SuFSeF D2.1 Semantic Framework for Sustainable Factory Requirements

The SuFSeF project proposes an holistic framework integrating digital models and tools for supporting both the design and management of a real factory thanks to its complete virtual representation. In particular, the project intends to extend an already existing framework, named Virtual Factory Framework (VFF), while focusing on the energy and environmental sustainability. The considered framework, developed within the European project FP7-NMP-2008-3.4-1; 228595 Virtual Factory Framework (VFF), provides an extensible factory data model for products, processes, resources and buildings to support interoperability among different software tools. In order to address the environmental issues, the framework data models and tools will explicitly take into account sustainability aspects of buildings, production resources and manufacturing processes analysed. All this aspects will be considered throughout the factory lifecycle, from the early design to the run and monitoring. A prototype outcome of the project will represent a first step for the factory Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and will be a valid tool for achieving the Horizon 2020 purpose [1]. Sustainable development is a relevant issue in EU countries and for this reason, it is supported with a specific programme called -Horizon 2020? [2]. The world's energy consumption has doubled over the past 40 years and it is estimated that one-third of the consumption comes from industry [1]. As a result, the increase of the efficiency in energy usage in industries is a fundamental factor to tackle the sustainability issues related to energy consumption. More specifically, to meet the Europe 2020 objectives [2], the industrial production has to be improved considering sustainability of both manufacturing processes and the properties of the building where they are performed. Furthermore, the increase of the energy efficiency will foster the use of alternative energy thus contributing moving a step forward also in this field of research. Sustainability is a major focus not only in Europe. The -Sustainable Manufacturing Program? [3] [4] by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, [5]) is a demonstration of the spread of this research topic. Some recent accomplishments for the Sustainable Manufacturing Program include: NIST established the Sustainability Standards Portal [4]; NIST supported the materials data model for the IPC 1752 Material Declaration Standard, one of the earliest sustainable manufacturing standards, which has been widely used by the U.S. manufacturers [6]; NIST was instrumental in creating a new sub-committee on manufacturing under ASTM E60. The notion of sustainability is broad, in this Program it mainly focuses on resource (energy, material) efficiency and waste reduction across the lifecycle of a manufactured product. Industry needs a trusted system of metrics and the underlying measurement science to compute those metrics. To address these needs, the NIST program is organized into two thrusts: methodology thrust and integration thrust. The first thrust has the objective to develop a methodology for analysis and synthesis (allocation) of the energy and material footprint at the factory level for gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). To enable this factory-level methodology, the program will develop additional methodologies for characterizing unit-manufacturing processes, and product assembly processes. To verify and validate these methodologies, the integration thrust is dedicated to the development of sustainability modeling and optimization techniques which are then verified on a testbed based on real manufacturing use scenarios. As the aforementioned program, the SuFSeF project focuses on the manufacturing domain, better on Sustainable manufacturing. Although there is no universally accepted definition for the term -sustainable manufacturing?, numerous efforts have been made in the recent past, with much more concurrent efforts underway. The U.S. Department of commerce defines sustainable manufacturing as: -The creation of manufactured products that use processes that minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve energy and natural resources, are safe for employees, communities, and consumers and are economically sound." Further, according to the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) in the U.S. sustainable manufacturing includes the manufacturing of sustainable products and the sustainable manufacturing of all products [7]. The former includes manufacturing of renewable energy, energy efficiency, green building, while the latter emphasizes the sustainable manufacturing of all products taking into account the full - sustainability/total life - cycle issues related to the manufactured products. Sustainable manufacturing systems design and management means taking into account both economic and ecological constraints. The environmental and climate impacts of energy use are rapidly becoming a major issue. Carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas, is emitted into the atmosphere directly when fuels are combusted on - site and indirectly when electricity is consumed (particularly when fossil fuels are used to generate electricity). The rising cost of energy is also a factor that must be understood during the factory design throughout the factory lifecycle. More energy - efficient solutions can create huge savings during the lifetime of equipment. In the recent years a strong effort has been done in the direction of including sustainability aspect to evolve existing design paradigms for product, process and buildings. In fact, existing system paradigms have been developed to meet the requirements of short lead - time, personalization, low and fluctuating volumes and cost reduction [7]. Their capabilities to deal with the requirements of sustainability have recently been re - examined [8], [9], [10] and efforts to make manufacturing more sustainable are a research topic leading to consider issues at all levels -product, process, production resources - and not just one or more of these in isolation. The SuFSeF project will focus mainly on the sustainability aspect for industrial buildings. The sustainability applied to the building sector represents a complex issue that involves environmental, social and economic aspects. Moreover, the design and realization of a sustainable industrial building often represents a difficult challenge because it has to reach different needs at the same time. Despite this main objective, it is clear how a holistic approach is needed as the building not only provides services to production resources, but it also defines constraints for product and processes to be performed. If product, process and production resources are ignored the industrial building design and management, particularly in its environmental dimension, cannot be properly tackled. SuFSeF proposes a new framework for sustainable factories with the aim to merge aspects coming from building, product, process and production resources. This deliverable is aimed at setting the basis for the development of the semantic framework foreseen as result of the SuFSeF project. In particular, it provides a specification and analysis of the requirements to be satisfied to achieve the proposed objectives taking into consideration the most up-to-date research results and trends. The deliverable is organized as follows: chapter 1 presents the main research areas involved with the concept of sustainable factories, chapter 2 focuses on the characterization of the factory lifecycle from design stages until the monitoring of the factory, chapter 0 presents the framework overview. Finally, Chapters 0-0 detail the pillars the proposed framework is based upon.