Real time energy consumption analysis for manufacturing systems using integrative virtual and discrete event simulation

Manufacturing companies need greater capabilities to respond quicker to market dynamics and varying demands. Paradigms such as mass customization, global manufacturing operations and competition provide a platform to meet these needs. Therefore a continuous restructuring and re-engineering of the processes is seen in the manufacturing industries. This is extremely important in cases when automated machines are used in production. Automotive industry is an example of having intensive use of automated processes. During the reengineering of the processes it must be focused to control the factors which add cost during the processes. Energy is one of the important parameter which acts continuously over the process and increases the product price. Therefore, this paper proposes to validate the processes for energy optimization during the design stages well before, to physically build a machine. This could be done by using virtual environment and discrete event simulation integration. The pilot study of an ongoing research has been carried out to identify the level of energy consumption in a case study along with the identification of information to be used in the virtual tool prior to build the models. The adopted approach would propose to identify the processes to keep them off if consuming energy even in idle states. It could be identify through simulation that which one is the energy intensive process when they are idle, and then try it for the option, to keep it off when not working. Utilizing less energy in production helps society to have low cost products as well as to maintain the sustainable resources over a long period of time. KeywordsVirtual Engineering (VE); Discrete Event Simulation (DES); Energy Consumptions; Real times Process; Integration