Sheppard-Rahimifard2019_Article_ImprovingEnergyEfficiencyInMan.pdf (3.24 MB)
Download fileImproving energy efficiency in manufacturing using peer benchmarking to influence machine design innovation
journal contribution
posted on 2019-05-07, 13:37 authored by Phil Sheppard, Shahin RahimifardShahin RahimifardEnergy efficiency in manufacturing is important for overall sustainability of society. This paper combines three observations to improve an overlooked part of the energy efficiency support infrastructure in food and drink manufacturing: innovation capability. First, variations in machine and process design produce significant differences in energy efficiency; second, these differences are not widely known or valued because comparable machine energy data are not gathered for the vast majority of products, so machine and process design is under-used as a route to efficiency improvement; third, peer benchmarking has proved to be an effective tool for stimulating change in other contexts, but has not been used at machine level in manufacturing. This paper describes and makes the case for a self-sustaining system in which machines would be validly compared on energy consumption and peer benchmarking would stimulate innovation in machine and process design for food manufacturing. The system, to be tested in a feasibility study, would benefit both food manufacturers and stakeholders. It would avoid dependence on public funding and enable stakeholders to provide value from the data. The paper contains the academic underpinning for the system and sets out an effective means of using it to achieve practical change.
Funding
UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant reference EP/K030957/1.
History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
Clean Technologies and Environmental PolicyVolume
21Issue
6Pages
1213–1235Citation
SHEPPARD, P. and RAHIMIFARD, S., 2019. Improving energy efficiency in manufacturing using peer benchmarking to influence machine design innovation. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 21 (6), pp.1213–1235.Publisher
Springer (© The Authors)Version
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2019-04-23Publication date
2019-05-08Copyright date
2019Notes
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.ISSN
1618-954XeISSN
1618-9558Publisher version
Language
- en