Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Customised Advisory Services for Energy-efficient Manufacturing Systems

Final Report Summary - CASES (Customised Advisory Services for Energy-efficient Manufacturing Systems)

Project brief descriptions:
CASES is an initiative funded by European Union to develop sustainable manufacturing technologies via knowledge exchange and integration programmes among EU, China and Ukraine. Experts and young researchers in ICT, manufacturing, design and engineering from EU, China and Ukraine form a consortium to collaborate to develop new methodologies, algorithms and case studies in eco-design,sustainable manufacturing process management and cloud-enabled sustainable manufacturing knowledge sharing platform.

The objectives of the CASES project include:
• To establish an active international community and effective communication channel for research teams from various regions of EU, China and Ukraine to collaborate in the research area of sustainable manufacturing management.
• To integrate the complementary expertise of international teams to devise ICT-based technical solutions to address the multi-faceted requirements of globally sustainable manufacturing management.
• To leverage the geographical characteristics of the teams for research evaluation, improvement and dissemination.
• To design knowledge exchange programmes to provide training to young researchers to improve research skills.

Works performed and socio-economic impact generated:
• People training - 72 researchers participated in 145.07 person-month secondment programmes of the project for knowledge sharing and integration. Among them, over 90% are junior researchers. In this project, systematic training programmes, including knowledge transfer presentation, conference attendance and presentation, industrial visits, experimental design, etc., were developed to nurture young researchers to develop their research skills.
• Scientific development – methodologies, algorithms, software prototypes and case studies on cloud-enabled sustainable manufacturing were developed. The research was presented in 1 edited book published by Springer, 2 book chapters in other Springer books, 14 international journal papers and 8 international conference papers. The book is the first book published in the area of cloud manufacturing internationally, and among top 20% the most downloaded e-book in Springer in 2014 and 2015.
• Other scientific impacts – 6 special session/workshops in international conferences were organized for project outcome dissemination.
• Environmental impact – case studies were collected from 3 companies in China, Ukraine and UK organized by NUAA, NMAU and COVUNI for research requirement analysis and research validation. Industrial trials of the developed systems in the companies are ongoing and experiments on energy saving in the companies will continue after the completion of the project.

Main results achieved so far:
• Knowledge sharing and Transferring
Knowledge on sustainable manufacturing management and the key issues identified are shared and transferred with other partners and with major stakeholders such as academia and industry.
• Knowledge enhancement and documentation
Enhanced understanding of the status of the sustainable manufacturing management technology as well as strategies and best practice was achieved via the literature survey, questionnaires, case studies and industrial visits. The resultant papers and reports permitted clear and accurate documentation of these findings.
• Research development and integration
Life cycle thinking and methods were integrated into sustainable manufacturing management. New methodologies, algorithms and case studies in eco-design,sustainable manufacturing process management and cloud-enabled sustainable manufacturing knowledge sharing platform were developed.

Contact Details
Dr Weidong Li, Professor of Manufacturing
Coordinator of CASES project
Institute of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing
Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
Email: weidong.li@coventry.ac.uk
Tel: +44 7557425332