Abstract
In energy-oriented lot-sizing and scheduling research, it is often assumed that minimizing energy costs automatically leads to an improvement of the ecological footprint of a company, i.e., lower carbon dioxide emissions. More precisely, a close to one (positive) correlation between energy costs and carbon dioxide emissions is often supposed. In this contribution, we show that this conjecture does not always hold true due to fluctuating carbon dioxide emissions over the whole day. Therefore, we present a real-world business case study, combining lot-sizing and machine scheduling under time-varying electric energy costs and carbon dioxide emissions in a mixed integer optimization model; in this context, we also consider on-site power generation. The interplay between all these aspects is demonstrated via a numerical analysis.
Highlights
1.1 A first motivationThe concept of sustainability or sustainable development has a long history and has been widely discussed in different contexts, especially in social, political and scientific contexts
We present a case study comprising a scheduling and lot-sizing problem of a metal-working company, where the company’s goals are mainly determined by four objective functions—namely a production quantity-based goal, a changeover-related time goal, an electrical energy cost goal, and a carbon dioxide emission goal
It is usually assumed that reducing electrical energy costs—e.g. via shifting operations—automatically leads to sustainable production plans
Summary
The concept of sustainability or sustainable development has a long history and has been widely discussed in different contexts, especially in social, political and scientific contexts. As mentioned in the motivation, it is often assumed that minimizing energy-oriented objective functions automatically leads to more sustainable production plans, decreasing, e.g., carbon dioxide emissions Assuming such a causal link is questionable, and this section provides evidence regarding this issue ( refer to Li et al (2018)). The above figures might give a first hint that an energy-efficient production plan does not automatically imply a sustainable one and vice versa; this is in sharp contrast, e.g., to Gong et al (2015) This conflict can be heightened further when considering on-site power generation via alternative energy sources.
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