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Material flow

About: Material flow is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3050 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36844 citations. The topic is also known as: material stream.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper proposes a framework for “material flow assessment in manufacturing” that promotes greater understanding of material flow and flexibility to explore innovative options for improvement, and highlights the benefits ofmaterial flow modeling within manufacturing systems to support advances in increased material efficiency.
Abstract: Improving material efficiency is widely accepted as one of the key challenges facing manufacturers in the future. Increasing material consumption is having detrimental impacts on the environment as a result of their extraction, processing, and disposal. It is clear that radical improvements in material efficiency are required to avoid further environmental damage and sustain the manufacturing sector. Current resource management approaches are predominantly used to improve material consumption solely in economic terms. Meanwhile, environmental assessment methodologies can determine sources of significant environmental impact related to a product; however, a methodology to effectively assess material efficiency in production systems is currently not available. This paper highlights the benefits of material flow modeling within manufacturing systems to support advances in increased material efficiency, proposing a framework for “material flow assessment in manufacturing” that promotes greater understanding o...

24 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, two panoramic MFA analyses of the Hebei iron and steel industry in 2005 and 2010 were conducted respectively, which form a continuous analysis of scale, structure, and efficiency in material metabolism for HISI.
Abstract: The application of material flow analysis (MFA) as a tool produces an objective assessment on scale, structure, operation efficiency and other aspects of the development of iron and steel industry in Hebei Province. This study is based on the framework of “Economy-wide material flow accounts and derived indicators: A methodological guide;” however, some necessary corrections have been made for the analysis of material metabolism according to the characteristics of industrial MFA and the reality in the Hebei iron and steel industry (HISI). Two panoramic MFA analyses of HISI in 2005 and 2010 were conducted respectively, which form a continuous analysis of scale, structure, and efficiency in material metabolism for HISI. The results show that between 2005 and 2010, there was a rapid development of HISI as a result of huge consumption of resource and energy. Between these years, the material inputs and material consumption increased by 3.30 times and 4.98 times, respectively, leading to serious environmental degradation and significant waste of resource and energy. Although the scale of material metabolism kept increasing, the rate of increase slowed. Hence, the total amount of waste emission increased year after year; specifically, gas waste witnessed an increase of 9.7% each year. Clearly, there is an excessive and growing dependence on primary energy resources. The amount of iron ore imports increased 2.61 times in 2010 compared to 2005. In order to achieve sustainable development in HISI, we recommend the following: improving technologies, strengthening material recycling, and promoting circular economy.

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a computer-aided design (CAD) system for predicting metal flow and roll stresses in plate rolling was developed, which is capable of predicting: (i) the lateral spread, elongation, boundaries of the deformation zone, and the location of the neutral plane.

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the material flow system of paper in Taiwan, and developed a supply chain network of paper flows, and estimated the reduction potential with a material input-output Markov chain model which maps the distribution and loss of materials on the supply chain processes.

23 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of three difference kinds of flows on supply chain performance; information, materials and financial flows was investigated in manufacturing companies in the northern region of Malaysia and the results showed that information flow and material flow do not have significant impacts on the performance of supply chain management.
Abstract: In a challenging business environment, organizations not only need to improve their performances to meet customers' requirements but ultimately they need to achieve customers 'satisfaction. This study aims to study the impact of three difference kind of flows on supply chain performance; information, materials and financial flows. This study is focused on manufacturing companies in the northern region of Malaysia. Data has been collected by using questionnaires that have been to 202 manufacturing companies in the northern region of Malaysia. Results from the analyses show that information flow and material flow do not have significant impacts on the performance of supply chain management, while financial flow has a significant impact on the performance of supply chain management. The implications of the findings for the effective management of the supply chain in manufacturing firms are discussed. Introduction The business environment has evolved rapidly and is constantly changing. In the rapidly changing environment, organizations face intense pressure to compete and gain a leading edge over their rivals. According to Sundaram and Mehta (2002), economic globalization over the past two decades has led to fierce competition as organizations can operate boundary-less. Apart from ensuring quality, organizations also need to ensure speedy and inexpensive products and are continuously improving their internal operations and at the same time focusing on external operations which led to the concept of supply chain management (SCM). Robertson, Fagerhaug, Randmoel, Schuldmaier and Prenninger (2002) claim that SCM is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies. The product flow includes the movement of goods from a supplier to a customer, as well as any customer returns or service needs. Today, goods' movements or material flows require a complex network of many providers to ensure capacity coverage. Businesses need to think about and plan much more carefully, how they are going to move products, since moving products makes up about 60 percent of logistics costs in the U.S. market (Lofgren et al., 2005). The information flow involves transmitting orders and updating the status of delivery. Lofgren et al. describe how information flow is a key component of today's supply chain; it is the mechanism that brings trading partners together. In the past, they say, businesses looked only inside their four walls for ways to reduce waste. Today, businesses have to look outside for ways to become more efficient, and many companies are turning to partnerships. "The information flow provides the opportunity to really get at the inefficiencies". The financial flow consists of credit terms, payment schedules and consignment as well as title ownership, Lofgren et al. (2005). They explain how the funds or financial flow drives the need to efficiently move money. Fundamentally, all of the partners who come together are in business to make money and yet, how those dollars flow is not often thought about. The efficiencies of cash flows, however, can be increased. "The ability to organize and extract important information on how a product flows is critical in managing this flow, and effectiveness in this area leads to healthy cash flows." Hence, today the supply chain strategy has evolved and the integration of supply chain is the main focus so that the flows of information, materials and financial are efficient. There are several schools of thoughts concerning the evolution of the integrated process of supply chain, as described by Cigolini, Cozzi and Perona (2004). The "traditional logistics" school (authors Scott and Westbrook, 1991) began their research on how to reduce the fluctuations in material flows among channel partners, particularly in the areas of logistics and transportation with the objective of improving supply chain efficiency by reducing inventory levels. …

23 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023120
2022221
2021110
2020139
2019174
2018167