An eco-improvement methodology for reduction of product embodied energy in discrete manufacturing

Abstract

There is an increasing awareness of global warming due to excessive greenhouse gas emissions and need to decrease the adverse effects of production on environment. It is known that greenhouse gasses are mainly originated from the fossil fuel combustion for electrical energy generation. This paper proposes an eco-improvement methodology for minimizing the product embodied energy by decreasing the electrical energy dependence of production. The methodology involves generation of STEP based process plan resulting in minimum embodied energy and simulation models enabling what-if analyses. The proposed eco-improvement methodology will be implemented in refrigerator compressor plant of Arçelik A.Ş., aiming at assessment and reduction of energy consumption in discrete manufacturing.