Energy Efficiency Engineering—Towards an Integrated Method Framework for Energy-Oriented Product and Production Development

Energy efficiency in all areas of the product lifecycle gets more and more important. Besides the use phase that is often addressed through technological solutions, the production phase is also in focus as it determines the environmental impacts of a company to a high degree. Established operational methods that consider energy efficiency reactively are often already exploited. This contribution therefore focuses on methods that are applied in early phases of the product and production development process. On the basis of a correlation matrix that correlates the interrelationships between the three dimensions product, material and production, promising areas in the product creation process are analysed. This framework provides a general basis for the development and application of integrated analysis and improvement methods.