Material flow management

The energy and material flow management ( ESSM ) aims at the ecological and economic impact of material and energy flows. The main objectives are the resource and material efficiency and the creation of sustainable cycles.

• 3.2.1 Spatio- Stoffliches energy and material flow management
• 3.2.2 Operationally - actor- related energy and material flow management
• 3.2.3 Operationally - process-related energy and material flow management
• 3.2.4 Product -Oriented Material Flow Management / Life Cycle Assessment

• 7.1 General literature on ESSM
• 7.2 Literature on applications
• 7.3 Literature on software support

• 8.1 Directly Related Topics
• 8.2 Same topic

• 9.1 portals
• 9.2 Software Support
• 9.3 institutes and universities
• 9.4 studies

Origins

Published in 1972 a number of scientists Dennis L. Meadows the first report to the Club of Rome, " The Limits to Growth ", in which they pointed inter alia to the scarcity of natural resources by the growth of humanity. This publication led to the first International Conference on the Human Environment (United Nations Conference on the Environment, in Stockholm in 1972 ) and the establishment of a separate Environment Programme ( UNEP) in Nairobi. This, in turn, coined the term "eco -development ", which among other things also included elements of the satisfaction of basic needs through their own resource base and resource-saving measures.

A milestone in the debate about long-term strategies for securing resources finally realized in 1987 published the Brundtland Report of the UN Special Commission " World Commission on Environment and Development "; within this report, the term "sustainable development " in its use today meaning was first defined:

"Sustainable Development is development meets the needs did of the present without Compromising the ability of future generations to meet Their Own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: 1 The concept of, needs ', in Particular the essential needs of the world 's poor, to more overriding priority Should Be givenName; and 2 The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment ability to meet present and future needs. "

Of particular importance here is the reference to the "idea of ​​limits," which has its origins in the first report to the Club of Rome and finds himself in later guardrail model of the WBGU.

With the Conference of Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was from the neologism " sustainability " or "sustainable development" finally a normative international guiding principle, which is generally based on the three -pillar model. The conservation of natural resources is time and again a central theme.

With the Enquete Commission " Protecting People and the Environment" work was "Energy and material flow management " is an important concept in the German environmental policy. Basically, " stream " as " ... the way a substance of recovery as a raw material through the various stages of processing to the stage of final products, the use / consumption of the product, where appropriate, its reuse / recovery until his disposal ... " defined. This energy flows typically are subsumed under streams. Material flow systems thus represent all definable systems in which moves material and energy flows and be transformed.

Energy and material flow management has become a far -ranging topic, which comes in versatile ways to use and has just as many links to adjacent topics. These were the first approaches of energy and material flow management are already in the works of Wassily Leontief, who developed in 1930 a methodology for representing economic processes in the form of input-output tables. Prior to a consideration of the material inputs and outputs already in chemistry in the analysis of chemical processes was known.

Need

In Policy and Research Energy and material flow management is now accepted overwhelmingly positive. This is demonstrated by the country-specific and national funding priorities, dealing exclusively with this topic. The resonance in the company, however, is far more likely to be described as restrained, although the positive economic aspects of energy and material flow management have long been occupied in various studies.

It shows the evolution of the cost structure in companies that the use of energy and material flow management is not only advisable but necessary. To make the material costs the largest cost in the manufacturing sector represents - and rising. For this trend, there are three main causes:

( 1) scarcity of resources leads to rising costs, such as steel and oil is observed.

(2) Companies in the manufacturing sector increasingly reduce the level of vertical and always use higher quality materials.

( 3) The time cost reduction programs focused largely on personnel costs or improvements in the process organization.

This has the consequence that the material costs more and more become the focus of optimization measures and thus lowering the cost of materials is essential in order to remain globally competitive.

The fact that this significant potential is certainly present, shows a study by Arthur D. Little, the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research and the Wuppertal Institute, which dealt with potentials and strategies to increase material efficiency in medium-sized companies. For this purpose, particularly material- intensive industries such as the manufacture of metal products and plastic products, identified and estimated cost reduction potential based on existing material efficiency studies and cost of production statistics. Overall, the material costs were estimated for approximately € 7 billion for the processing industry in Germany by the study of reduction potentials. In percentage terms, it involves cost reduction potential that can reach into the double digits of the total cost of the individual enterprise.

Activities in this area focus, inter alia, the reduction of material and resource losses by improving the quality (eg, by reduction of the Committee ), optimization of production processes, material recycling or the recycling or multiple use of industrial water.

Operating and Material Flow Management thus have good potential in estimating serving both the ecological and the economic objective dimension in terms of sustainability. In addition, also contribute to securing jobs, an increase in material efficiency. Thus, energy and material flow management proves to be an instrument which can bring about positive effects in all three dimensions of sustainability.

Molding

Material and energy flow management can be distinguished primarily with regard to the implementation Motiviation and after the object being viewed and the selected system boundaries.

Distinction according to motivation of the implementation

Under the criterion of motivation of implementation, energy and material flow management are divided into two basic trends:

• Industrial or economically motivated ESSM and
• Ecologically motivated ESSM.

Industrial energy and material flow management

In industrial energy and material flow management are substantially economic aspects of an individual company in the foreground. Forms and approaches of industrial energy and material flow management can be found already in the Leontief'schen input-output analysis, in various process simulation systems or optimization models of Operations Research. More recently, ecological approaches for action to be embedded as a further target dimension in industrial energy and material flow management. Under the umbrella of an ecology -oriented management calls RÜDIGER (2000) the following areas of an industrial energy and material flow management:

• Planning, analysis, optimization and control of economic production systems
• Support product development and innovation.

In the context of an industrial energy and material flow management and the requirements and approaches a material flow- based ( environmental ) are classified cost accounting.

Ecological energy and material flow management

In ecologically motivated energy and material flow management, the focus is on environmental aspects. This often is the prevention of waste, wastewater and avoidable energy use in the foreground ( Cleaner Production ). Objectives of an ecologically motivated material flow management include:

• Increasing resource productivity
• Absolute reduction in the consumption of resources
• Prevention and reduction of emissions and waste
• Preventing and reducing the use of ecologically harmful substances
• Increase the use of secondary materials
• Increasing the recyclability of products and residues.

Distinction on the system boundaries and object

Energy and material flow management can be divided into four levels according to the criterion of the system boundaries and the observed object:

• Spatially - Stoffliches energy and material flow management
• An apprentice - actor- related energy and material flow management (including regional energy and material flow management)
• Operational and process-related energy and material flow management
• Product-oriented material flow management / Life Cycle Assessment

Spatio- Stoffliches energy and material flow management

Under spatial- material flow management is understood according to the specifications of the Enquete Commission " Protecting People and the Environment", the " ... goal-oriented, responsible, holistic and effective influencing of material systems [ ... ], where goals from the ecological and the economic realm come, taking into account social aspects. " ( Enquete Commission (1994)) the term" material systems, " in this case are typically global and regional systems of action of specific chemical substances or compounds, as seen, for example, the global CO2 budget. However, such a holistic approach requires close cooperation between

• State ( in an accompanying role by specifying environmental conditions ),
• Economy (as directly acting agents ) and
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs, as a socially Organizations operating in a support capacity ).

Material flow management in this sense, has failed so far mainly to a lack of specific environmental requirements.

About Operationally - actor- related energy and material flow management

In inter-organizational level, a trend towards vertical ( collaborations between companies in different sectors along the value chain) and horizontal ( co-operation between companies in the same industry ) is observed collaborations. This is meant by material flow management, the optimization of entire product lines by the relevant economic actors or the optimized network of companies in each region over which material flows. In the context of inter-company material flow management are, for example, but also recycling organizations involved. About Operating material flow management can be essentially referred to as actor- based, since the largest part of the expense is plugged into the construction of actor networks and establishment of necessary structures. Have become known in this consideration of the collaborative activities of the mail order house Otto with garment manufacturers and cotton suppliers to develop an ecologically improved clothing assortment and cooperation of the Axel Springer publishing house with the paper manufacturers STORA and CANFOR on the ecological optimization of the paper chain. Despite these promising approaches, it must be noted that the practice of material flow management is still at intermediary level in the initial phase. Strategic alliances between relevant stakeholders fail substantially to external economic conditions (eg sub-optimal price ratios between primary and secondary raw materials ) and internal, organization -related barriers (eg lack of clear structures and responsibilities ).

Operationally - process-related energy and material flow management

The internal material flow management in contrast, is at an advanced stage and is defined as the input-and output -side balancing and optimizing ecologically relevant material and energy flows of a single process, process network or an entire enterprise. In-house material flow management can thus be referred to as process-oriented, because the focus is on the analysis and optimization of production structures. Through the development and introduction of numerous supportive IV systems, such as the accounting software GaBi, UMBERTO and AUDIT, considerable success in mapping complex material flows and the demonstration of specific reduction potentials were obtained. The detail of the material flow analysis is in this case determined by the task. In manufacturing companies, the focus is mostly on the comprehensive analysis of individual processes or specific locations.

Product -Oriented Material Flow Management / Life Cycle Assessment

The product-related material flow management has finally found meaning in many LCAs. The LCA is certified to ISO 14040 a "method for estimating the environmental aspects associated with a product and product-specific potential environmental effects." In this approach, an analysis and accounting of material and energy flows of a product throughout its life cycle takes place - from the cradle to the grave. Objectives are the identification of environmental improvement potentials and decision support in strategic planning or product development substantially. In recent times the term Life Cycle Assessment ( LCA) is more common. Have become known among other LCAs on graphic paper or reusable drinks packaging.

Areas of application

The use of material flow analysis and the preparation of material flow management concepts is now documented for various applications, eg for the modernization of old buildings, the furniture industry or industry in the automotive industry. After first or the Federal Republic of Germany, various environmental priorities were awarded by individual states, which dealt with the practical implementation of material flow management (eg the funding priority " material flow optimization in small and medium-sized enterprises " of the former State Agency for Environmental Protection ( LfU ) Baden- Württemberg), and the Federal Republic of Germany is concerned since 2005 strengthened with the topic. Result is the establishment of the German Material Efficiency Agency ( demea ) and the funding program VerMat, which should lead to a significant improvement of material efficiency in small and medium-sized companies.

Software support for the energy and material flow management

In the field of computer-aided material flow analysis currently offer several companies of software. The range of available software ranges from simple graphical tools (eg Sankey Editor and e! Sankey ) to sophisticated modeling tools (eg Umberto or GaBi software).

Teaching

Nationwide, there are 17 universities, within which the subject of operational energy and material flow management is treated in teaching (alphabetically by location ):

• University of Augsburg
• Academy of Sciences in Berlin: Course Operating Environment computer science
• Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management IfaS
• Technical University of Braunschweig
• Hochschule Bremen: Study Course in Environmental
• University of Bremen: Faculty of Production Technology, FG technology design and technology development
• University of Duisburg -Essen: Department of Environmental Economics and Controlling
• Ernst -Abbe- Fachhochschule Jena
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• University of Kassel: Master's program " Sustainable Development"
• University of Lüneburg: Faculty Sustainability (Sustainability Sciences)
• Otto -von- Guericke- University of Magdeburg
• Technical University of Munich: Institute of Resource and Energy Technology / Department of Material Flow Management
• Fachhochschule Nordhausen
• Georg -Simon- Ohm - Hochschule Nürnberg: Faculty of Business Administration, Master focus Supply Chain and Information Management
• Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
• Pforzheim University: Operations and Process Management, Business Game ESSM
• Zittau / Görlitz

These is the four-semester master's program " Master in International Material Flow Management (M.Sc.)", which is offered by the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld. It is also possible there to prove material flow management as a focus within the business administration courses.

Also at Pforzheim University, the first ( and so far only ) was planned and RPG developed on this subject and used in teaching.