A Framework for Material Flow Assessment in Manufacturing

Improving material efficiency is widely accepted as one of the key challenges facing manufactures in the future. The increasing consumption of materials, in addition to depleting finite resources, is having detrimental impacts on the environment associated with their extraction, processing and disposal. It is clear that radical improvements in material efficiency are required to avoid further environmental damage and maintain a healthy manufacturing sector. Current material flow analysis and resource management methodologies are used to improve the efficiency of material consumption in economic terms, and environmental assessment methodologies are used to determine environmental impacts, a methodology to effectively assess material efficiency according to both criteria is currently not available. This paper highlights the benefits of considering a broader range of parameters in material flow modelling to support advances in increased material efficiency and proposes a 'material flow assessment' framework that allows greater flexibility in the exploration of material efficiency improvements within manufacturing systems.