Towards environmental conscious manufacturing

Growing global competition, environmental concerns, legal and market requirements motivate production companies to strengthen their capability to monitor and control their factories. SCADA, MES, ERP and EAI provide limited and fragmented awareness on the behavior and performance of the manufacturing systems from the production, economic and environmental perspective. The introduction of wired or wireless sensor networks increases the available information for improved control, anomaly detection and condition monitoring on a local scale or with reference to specific systems. This paper presents a proposal for a holistic environmental conscious perspective of the factory, enabling identification and minimization of inefficiencies in the use of energy and resources, control of the environmental impact and maximization of manufacturing and economic performances.