Material Flow Based Improvement Assessments

The research project MaFImA is based on the method of material flow cost accounting (MFCA) and aims to improve the method significantly. Within a resource efficiency project, measures for an examined existing production system shall be systematically derived and assessed with the help of an expert system. The search for measures represents a costly part of a successful resource efficiency project because it requires a lot of technical expertise and detailed knowledge about the company. MaFImA does not only support the systematic derivation of measures, but enables the holistic assessment from both an economic and an ecological point of view. Compared to today’s stage of development of the MFCA method, which only considers costs, the pursued development of the method is future-oriented and will increase its relevance accordingly.

To achieve the goals the MaFImA project strives for, past MFCA and resource efficiency projects will be analyzed, oral and written interviews will be conducted, brief expertises will be consulted and finally, concrete case examples will be carried out to validate the research results.

The project partner ifu GmbH will develop mathematical algorithms within the project in order to be able to execute comparative scenario calculations based on an IT-supported expert system.

MaFImA will essentially promote the dissemination of the MFCA method, particularly in SME, and thereby drive forward the topic of resource efficiency. Baden-Wuerttemberg hereby once more asserts its claim to be innovator in the field of resource efficiency.