Investigating Lean Methodology for Energy Efficient Manufacturing

Due to the growing globalization and the increasing interest in environmental concerns, together with the changing legal and regulations landscape, manufacturers need to change their approach to competition, enhancing their knowledge of the manufacturing systems and of the network of interconnections among physical flows and management and control information flows, while developing systemic methodologies that enable waste reduction of manufacturing resources usage (such as energy). Furthermore, companies are increasingly involved in managing the environment as an opportunity for competitive advantage, which establishes the need to highlight the relationships between environmental impact of their processes and company strategy and objectives. This paper presents a proposal for a lean methodology, called Transformation Distribution and Utilization (namely, T.D.U.) methodology, which allows future factories to identify Value Added energy usage, paving the way to activities that can reduce the related inefficiencies and wastes. The T.D.U. methodology has been tested in real company, MorseTEC Europe, a supplier of systems for European car manufacturers.