Combined modelling and evaluation of energy and material flow in matrix production systems

Manufacturing systems play an indispensable role in the global economy and value creation, but they also are responsible for a high share of overall greenhouse gas emissions. Due to turbulent market conditions, flexible and resilient production systems such as matrix production systems are increasingly implemented to maintain high productivity. The modular structure and flexible transport system not only pose new challenges in the design of logistics and process modules, but also from an energy perspective. The material flow for every product can differ, which also results in flexible electrical energy flow profiles depending on the machine and transport system selection. Hence, the system design provides a wide range of options to also foster energy efficiency and energy flexibility. This paper provides an energy and material flow model focusing on the transport and production assets. Based on the specific design aspects a system model is derived that supports the matrix system modelling in discrete-event simulation. The development of a matrix production simulation model demonstrates the application and experiment results indicate that the system flexibility can also support the control of energy consumption behavior.