Energy efficiency and energy flexibility in matrix production systems

Competitive and regulatory pressure force companies to produce more flexible and reactive to market demands and also include electrical energy-related considerations in production system planning and operation to reduce energy cost and environmental impact. Matrix production systems are perceived to cope with turbulent market environments but are only investigated from a logistics point of view. Potentials regarding energy efficiency and energy flexibility that arise from the inherent flexible production infrastructure remain unclear. This paper aims to systematically investigate the potential contributions of the flexible production structures and to point out general hypotheses about synergies as well as conflicts for logistics and energy-related target dimensions. These are evaluated in a simulation study based on an industrial use case. Results indicate that there are various control levers to support energy efficiency as well as energy flexibility together with logistics target dimensions in MPS.