ARÇELİK – Partner Q&A

Article submitted by Erhan HANGİŞİ, Technical Leader Production Energy Efficiency in ARÇELİK GLOBAL

  1. Tell us about Arçelik-Arctic. What is your core business and role within the project?

Founded in 1955, Arçelik is a global leader in digital household solutions with 55,000 employees, operating in 58 countries with 45 production facilities. Committed to sustainability, we focus on the future, environment, and community needs. In the ECOFACT project, our Arctic Washing Machine Factory serves as a Demo Case Plant, implementing IoT-based predictive maintenance and LCA models to optimize production and enhance energy efficiency.

  1. Why did your organisation get involved in the ECOFACT project? How does this activity fit with the normal business of your organisation?

Arçelik is improving its digital manufacturing skills at the Arctic Washing Machine Factory. Each machine has its own meter and can be watched on dashboards. The factory uses data from the Manufacturing Executive System (MES) and the Building Management System (BMS) to show energy use per product every 15 minutes. In the ECOFACT project, this strong setup works with the Supplier Collaboration Tool (SCT) to allow real-time lifecycle analysis (LCA) for better decisions.

  1. How will the outputs of the ECOFACT project help production system energy performance?

The ECOFACT project aims to boost energy performance in production systems by introducing advanced use-cases for energy management across production processes and value chains. Our goal is to achieve near real-time calculations, which will allow Arctic to reduce data acquisition time intervals. This will involve optimizing process constraints, cycle times, setup times, process energy consumption, and buffer stock levels. Collaborating closely with Work Package Leaders, we are developing a production planning module that addresses these variables. This module is particularly important for Arcelik-Arctic Plant, which currently relies on manual planning. By automating and refining these processes, the ECOFACT project will provide a valuable tool for enhancing energy efficiency and operational effectiveness.

  1. What are the technical challenges your work in ECOFACT is trying to overcome?

One of the primary technical challenges we face as a demo case in the ECOFACT project is ensuring seamless communication among the project’s various sensors and meters. We need to ensure that data collected from the field is accurately transmitted to the KAFKA data broker software via PME, in the correct format and within the specified timeframes. To achieve this, we must efficiently handle and integrate technical information related to BMS (Building Management Systems), MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems), PME (Energy Management Systems), and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) environmental impact analysis tools. This integration is crucial for maintaining data integrity and optimizing overall system performance.

  1. What positive impacts will the project have when complete?

Six use cases are being completed thanks to the ECOFACT Project. These advancements include automating the management of hot water boilers, acquiring production data from sheet metal presses, and monitoring water production and recycling at our treatment facility. Additionally, we will enhance the efficiency of our CSP system and develop a digital twin of our production facilities. We will also introduce the Supplier Collaboration Tool (SCT) application in collaboration with Curent Metal, further advancing our operational capabilities and collaboration efforts.

View our other partner Q&A’s here.

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THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO 958373