Production technology is one of the most important industries in Germany. The productivity plays thereby a major role regarding obtaining competitiveness. Nevertheless, an increase in productivity can only be reached if available resources like energy, materials and staff are used in a smart and efficient way. The growing gap between the necessary increase of productivity and the rising resource shortage needs to be closed by improved efficiency.

The Fraunhofer IWU examines how the saving potential of manufacturing and managing of high valuable consumption and investment goods can be exploit. This project examines the entire process chain and is being realized together with partners from the mechanical engineering and car industry in connection with the research factory "Resource efficient production".

With a view to improving efficiency in production, this initial stage particularly targets an increase in process stability and hence the reduction of scrap and reworks. Suitable measures for achieving this goal include the development and implementation of intelligent process monitoring and regulating strategies together with the use of energy- and resource efficient manufacturing technologies and systems. Other promising approaches include the optimization and shortening of process chains based on the intelligent combination/ integration of processes or innovative production technologies.

The aim here is to isolate the energy that is given off into the environment, for example, by way of heat during a production process, and to render it usable for other applications. When it comes to creating energy circuits of this nature, the challenge lies particularly in identifying these "loss" sources as well as in how best to store and convert the energy. Here consideration needs to be given not only to the interaction of energy within the production systems and processes, but also the interaction between production and the environment. So new production sites can be entirely planed and managed energy efficient.

The aim of the third phase is to make use of regenerative energy sources so as to compensate for "energy losses" that are given off into the environment during production. Strategic approaches that may be pursued to achieve this objective include the use of geothermal heat or wind and solar energy.

Milestones on the way to the resource efficient factory are the Innovation Alliance "Green Carbody Technologies – InnoCaT" and the "Center of Excellence Automotive Production".