Combination of Optimization Methods and Material Flow Analysis for Improvement of Operational Material Use (KOMSA): Concept and its Implementation

Abstract

The research project KOMSA makes a contribution to an efficient use of materials and energy in industrial production. An innovative combination of methods from material flow analysis, as realized by the software tool Umberto®, and optimization strategies commonly used in operations research closes an important methodological and instrumental gap. Our aim is to develop a material flow based optimization tool that enables users with just basic knowledge of operations research and optimization theory to nonetheless profit from well established optimization algorithms. Beyond their classical function to map one-to-one relationships within material flow systems, the flexibility of material flow networks shall be exploited in order to support users in their task of defining and structuring material flow based decision problems.