Summary and Objectives

Green APS aims at bringing an AI-supported Energy Management Systems integrated to an Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solution to the market, thus reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint of manufacturing companies, by analyzing energy offer, demand and consumption variables.

Green APS will deliver a flexible, energy efficient APS system that maximizes on time delivery and production capacity. 

Challenges

• - Industrial companies often neglect energy availability and costs variables when they schedule their production
• - It is necessary to optimize the processes – produce more using less energy – reducing overall costs and contributing to a greener economy

Green APS Solution

• - Integrates the company’s energy management systems and production scheduling
• - Analyzes the energy consumption behavior of components and production processes
•  - Incorporates an AI-supported optimization model for green operations planning and scheduling, based on the analysis of (renewable) energy availability, cost, consumption patterns and operational issues
• - Encompasses four manufacturing levels - process, machine, production line and factory through two main axes:
• - Flexibility allowing the incorporation of new constraints and new objectives without implying structural changes to the algorithms;
• - Natural Multi-Objective Extensions, working with various solutions, that allow multiple searches in parallel and explore different areas of the efficient border.
• - Delivers energy efficient optimized production plans

Industrial Pilots

Green APS will demonstrate its benefits through two use cases in the metal parts industry

• - Parallel furnace operations
• - Engineering to order one-of-a-kind parts manufacturing

Scientific/innovation results

• - The Green APS System will combine heuristic and AI-based methods to deploy an energy-efficient production system
• - A new methodology will be developed to quickly integrate Energy Consumption Data, AI Models and Advanced Planning & Scheduling techniques

Impact

• - Assure service levels while reducing energy consumption for energy-intensive manufacturing processes and other processes that rely on high quantity, quality products with low margins.
• - The Green APS will be integrated to the pilot’s Information System, resulting in a solution embedded to the company’s manufacturing planner

Partners