Energy-Efficient Production Systems Through Schedule-Based Operations

Control of production operations is considered as one of the most economical methods to improve energy efficiency in manufacturing systems. This paper investigates energy consumption reduction in production systems through effective scheduling of machine startup and shutdown. Specifically, we consider serial production lines with finite buffers and machines having Bernoulli reliability model. This machine reliability model is applicable in production situations, where the downtime is relatively short and comparable to machine cycle time (e.g., automotive paint shops and general assembly). In this paper, using transient analysis of the systems at hand, an analytical performance evaluation technique is developed for Bernoulli serial lines with time-dependent machine efficiencies. In addition, tradeoff between productivity and energy-efficiency in production systems is discussed and the energy-efficient production problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem. The effects and practical implications of operations schedule are demonstrated using a numerical study on automotive paint shop operations. Note to Practitioners - This paper develops an effective analytical tool to evaluate the performance of production systems with time-varying parameters of machine reliability. Using this tool, production engineers and managers can predict the performance of the production systems in real-time with high accuracy. In addition, based on this tool, production operators can determine the machine startup and shutdown schedule based on the current status of the line and production requirement. Numerical experiments show that significant energy savings can be obtained by applying effective machine operations schedule.