4.1 Selection and Evaluation of Relevant Research Approaches
71
4.1.1 General Limitations for the Selection of Research
Approaches
The importance of the energy and commodity markets has steadily increased since
the first oil crisis in the 1970’s. Rising fossil fuel prices as well as debates on climate change and finite resources have triggered a mind change among politicians,
entrepreneurs, and scientists. The sustained use of energy and other resources has
become a basic requirement for a company to competitively perform on the market. There are different options to improve the energy efficiency, from a technical
point of view as well as from a processing point of view. Whereas this work
is only investigating the increase of energy efficiency through process improvements, Duflou et al. provide an overview of energy saving strategies, focusing
on technical improvements, such as the use of energy-efficient components and
the investment in innovative production techniques that can be implemented to
significantly improve the energy consumption [Du+2012, pp. 589–600].
Within the review of relevant research approaches, a comprehensive research of
available publications was conducted and assessed in order to provide an overview
of the current state-of-the-art in the field of energy efficiency in production. It
is research-based and includes journal articles, conference proceedings as well
as theses and dissertations. Relevant literature has been found using the IEEE
Xplore Digital Library, the ACM Digital Library, the Web of Science as well as
ScienceDirect. As the methodology developed in this thesis is aiming at practical
application, the literature review is focused accordingly. To identify the papers
that are included in the literature review, the following search terms and key word
combinations have been used in English and German language:
• (“simulation*based optimization” OR “simulation optimization”) AND “energy
efficiency”,
• (“simulation*based optimization” OR “simulation optimization”) AND “energy
efficiency” AND (production OR manufacturing)
• (“simulation*based optimization” OR “simulation optimization”) AND “energy
efficiency” AND (“hybrid simulation” OR “combined simulation”)
The search results have been refined manually by considering only publications written in English and German language that have been published between
January 2000 and December 2017. Additionally, cross-references and frequently
quoted sources have been checked and search results have been refined manually
by significant publication titles. Thus, the selected search criteria generated 167
relevant publications. The abstracts of all papers have been reviewed under the
71
4.1.1 General Limitations for the Selection of Research
Approaches
The importance of the energy and commodity markets has steadily increased since
the first oil crisis in the 1970’s. Rising fossil fuel prices as well as debates on climate change and finite resources have triggered a mind change among politicians,
entrepreneurs, and scientists. The sustained use of energy and other resources has
become a basic requirement for a company to competitively perform on the market. There are different options to improve the energy efficiency, from a technical
point of view as well as from a processing point of view. Whereas this work
is only investigating the increase of energy efficiency through process improvements, Duflou et al. provide an overview of energy saving strategies, focusing
on technical improvements, such as the use of energy-efficient components and
the investment in innovative production techniques that can be implemented to
significantly improve the energy consumption [Du+2012, pp. 589–600].
Within the review of relevant research approaches, a comprehensive research of
available publications was conducted and assessed in order to provide an overview
of the current state-of-the-art in the field of energy efficiency in production. It
is research-based and includes journal articles, conference proceedings as well
as theses and dissertations. Relevant literature has been found using the IEEE
Xplore Digital Library, the ACM Digital Library, the Web of Science as well as
ScienceDirect. As the methodology developed in this thesis is aiming at practical
application, the literature review is focused accordingly. To identify the papers
that are included in the literature review, the following search terms and key word
combinations have been used in English and German language:
• (“simulation*based optimization” OR “simulation optimization”) AND “energy
efficiency”,
• (“simulation*based optimization” OR “simulation optimization”) AND “energy
efficiency” AND (production OR manufacturing)
• (“simulation*based optimization” OR “simulation optimization”) AND “energy
efficiency” AND (“hybrid simulation” OR “combined simulation”)
The search results have been refined manually by considering only publications written in English and German language that have been published between
January 2000 and December 2017. Additionally, cross-references and frequently
quoted sources have been checked and search results have been refined manually
by significant publication titles. Thus, the selected search criteria generated 167
relevant publications. The abstracts of all papers have been reviewed under the