Hybrid simulation method by cooperating between manufacturing system simulation and computational fluid dynamics simulation first report: Optimization for energy consumption per unit of production throughput considering compressed air feed

For enhancing the energy efficiency of a manufacturing system as a whole, it is critical to optimize energy consumption including that in the utility systems, which supplies compressed air, and that in each production line. However, there has been no progress in the research of methods for optimization. Hence, in this research, a method, which is a hybrid of a manufacturing system simulation and computational fluid dynamics simulation, is proposed for evaluating the operation of both production lines and compressed air systems simultaneously. The proposed method is used to evaluate the deficiencies and excesses in the supply from a compressed air system and the reliability of the supply of a compressed air system in response to the daily production schedule. Moreover, the energy consumption per unit of production throughput is optimized for various compressed air feed.