Concept on Networking the Energy-Flexible Factory using the Administration Shell

This paper describes the development of an energy-flexible factory using Industrie 4.0 elements. The administration shell (AS) concept is used to describe the capabilities of machinery and implement a plug and produce procedure to a superior IT system, using a standardized format. By providing the machinery-specific information through the AS, the effort required to integrate the machinery into the factory operation can be minimized at higher levels. An extension of the AS in terms of a constant monitoring of material and energy flows combined with relevant energy flexibility metrics of each resource enables an overall optimized control of the factory. In contrast to existing approaches, interactions between energy, material flows and machine capabilities can be represented and thus, a weighing of these target variables can take place when selecting measures. A corresponding service controls the operation in the sense of an Industrie 4.0 application, in which the data is evaluated and measures are provided.