Abstract
The pursuit of sustainable resource use by manufacturing companies is driven by resource scarcity, environmental awareness, and cost savings potentials. To address these issues, Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) has been developed and applied as an effective environmental management tool. Within MFCA’s general allocation, the accounts of products and losses are overrated by weight or volume. However, such a method is incompatible with Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing because of industry characteristics in which primary inputs and products are measured by area. Based on MFCA, this case study systematically established several linear cost calculation models along the production process for capturing the actual waste flows as well as performing cost-benefit analysis. The recognition of previously ignored losses offered the incentive to find appropriate indicators to conduct cost-benefit analysis on hotspots for losses. Loss identification and analysis indicated that machining and wiring are the necessities and priorities of process optimization for resource efficiency improvement measures. Therefore, this research could not only advance the achievement of a profitable and sustainable production while improving resource efficiency at the source but could also provide support for decision making in PCB manufacturing.
Highlights
Sustainable resource use remains one of the most critical environmental issues because of global resource scarcity [1]; enhancing resource efficiency runs on a political agenda [2]
The hidden costs become visible in the process system, in contrast with conventional cost accounting in which only waste disposal costs are perceived as material losses and which account for environmental impacts
When material losses are quantified in the monetary unit, the data obtained separately by each quantity are summarized in a matrix suitable for Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) analysis and potential identification to enhance resource efficiency
Summary
Sustainable resource use remains one of the most critical environmental issues because of global resource scarcity [1]; enhancing resource efficiency runs on a political agenda [2]. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require responsible and sustainable production patterns for doing more with less resources such that a business can help improve the potential of resource and cost savings by identifying hotspots of environmental and economic impacts within the value chain [7]. Material losses represent the largest cost for manufacturing industries [2]. For manufacturing corporations seeking to remain competitive, sustainable resource management is a prerequisite of increasing their relevance to the improvement measures proposed but is characterized by a lack of precise transparency regarding material flows, cost losses, and environmental impact reduction potential [8,9]. The potentials of manufacturing companies have been increasingly considered through the identification of resource-inefficient hotspots concerning environmental-friendly production emissions control and waste reduction [9,12,13]
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