a first dissemination plan have been designed and more than four scientific publications and other important dissemination activities have taken place.
Potential Impact:
The impact of the final results of the project proved to be considerable. The meta-CAM tool that developed for the optimization of the plant operations could be enabled to be employed from the conceptual phase of the product (final blueprints) to the final dispatch of the product to the customer. The optimization lie to the best compromise between energy and cost efficiency. Following this approach, i.e. selecting the most appropriate process for a certain product, the competitiveness and sustainability of these processes proved to be significantly increased.
ENEPLAN aimed at reducing the global resources consumption, in particular energy usage, more than 20%, by developing methods for the on-line (or short-time) configuration of the manufacturing system for a specific workpiece, in order to obtain maximum productivity with less resources. Based on the results of the project, this fact is solidly demonstrated ENEPLAN project achieved the promised objectives and in most cases Meta-CAM tool managed to overachieve the project objectives, proving the success of the final built tool.
ENEPLAN disseminated to automotive, aeronautics and domestic appliances as well as other industry markets innovative environmental technologies related to energy efficient production planning. The industries involved in ENEPLAN are related to several SMEs, and as end-users of innovative environmental technologies passed and will pass in the future, this know-how to their suppliers and related SMEs aiding at increasing competitiveness and employment opportunities.
ENEPLAN aimed at strong contribution to EU policies related to scientific, technical, economic and social factors. ENEPLAN enforced the implementation of the innovation policy towards bringing into industrial practice cutting edge technology that may be available but has not been possible to apply yet. This innovation policy can increase the competitiveness of European automotive and related industry as providing also employment and economic factors. Moreover, ENEPLAN in order to straighten social factors proved that can move towards EU action against climate change through the Meta-CAM it developed for energy efficient production planning. ENEPLAN envisages having a strong contribution towards international standards (ISO, SAE, etc) as providing guidelines, new practices and innovative manufacturing solutions for energy efficient production planning.
Major dissemination activities:
Clustering with other EU projects
Project Name Cooperation Webpage link
EM2 FACTORY • Knowledge
• Simulation
• Factory design http://www.emc2-factory.eu/en/home
ENEPLAN • Management
• Modelling
• Monitoring http://www.eneplan.eu/
REFORM •Production
•Simulation http://reform.eu.com/
KAP •KPIs
• Strategy towards higher
energy efficiency achievements http://www.kap-project.eu
AREUS • Modelling http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/108857_en.html
AREUS, ENEPLAN, EMC2 factory and Reform worked together in order to:
•Avoid repetition and reduce workload
•Work together to obtain specific goals
•Share information – access to expertise
•Have different POVs on similar processes
•Wider audience for results
For this reason two events promoting clustering have taken place until now. The first was a workshop held on March 2013 at Brussels and its scope was to exchange ideas regarding PPIs management and structuring of PPIs with EU funded project KAP. Then, on October 2013 a clustering event with a detailed agenda took place in AMRC Sheffield focussing on promoting agreements among projects for specific development which are of common interest.
These clustering activities are helping the projects towards accelerating needed time for common developments, improve the quality of results and follow new and more advanced communication and “selling” methods. Additionally joint publications and guidelines for energy and eco-efficiency may be produced, affecting and accessing on the same time, a wider community.
Three physical meeting took place.
1.Clustering meeting at AMRC (Sheffield, England, 15 OCT 2013): First clustering meeting
2.Industrial Technologies conference 2014 (Athens, Greece, 9-11 APR 2014): Clustering booth
3.Politecnico di Milano Eco-Clustering : (Milan, Italy, 8 MAY 2014) Presentation of cluster and each project
4.TPA Italia 2014 (Milan, Italy, 9 MAY 2014) : Clustering booth and presentation of cluster and each project
Dissemination towards scientific community (Authors/Date/Title/Location)
-PRIMA, LMS/ Sep 2012/ Energy Efficient Process planning System – the ENEPLAN Project/ APMS 2012: International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems
-LMS, PRIMA/ Oct 2012/ A process planning system for energy efficiency/ MITIP 2012: 14th International Conference on Modern Information Technology in the Innovation Processes of the Industrial Enterprises
-LMS/May 2013/Energy Efficiency of Manufacturing Processes: A Critical Review/ 46th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems 2013
-CNR-ITIA/ June 2013/ Energy Driven Process Planning and Machine Tool Dynamic Behaviour Assessment/ 2nd CIRP Web Conference - Beyond Modern Manufacturing: Technology of the Factory of the Future
-CNR-ITIA/ Nov 2013/Machine tool energy analysis in general milling operations/ANIPLA Motion Control 2013 Conference, Milano, Italy
-IDEKO, AMRC, LMS, TEKS, VTT/ Apr 2013/ Specific method for the life cycle inventory of machine tools and its demonstration with two manufacturing case studies/ UCIMA, Baggiovara, Bologna
-LMS/ March 2014/ An Approach to Modelling Evaporation Laser Pulsed Drilling and its Energy Efficiency/ International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
-IDEKO, AMRC, LMS, TEKS, VTT/ May 2014/ Specific method for the life cycle inventory of machine tools and its demonstration with two manufacturing case studies/ Journal of Cleaner Production
-LMS/ May 2014/ On a Generalised Approach to Manufacturing Energy Efficiency/ International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
-LMS/ Sep 2014/ An Approach to Increase Energy Efficiency Using Shutdown and Standby Machine Modes/ APMS 2014: International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems
-LMS/ Under review / Handling Production data Using a Manufacturing Indicators’ Semantic Mode/ International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing
-LMS/ Under Development/ Weather Forecasting and its Influence in Manufacturing Energy Efficiency N/A
-LMS/ Under Development/ On the Energy Consumption of the Robot Motions N/A
Dissemination towards academic and engineering communities
Workshops within ENEPLAN's activities (Responsible/ Date/ Title/ Location/Description)
-PRIMA LMS/ 24-25 Mar 2014/ Impact of the Factories of the Future PPP/ Brussels/ Exchange of Ideas regarding PPIs management and structuring of PPIs with other EU funded project of the green manufacturing cluster
-VTT/ Feb 2014/ Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies/ Helsinki/ Workshop/seminar where VTT will present their activities to Finnish industry. The topic is sustainable manufacturing technologies and ENEPLAN has a vital role in the seminar.
-PRIMA LMS/ 12-14 June 2013/ Imagine FoF2020 - Factories of the Future towards Horizon 2020/ Geneva/ The Joint Dissemination Conference FoF-H2020 firstly addresses the European companies who are currently involved in research in the domain of manufacturing under the aegis of the FP7 PPP programme.
-IDEKO, ITIA/ 19 Mar 2013/ Energy Efficiency in Machine Tools/ UCIMU, Cinisello Balsamo, Milano/ Presentation at a workshop on eco-friendliness and energy saving in the machine tool field, organized by UCIMU, the Italian Association of Machine Tools and Robot Builders
-PRIMA LMS/ 11-12 Mar 2013/ Impact of the Factories of the Future PPP/ Brussels/ Exchange of Ideas regarding PPIs management and structuring of PPIs with EU funded project KAP
-IDEKO, ITIA/ 8 Nov 2012/ Energy Efficiency in Production Machinery/ UCIMA, Baggiovara, Bologna/ Presentation at a workshop on eco-friendliness and energy saving in the field of production machinery, organized by UCIMA, the Italian Association of Automatic Packaging Machines
GORENJE/ September 2012/ Internal workshop/ Gorenje Orodjarna Slovenia/ Internal workshop in Gorenje Orodjarna for disseminating interim results
ENEPLAN's events (Responsible/ Date/ Title/ Location/ Description)
-GORENJE/ 16-19 Apr 2013/ FormaTool 2013/ Celje Showground Celje, Slovenia/ Presentation during event, leaflets and poster.
-GORENJE/ Jun 2014/ Industrial Forum IRT 3000/ Portoroz, Slovenia/ Presentation and technical article of project ENEPLAN
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Forum: Advanced Manufacturing Forum on Unconventional Machining / AMRC/ Forum for local businesses on different areas of manufacturing. The event on 29 Jan was on unconventional manufacturing and the research being carried out in this area (including ENEPLAN) was highlighted.
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Waterjet Open Day/ AMRC/ Open day at the AMRC to discuss the new waterjet capabilities and associated research
-GORENJE/ Oct 2012/ Hannover 2012 trade fair / Hannover Germany/ Trade fair during which leaflets were given away and posters and presentations were made.
-AMRC, TEKS/ Oct 2012/ School event: Make. Innovate. Create/ AMRC/ Training Centre Rotherham Event to encourage 14-16 year-old pupils into engineering, encouraging them to think about the energy-implications of different manufacturing technologies
Project's news releases / website references (Responsible /Date /Title /Media /Description)
-AMRC /Nov 2011 /FP7 projects on AMRC website http://www.amrc.co.uk/research/support/european-projects// Link on AMRC Research projects webpage
-CADCAMation/ Dec 2012/ Energy Efficient Process planning System – the ENEPLAN Project/ Club Suisse de la Presse
Route de Ferney 106 CH-1202 Geneva /Press release submitted to Club Suisse de la Presse during the ENEPLAN consortium meeting
-IDEKO/ Feb 2012/ News: IK4-Ideko trabaja en la simulación y modelado de procesos/ http://www.izaro.com/contenidos/ver.php?id=es&se=2&su=22&co=1329406276 News
-IDEKO/ Feb 2012/ IdekoNews http://www.ideko.es/news/ Several ENEPLAN project related News
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Showcase for waterjet capabilities AMRC website and selected journalists Press release and website info for waterjet open day
-AMRC/ Jan 2013/ Waterjet Open Day AMRC website/ Outreach
-AMRC/ Feb 2013/ Wardjet Showcases Waterjet Capabilities/ Composites today http://www.compositestoday.com/2013/02/wardjet-showcases-waterjet-capabilities/ Report in composites today on waterjet open day, mentioning research in ENEPLAN into environmental manufacture of components
-IDEKO/ Feb. 2013/ Standardization: ISO committee 14955 meeting: machine tools, energy efficiency, standardization /http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development/list_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_technical_committee.htm?commid=48354/ Preparation of ISO Standard 14955: Energy-saving design of machine tools
-AMRC/ Mar 2013/ Quick links of REFORM website /http://reform.eu.com/ A clustering page is planned
-AMRC/ May 2013/ Article on ENEPLAN case study /http://www.amrc.co.uk/featuredstudy/eneplan/ An article published on AMRC website about the application of project’s results on Newburgh.
-LMS/ July 2013/ Published article in Modern Technical Review Magazine http://www.technicalreview.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1958 An article published by Modern Technical Review magazine describing the goals of the project and the way that they will be achieved.
-GORENJE/ Oct 2014/ Article in GIB - An article published in Gorenje Internal Bulletin that will present project’s results along with exploitation and dissemination activities.
-IDEKO/ Jun. 2014/ Standardization: ISO committee 14955 meeting: machine tools, energy efficiency, standardization http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development/list_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_technical_committee.htm?commid=48354 Preparation of ISO Standard 14955: Energy-saving design of machine tools
-VTT/ End of 2014/ Common summary of Projects - Common summary of four EU-projects concerning eco-efficient manufacturing. Projects are: EPES, SustainValue, Euroenergest and ENEPLAN
Main exploitation strategy
The overall objective of the exploitation of the ENEPLAN project is the commercialization of the ENEPLAN Meta-CAM tool. To take the ENEPLAN tool to the market, further investment on the platform and on the ENEPLAN methodology will be needed. It is foreseen that, based on the project exploitable results, a new business (a joint venture with ICT vendors, RTDs and other interested partners) will be established to provide services for the set-up, installation and maintenance of the ENEPLAN platform in industrial applications.
It is foreseen that, during the project activities, some of the platform components can be exploited as independent products from Meta-CAM (e.g. machine monitoring, energetic milling machine simulator, etc.). The first step to achieve that is to define a list of results that makes more clear how and who will benefit from using parts of MetaCAM. Then, investigation of the risks will be made so that exploitable results will profit the final user
After the end of the project a number of models, techniques and tool will be ready to be used either as a whole or in parts. A list with brief description of what the final user of ENEPLAN’s outcome can use to benefit from is as follows:
Meta-CAM tool
It is the main outcome of ENEPLAN project that will be directly used on real production line scenarios. However, this tool is based on a number of technologies, theoretical models and modules which can be used and will be exploited separately. Modularity of the Meta-CAM tool was also discussed during ESS seminar and possible independent uses of tool’s parts were analysed. The exploitable results are listed below.
Process and production planning
It is the main module of MetaCAM tool that performs alternative formation, simulation and evaluation. Combined with the appropriate interfaces it can be used in a variety of applications and can be combined with other modules that will serve as input to the simulation process. It is also the module that contains implementation of all optimisation algorithms
Process alternatives
Process and production planning will be based on a repository of alternative ways to perform a process (ex. Laser cutting or Punching) The data of this repository can be used as a guide for altering a production line or usage in other tools or projects.
“Green” assessment method
The machine tool “green” assessment method provides a new procedure, which improves the transparency and consistency of the life cycle inventory phase (LCI) for machine tools. This method can be used independently to assess a list of production lines and enable the user to compare several factors affecting their environmental impact.
Process monitoring
Systems of monitoring every process and interfaces through which acquired data will be fed to low level process algorithms will be developed. In the project several monitoring techniques will be used and wherever needed enhanced or developed. An attempt of a generic monitoring system will be done and finally it can be a standard way for building monitoring systems which need to be connected with a decision planning tool.
Process simulation algorithms (models for energy efficiency calculation)
These algorithms can be used for performing calculations on a process or simulating specific processes by examining process characteristics based on different input parameters. They can be used in other projects related to energy efficiency or even enhanced to better describe a specific manufacturing process.
Theoretical model adaptation
Acquiring experimental data from processes will be done in order to adapt theoretical models into a hybrid new model, which will describe more accurately the production line. As a result, methods for adapting the theoretical model will be developed. Thus, as process simulation algorithms are applicable in other projects or tools, in the same way adaptation of such models will be useful for integration of these theoretical models to real production lines.
Production performance indicators (PPI)
MetaCAM tool will evaluate the given production line and will display its results based on specific KPIs. These KPIs can be used in energy efficiency or environmental impact related methods or tools.
Finally, the knowledge gained during the project can be also exploited as background for future RTD activities related to product development and CAM-CAPP and for the provision of consultancy services/training.
Exploitation focuses on transferring the ENEPLAN project results to the lead users by means of identifying and establishing the most effective strategy of utilization of project results linking the project results, the respective lead users, and the transfer processes together. The first step was to identify which aspects of the ENEPLAN project results are important regarding the exploitation plan of the ENEPLAN project.
Even though business cases are about three specific production lines, the developed tool and technologies can be used in any production line. This means that industry can benefit from Meta-CAM tool by assessing every production line and use the tool as a guide for better tuning of the line towards energy efficiency or as a guide for changing the general production plan. The development of tool requires the development of modules and use of technologies that can be individually exploited.
List of Websites:
http://www.eneplan.eu