Peter Schuderer

Green Controlling – Ressourcenorientierte Steuerung von Unternehmen

Kurzfassung Der erste Schritt zur Hebung von Energieeinsparpotenzialen ist das Aufdecken unnötiger Verbräuche. Folglich ist es notwendig, den Unternehmen ein Werkzeug an die Hand zu geben, mittels dessen die Energieströme im Produktionsprozess transparent gemacht und visualisiert werden können. Hierzu bietet die Green Controlling-Methodik einen ganzheitlichen Lösungsansatz, indem sie Energie als vierte Hauptzielgröße – neben Zeit, Kosten und Qualität – in die Unternehmensführung aufnimmt und so dem gewichtigen Stellenwert dieser Größe gerecht wird.

Energieverbräuche in der Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung

Kurzfassung Steigende Energiepreise führen insbesondere in preissensitiven und energieintensiven Branchen zu einem differenzierteren Umgang mit Energieverbräuchen. Durch den Einsatz von Energiemanagementsystemen gewinnen Unternehmen immer mehr Transparenz über ihre Energieverbräuche. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt Potenziale, wie diese Transparenz auch im Rahmen der Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung genutzt und dadurch die Bewertung der Wirtschaftlichkeit der hergestellten Produkte präziser gestaltet werden kann.

Simulation-Based Optimization of the Energy Consumption in the Hardening Process for Calcium Silicate Masonry Units

Owing to a high cost pressure and the need for a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions for manufacturing calcium silicate masonry units (CS), the CS-industry strives to cut the energy consumption. The most energy consuming process step is the autoclaving. About 87% of the energy is required for this particular process step, where the green bodies are steam-hardened at 200°C.For reducing the energy consumption, most of the alternatives aim at optimizing the complete manufacturing process. In this paper, the focus is put on an optimized loading process for the autoclaves, in consideration of preceding and subsequent process steps. For this purpose, a simulation model is developed, where different strategies of loading are implemented and tested. This model can be used to find optimally scheduled assignments of production orders to the available autoclaves, based on the volume of each manufactured product.The analysis of the tested strategies shows, that it is possible to save up to almost 9 % of the required energy for autoclaving by an optimized assignment of the available autoclaves.

Energy Controlling - Analysis and Evaluation of Energy Measuring Equipment for the Purpose of Energy Transparency in Production Plants

This paper addresses the analysis and evaluation of energy measuring devices for the operation in the manufacturing industry. The focus lies on the comparison and scoring of energy meters regarding their performance spectrum against the backdrop of an energy controlling. Based on the fundamentals of electro technical metrology, the main measurement parameters were identified which are necessary for the purpose in the manufacturing industry. Further, capability characteristics for the differentiation of electricity meters were defined. With this, a classification of meters into a basic, a standard, an advanced and a premium class was undertaken. It is shown, that the advanced class is sufficient for the permanent monitoring of electricity consumption in the lights of energy controlling.

Defining Batches under Consideration of Quality-Related Factors for Improved Failure and Scrap Analysis

In order to satisfy upcoming needs for detailed traceability of products, components and manufacturing conditions, identification of every part is required. As for bulk goods applied marks are generally not appropriable due to variable costs, aggregation of individual parts manufactured under similar conditions to batches is carried out and these batches are identified and linked to information for tracking and tracing. Currently there is no standard for dividing bulk goods into batches. Hence, there are varying, company-specific approaches regarding rules for batch segregation and batch number definition. Thereby, transparency for subsequent stages of the supply chain is almost non-existent.In this paper we developed a method for batch segregation and number definition considering quality-related impacts. By identifying relevant influences and associated characteristics affecting events, basic parameters regarding segregation of batches can be found. As, especially in the automotive industry, FMEA and similar tools already are required, deriving this information is possible at low effort. Based on the factors identified, a meaningful batch ID may be generated including information on changes in particular parameters by encoding each parameter into the ID. While the overall objective should be outright informational transparency, sharing manufacturing data is not realistic in the short term. Therefore, our approach increases information sharing between members of the supply chain whilst protecting manufacturing know-how.The proposed systematic for batch IDs is supposed to enable subsequent participants in the supply chain to identify failure and scrap causes by communicating meaningful ID including relevant parameters. Hence, data analysis should be able to track down issues to changes in the manufacturing process at the supplier much faster and at lower effort than before. Additionally this may be a first step to pro-actively identify expectable quality issues due to information given in the ID and knowledge about correlation between different components and conditions with automated algorithms or some sort of artificial intelligence.

Heuristical Solution for Scheduling Single Stage Parallel Machines Production of Calcium Silicate Masonry Units with Sequence-Dependent Changeover Times to Improve Energy Efficiency

Determination of optimal production schedules is a complex combinatorial task and may be dependent on various objectives. Hence, many mathematical problem formulations and solving strategies have already been proposed each considering individually constrained applications in order to minimize non-value-adding times or other cost driving factors. Nevertheless, obtaining optimal solutions is still related to extensive computational resources and time efforts.As a result, heuristical approaches or combinations of heuristics and exact algorithms are of major importance when it comes to automatically creating optimal production schedules. Considering the manufacturing of calcium silicate masonry units (CS), this paper describes an advancement for the General Lot-Sizing Problem (GLSP) in order to allow sequence-dependent changeovers as well as multiple different machines and backlogging (GLSPPLB). For solving the GLSPPLB, a heuristical algorithm consisting of neighborhood search and threshold accepting techniques was implemented. To validate the results of the heuristic and compare required computational resources to accurate mathematical solvers, a test set of a realistic scenario has been used.The developed heuristic is able to create nearly optimal production schedules and thereby minimizing the trade off between energy demand regarding idle times of production machinery and stocks. It is transferable to every discrete single stage production with similar constraints and can be used as an input for further simulations to improve energy consumption.

Efficient Method for Optimizing Calcium Silicate Masonry Unit Manufacturing Using Simulation-Based Optimization and Decomposition

This paper describes an overall, simulation-based optimization approach to control plant operations for manufacturing calcium silicate masonry units (CS), which is directed towards and thus immediately applicable to practical processes. Starting from an investigation and classification of the CS production in order to differentiate the properties of each sub-process, specific target criteria are derived. To enable the influencing of these targets, relevant parameters including their mutual interdependencies are identified. On this basis, the criticality of each process step is assessed in order to determine improvement potentials and to investigate possible adjustments to the parameters.The elementary production types indicate a mix of the discontinuous and continuous processing in CS plants. Particularly, this work shows that through interrupting the continuous material flow, the hardening process is the main criteria for a plant’s success in meeting its targets, especially concerning energy efficiency. To achieve a feasible approach, the work develops a solving method geared to an optimized hardening process.Therefore, a formulation of a measureable target system is established, which is the prerequisite for modeling the whole optimization problem. An expedient decomposition of this optimization model to smaller sub-problems provides an efficient solving of these complex job-scheduling problems, in order to direct the method towards an operative use. The paper concludes with the determination of potential solving procedures for the overall problem and appropriate algorithms for solving the sub-problems.

A Method and a Software-Tool for Comparing Inbound Logistics Systems in Respect of Energy Consumption

This article introduces a method and a software-tool for comparing inbound logistics systems in respect of energy consumption. In the field of green logistics numerous methods are already existing, but mostly they focus either on the evaluation of the energy consumption of single logistics components or the improvement of the energy efficiency of logistics processes. There is no hands-on solution which can be used in the rough planning phase of logistics projects to evaluate and compare whole system configurations. With the new method we try to fill this gap by integrating existing methods to a holistic approach. It comprises three steps: “identification”, “quantification” and “aggregation and comparison”. In the identification step every system variant will be divided into subsystems and components by using a hierarchical representation. Quantification means to determine the energy consumption of every component by using physical models or reference values. In the last step the resulting energy values will be summed up to an overall figure which can be used to compare multiple system variants. The Sofware-Tool E|stimate is for the part automation of the calculation method. It comprises a component for transport logistics, one for intralogistics and one for the analysis of the aggregated consumption. In summary, the new method and software-tool enables practitioners to compare inbound logistics system variants quickly with sufficient precision. Because of its ease of application, it contributes to implement the concept of sustainability in daily business.

Logistical Integration of Smart Homes for Automated Consumer Goods Supply Based on Smart Refrigerators

Supply with daily consumer goods is a time consuming and quite inefficient task. Furthermore, some people may be dependent on caregivers resulting in additional costs. Hence, it offers opportunities for developing e-commerce solutions in order to enable customers to use otherwise wasted time for replenishment of their private food stocks more efficiently. Although, some digital stores for consumer goods have evolved recently, still only a small part of total sales, especially in food retail, is realized online. Due to inappropriate packaging there still are problems with the quality of fresh products. Also, current solutions for depositing parcels if the customer is absent are not suitable for fresh or cooled goods. Therefore, we show state of the art and developments necessary to establish the logistical integration and thereby enabling automated consumer goods supply in smart home environments. As smart appliances are playing an important role for enabling the automation, our focus is set on such hardware. To demonstrate customer acceptance of smart stocks in their private households, market research has been performed on smart refrigerators in place for every conceivable appliance capable of capturing consumer goods. Our results prove that especially younger generations are very interested in and willing to pay for intelligent appliances.

Integrated Energy-Controlling in Industrial Value Chains

The energy efficient production of goods can only be used as a unique selling proposition, if reliable values for the energy consumption, caused by production and transportation, are determinable. Furthermore, the customer must be able to compare these values for different products. Using a consistent and standardized methodology for calculating these values along the value chain, this comparability can be achieved. Providing this information, as potentially required by the end customer or by law, the penetration of this methodology could be achieved, while obviously the comparably more energy efficiently produced goods would be more attractive for the (end) customer. Consequently, an incentive system would emerge, which motivates the companies to improve their energy efficiency throughout the complete value chain. The following paper presents the above-mentioned methodology along with a unified scheme for allocating the energy consumption of the production to products.