Key variable analysis and identification on energy consumption of automotive manufacturing plant

Energy consumption during the process of automotive vehicle production has seen increasing attention with a current world focus on sustainability. Energy analysis helps researchers better understand life cycle energy consumption of vehicles, and assists manufacturers to set effective energy conservation goals. Previous studies have been focusing on the machine-level energy modeling and analysis, but higher-level energy characteristics are less well understood. In particular, the investigation of influential variables on plant level energy consumption is believed to be essential, but previous studies have proved insufficient. This paper is intended to analyze and identify the key variables in plant level energy consumption of an automotive manufacturing plant. In this paper, the authors summarize three main categories of key variables, and provide guidance for further plant and higher level energy modeling and conservation.