On May 28th, ECOFACT concluded its ground-breaking project at the Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference in Dublin, Ireland. The conference, a hub of innovation and collaboration, brought together thousands of manufacturing professionals, industry leaders, and policymakers for two days of networking and knowledge-sharing.
At the heart of the event was ECOFACT’s vision for sustainable and energy-efficient manufacturing, achieved through four years of dedicated research and development. The event’s sessions showcased transformative tools and methodologies designed to propel the manufacturing sector toward a greener future.
Highlights from the Event
1. ECOFACT Overview and Architecture
Francisco Morentin (CARTIF) set the stage, introducing the agenda for the morning. Talib Sankal (Fraunhofer) followed with an introduction to ECOFACT’s holistic data acquisition system, which bridges the traditional automation pyramid. By integrating local visualization and data harmonization layers, this system provides unprecedented flexibility and real-time efficiency for manufacturers.
2. Energy and Resource Management System
Riccardo Merizzi (One Team Srl) detailed the role of IIoT-enabled digital twins in monitoring production lines and machines. These digital replicas increase awareness, providing actionable insights into the factory’s energy and resource consumptions.
Additionally, Merizzi highlighted a suite of integrated simulation and optimisation tools that improve the factory management in terms of energy, resources and costs, including energy flexibility, predictive maintenance, production planning & scheduling, material-flow simulation, energy disaggregation and energy simulation.
3. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Costing (LCC)
Sahil Singhania (PRé Sustainability) shared insights on environmental and economic assessment tools. LCA provides a science-based methodology to measure a product’s environmental and social impacts throughout its lifecycle, while LCC evaluates associated costs. Together, these tools empower manufacturers to make informed, sustainable decisions that balance environmental responsibility with cost-effectiveness.
4. Decision Support Systems (DSS)
Gianluca Prato (LINKS Foundation) presented ECOFACT’s Holistic Decision Support System (DSS), which integrates rule-based, data-driven, model-driven, and case-based reasoning to support both operational and strategic decisions. The DSS features interactive dashboards and a learning module that not only optimizes recommendations using real-time and historical data but also refines future suggestions by learning from operator behaviour and past outcomes.
5. Real-World Demonstrations
The event showcased real-world applications, demonstrating ECOFACT’s adaptability across sectors:
Arçelik:
Arçelik’s Arctic WM is Beko/Arçelik’s and Romania’s first WEF Sustainability and LEED Platinum Certified Factory. As a factory with high data traceability, it has served as a Demo Case Plant in the ECOFACT project. This initiative aims to optimize production and enhance energy efficiency by implementing IoT-based predictive maintenance, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and Life Cycle Costing Analysis (LCCA) models.
Specific use cases included:
- Establishing full traceability of production quantities from the transfer press, integrated into a dynamic LCA tool.
- Enhancing the performance of the water supply system with real-time data collection from all water consumers within the factory.
- Providing insights into the recycled water ratio, rainwater ratio, water withdrawal per product, and overall water consumption.
Some parts of the washing machine are produced by Curent Metal, one of Arçelik’s subcontractor companies in Romania. Curent Metal participated in the ECOFACT project as Arçelik’s Supplier Collaboration Tool, performing a sample LCA analysis for the Spider Arm part.
Additional use cases addressed energy efficiency, including optimizing hot water production using a Decision Support System (DSS) in the boiler room and implementing Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). The project also developed a system to monitor contamination on solar panel surfaces and recommend optimal cleaning periods.
Athenian Brewery:
The presentation for the Athenian Brewery demo site began with an overview by Nikos Koufokotsios (Athenian Brewery), detailing the site’s role within the ECOFACT project. This was followed by presentations from Dimitrios-Sotirios Kourkoumpas, Angeliki Sagani, and Ioanna Marina Anagnostara (CERTH), who elaborated on technical developments and implementations.
Highlights included:
- A presentation on the demo site co-leaders, CERTH and WINGS, as well as the local data acquisition system that collects operational data from the field and streams it to the ECOFACT data broker for analysis and optimization.
- Five core functionalities: industrial digital twin, predictive maintenance, energy disaggregation, energy flexibility, and dynamic LCA and LCCA models.
Three key use cases were showcased:
- Improving boiler efficiency through exhaust gas monitoring, targeting reductions in thermal energy consumption and enhanced maintenance.
- Optimizing the CO₂ evaporator to minimize thermal and electrical energy use.
- Enhancing the must cooling operation to reduce waste and improve efficiency in ethanol cooling, electricity and water usage, and hot water utilization.
Galletas Gullón:
The presentation for the Gullón demo site began with an overview of the company and its demo manufacturing lines. Gullón briefly detailed tasks implemented during the ECOFACT project, such as the development of a digital twin platform.
Updates on specific use cases included:
- Dynamic dashboards providing energy information and maintenance alerts for key facilities.
- Monitoring the performance of chillers and ovens to minimize energy loss during stoppages or start-up times.
- Cooling tunnel monitoring to reduce energy waste when operating without load.
- Puffed cakes extruder behaviour monitoring, defining KPIs for extruder machines on line 12 and tracking energy consumption during shifts.
Gullón concluded by expressing gratitude to partners, the European Commission for enabling participation in this critical energy efficiency project, and CARTIF and SMK for their special collaboration.
TOFAŞ:
The TOFAŞ demo site presentation began with an overview of the company and its manufacturing lines. TOFAŞ explained the sensors and measurement devices used in the ECOFACT project and the data architecture involved.
Highlights included:
- Digital twin platform visuals related to topcoat paint lines.
- Use cases targeting energy and chemical consumption monitoring and improvement. These include:
- Alerts and reports for unnecessary consumption during non-production periods.
- Identifying excess consumption due to equipment issues.
- Enhancing start-up and shut-down performance and integrating decision support systems for lotting and start-up time predictions.
TOFAŞ emphasized the importance of ECOFACT for improving visibility, transparency, and predictability, which will help reduce waste and increase efficiency.
6. Standardization and Business Models
Marta Fernández (UNE) discussed a methodology for energy management and sustainable manufacturing, useful for certification purposes. Ludovica Riva (RINA-C) described the exploitation process and concluded with an exploration of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, illustrating how it could provide a scalable and sustainable path for ECOFACT’s tools to achieve broad adoption and commercial success.
A Legacy of Innovation
ECOFACT’s final event was not just a culmination but a launchpad, underscoring the transformative potential of data-driven solutions in manufacturing. By enabling smarter, greener processes, ECOFACT has set the stage for a future where efficiency and sustainability thrive in harmony.
