Energy Demand of Machine Tools and Performance Management

This chapter introduces the thematic context as a basis for the elaboration of the research. First, the ecological implications of industrial growth in the economic system are presented, triggering the initiation of the concept of sustainable development. An analysis of energy flows in production systems is then given to identify the origins of energy demand and extended in detail for machine tools. Based on an assessment of energy improvement measures for machine tools according to the availability and barriers, the implications of imperfect information on improving the energy demand are reflected. As a method for promoting efficiency, performance management is introduced and analysed in terms of the feasibility to determine minimum energy requirements and to guide improvement.