The ambition of MEMAN is to craft an approach that optimises resource efficiency in three clusters of manufacturing processes: casting, machining and surface finishing. The starting point to develop this innovative approach is the collection of a considerable amount of quantitative data related to material and energy flows all along the value chain, up to the machines and utilities within the companies involved.

MEMAN succeeded in finding a new solution for the collection of data. The project created a template for gathering the information, both within a single company and across all the companies of an entire industrial value chain. The collected data will feed into modelling and simulations that will spot different options to reduce the use of raw materials, energy and supplies along the selected value chains in the mechanical engineering, automotive and aerospace industries.

Olivier Leroux, Industrial and Sustainable Performance Manager at CETIM (France), explains “Collecting the right data can be as big a problem as creating a model. Businesses are quite reluctant in sharing their data because they consider it is not in their interest and they are afraid they might lose control of their data. MEMAN contributed a great deal to this matter. As the data we had available would influence our overall method to improve the use of resources, we created a new template for data collection that needs less information to work properly”.

To obtain substantial cuts in the use of resources in industrial processes, MEMAN needs to analyse resource saving potentials not only at company level but also by focusing on interfaces between the different companies of the value chain.

In practice, the data gathering will be carried out on each company site on three levels:

1. Positioning of the company within the value chain (describing the role of the company within the value chain with regard to the product)
2. Data gathering at company level (material and energy information at company level with a comprehensive inventory of machines and utilities involved in the manufacturing process)
3. Data gathering at unit process level (machines and utilities).

Recycling and eco-design

Data collection in value chains enables the assessment and implementation of resource efficiency measures at two levels:

• Improvements at process level (including recycling). These options include enhancing process control (e.g. optimisation of batches), upgrading or replacement of machines, implementing Best Available Techniques and rethinking of flows between the different processes. Besides, the project will investigate different types of innovation to increase recycling at process level: recycling processes, optimised operating parameters, the use of more recycled material resources, reduction of waste and of the use of operating fluids and supplies

• Improvements at value chain level and interfaces level (including eco-design). These options should address enhanced logistics and stock management; optimised transportation of packaging and other intermediary products; integrated data management across the value chain; re-design of products and potential for industrial symbiosis (for example, waste of one company could be used as raw material by another one).

Thanks to these improvements, MEMAN is expected to modify the consumption patterns of the whole metalworking value chain, achieving a reduction of at least 30% of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, and over 10% of Product Life Cycle Cost from cradle to grave of existing and future products.

Have a look at the latest results and case studies of MEMAN

For more information, please contact:

Olivier Leroux (olivier.leroux@cetim.fr)

Valeria Mazzagatti (valeria.mazzagatti@greenovate.eu)