Switch-Off Policies in Job Shop Controlled by Workload Control Concept

Abstract

The reduction in emissions and the increase in energy costs push companies to identify solutions to reduce energy consumption in production systems. One of the approaches proposed in the literature is the shutdown of machines to reduce energy consumption in the idle state. This solution does not affect production processes and can be applied in various manufacturing fields. This paper proposes switch-off policies in manufacturing systems under a workload control system. The shutdown policies developed consider the number of items in the queue and the calculation derived from the workload control mechanism. Simulation models have been developed to test the proposed policies using the case always on as a benchmark, considering different levels of absorbed power in the inactivity and warm-up states and different warm-up times. The results highlight how the switch policies that include the workload evaluation drastically reduce the number of on/off activities, assuring lower energy consumption.