The European countries are facing unprecedented challenges resulting from increased dependence on energy imports and scarce energy resources, and the need to limit climate change and overcome the economic crisis. The continuous increase in energy efficiency, supported by innovations, is a valuable means to address these challenges. Improving industrial energy efficiency at the European Manufacturing level requires the integration of energy data, such as historical data, real-time data and real-time predicted energy cost, into the production management systems based on the given and individual industrial task. In parallel, manufacturing systems are complex systems since many parameters, related to the environment, usage of materials, components, machines, cells, lines and supply chains, collectively influence the energy as well as the sustainability performance of production processes.
E2COMATION project takes up and addresses these challenges providing solutions that can support industrial energy efficiency. The approach results in a new paradigm shift towards concuurent and holistic optimisation of energy usage at multiple hierarchical layers of the manufacturing process and considering the whole life-cycle perspective. The framework developed within the project operates from the field level by collecting information and data to the factory level by managing and optimising the production.
The project overall objectives which have been achieved by the Project are:
- Holistic analysis of energy-related data streams for production performance forecasting;
- Life-cycle conceptual paradigm applied to digital twinning of factory assets;
- Factory-level integrated multi-objective optimization architecture;
- Modular and scalable automation platform for distributed monitoring and supervision;
- Comprehensive simulation environment enhanced with energy and environmental performance;
- Energy Aware Planning and Scheduling tool (EAP&S) and Process Control (EAPC);
- Life Cycle Assessment and Costing tool (LCAC) integrated in a company Decision Support System;
- Sustainable Computer Aided Process Planning (s-CAPP);
- LCA-driven supply chain management (SCM) and business ecosystem.
