THrough life Energy and Resource Modelling (THERM)

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We will develop a modelling tool that will assist the collaborators and other manufacturers in: 1. Understanding our current manufacturing system and its level of sustainability performance,2. Modelling potential tactics and technologies to improve (from a database of tactics), 3. Selecting appropriate tactics, & 4. Implementing tactics & technologies and monitoring progress.We will use the modelling tool to support improvement in our facilities and in collaborators, then assess the utility of the tools, improve them and make them available to other manufacturers. We will explain the results and learning to the wider manufacturing community. The tool must work at a number of levels: e.g. process, facility, local context, product, supply chain, offering & business model. The tool will be capable of modelling existing, known tactics (such as using waste energy from one process for another process) as well as potential future tactics (e.g. cradle-to-cradle, industrial ecology). The tool will seek to integrate existing tools where possible (such as manufacturing simulation and building energy modelling), though it is clear that such tools do not currently support an integrated model of material, energy, waste, production flow and building/location for an industrial system. For example, energy is often available as an output, but its media (e.g. steam vs motion vs electricity) and its timing and its location (e.g. at start of shift in area 'X') are critical to the ability to use that energy elsewhere. There are no modelling tools that currently support such functionality. Our exploitation partner is a vendor of current energy modelling tools for buildings with a vital interest in expanding their capabilities.