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In the last decade, energy consumption has significantly risen within the manufacturing industry. This issue has not only considerably increased energy costs but has also posed an environmental concern among society. Consequently, many researchers have designed and developed methods so as to reduce energy consumption. From this vantage point, the aim of this research is to design a fuzzy controller to turn-off the machine when it tends to be idle for energy saving purposes. A one buffer one machine manufacturing system with random part arrival is considered in this paper. The decision of the controller is based on the real-time status of the machine, the upstream buffer level and the required production rate. The controller was tested through simulation experiments and it was observed that large amount of energy can be saved without affecting the throughput significantly. The warm-up energy which results from turning off and on machine is also considered.