Development of the Energy-smart Production Management system (e-ProMan): A Big Data driven approach, analysis and optimisation

Given the challenges in increasing energy prices and environmental issues, energy efficiency is becoming a major concern in manufacturing industries. To reduce energy consumption, manufacturing operations need to develop energy efficient techniques. This development will also help reduce GHG emissions and production costs. The aim of this research is to create a simulation methodology and investigate the modelling of thermal and energy management (called e-ProMan) across the manufacturing site. By using simulations, the “e-ProMan” system generates a real-time, virtual, user-friendly factory model. A “Big Data” approach is taken in which a large set of data is acquired from both inside and outside the factory in order to analyse the correlation between work flow, data flow and energy flow to provide real-time decision making. In particular, five data sources are gathered including weather forecast, temperature and humidity sensors, machine energy consumption and production process and scheduling. The “e-ProMan” system is specifically designed to suit manufacturing operations of small and medium sizes to complement limited budget and lower resources especially in data gathering infrastructures.