The invention refers to an apparatus for controlling a production process of a product produced from a plurality of pre-products, in particular, in a recycling process. A providing unit provides expected production data indicative of the pre-products and of production parameters expected for the production of the product. A receiving unit receives for each expected pre-product pre-production data from a plurality of independent production entities. An optimization unit determines an optimized production of the product with respect to a predetermined goal related to one or more pre-production parameters based on the production data and the pre-production data. A control unit provides control signals for controlling the production of the product based on the determined optimized production.

A system for visualizing equipment utilization in a central plant includes a subplant monitor, a subplant utilization database, and a dispatch graphical user interface (GUI) generator. The subplant monitor receives subplant utilization data including an indication of a thermal energy load served by each of a plurality of subplants of the central plant. The subplant utilization database stores the subplant utilization data for each of a plurality of time steps. The dispatch GUI generator generates a dispatch GUI using the subplant utilization data. The dispatch GUI includes an indication of the thermal energy load served by each of the plurality of subplants for each of the plurality of time steps. The dispatch GUI may include a set of stacked bars for each of the time steps. Each of the stacked bars may represent the thermal energy load served by one of the subplants during a corresponding time step.

The disclosure relates to a method, an electronic device and a computer program product for reducing a carbon dioxide footprint associated with a production process. The carbon dioxide footprint has at least an amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the production process. The method includes the step of obtaining a parameter indicative of a selected cutting feature for production by a cutting tool, the step of obtaining a parameter indicative of a selected work-piece material for production by a cutting tool, the step of determining a set of cutting tools for production based on the obtained parameters, and the step of determining a cutting tool for production from the determined set of cutting tools based on carbon dioxide emission information data associated with each cutting tool in the determined set of cutting tools.