ENERGY EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MANUFACTURING THROUGH AN ONTOLOGY‐REPRESENTED KNOWLEDGE BASE

• Published date: 01 January 2014
• Author: Fabian Jost,Sven Rogalski,Jivka Ovtcharova,Hendro Wicaksono
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1347
• Date: 01 January 2014

ENERGY EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MANUFACTURING

THROUGH AN ONTOLOGY-REPRESENTED KNOWLEDGE BASE

HENDRO WICAKSONO,*FABIAN JOST, SVEN ROGALSKI AND JIVKA OVTCHAROVA

Institute of Information Management in Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

SUMMARY

Improving energy efficiency in a manufacturing company through an energy management system requires active

participation of different stakeholders and involvement of different organizational entities and technical

processes. Interoperability of stakeholders and entities is the key factor to achieve a successful implementation

of an energy management system. Researchers have been developing approaches in applying ontologies to

address interoperability issues among humans as well as machines. Ontologies have also been used for knowl-

edge representation in different domains, such as energy management and manufacturing. In recent years,

researchers have developed knowledge-based intelligent energy management systems in buildings, especially

households, which use ontologies for knowledge representation. In the manufacturing domain, ontologies have

been used for knowledge management in order to provide a common formal understanding between the

stakeholders, who have different background knowledge. This paper proposes an approach to apply ontology

to allow knowledge-based energy efficiency evaluation in manufacturing companies. The ontology provides a

formal knowledge representation that addresses the interoperability issues due to different human stakeholders

as well as machines involved in the energy management system of the company. This paper also describes the

methods used to construct and to process the ontology. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: energy efficiency; knowledge base; knowledge management; manufacturing ontology

1. INTRODUCTION

Energy and resource efficiency have been developing to one of the most crucial issues of the 21st

century due to the politically challenging future determined by environmental goals, the finite nature

of fossil energy and a constant population increase. An increase of carbon dioxide emissions is

inevitable if energy continues to be supplied by conventional means, such as combustion of fossil

resources. Globally, improved energy efficiency is the most sustainable and economic option to reduce

greenhouse gases. Manufacturing, which contributes 22% of GDP, is one the key industries in Europe.

Around 70% of jobs in the European Union directly and indirectly depend on manufacturing

(Manufuture High-Level Group, 2004). The large impact of manufacturing on welfare makes its energy

efficiency efforts a very significant contribution.

Besides the ecological and social motivations, costs also play a decisive role. Products with many

variants have made processes more complex. These are often very energy intensive and, therefore,

expensive. This implies that, on the one hand, manufacturers need to be flexible in order to satisfy these

diverse demands. On the other hand, customers demand high quality and often more precise products

(Kinkel, 2005). In addition, increasing energy prices reduce the revenue span. Hence, energy efficiency

* Cor respondence to: Hendro Wicaksono, Institute of Information Management in Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,

Karlsruhe, Germany. E-mail: hendro.wicaksono@kit.edu

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Intell. Sys. Acc. Fin. Mgmt. 21, 59–69 (2014)

Published online 29 October 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/isaf.1347