Implementation of Corporate Material Flow Management in Automotive Suppliers – Development of Methods

Abstract

Saving resources is a major objective of corporate environmental protection. The reduction of material consumption and the minimisation of waste material optimise the environmental record of enterprises and help to save money. Additional, industry branches have specific requirements to balance and report material flows such as IMDS 2 in automotive industry. In order to achieve this, corporate material and energy flows 3 have to be controlled, managed and reported, which is the task of the Material Flow Management. Main element of this management circle is the analysis of material flows. The analysis has to be integrated in organisation as well as in information system for an efficient and continuously material flow reporting. Different methods exist for the efficient introduction of a corporate material flow management. Either, production and regarding material flows can be model and calculated in material flow model using software tools or ERP data can be extracted to get a material balance. In the second way, the ERP System has to be extended with additional information and new functionalities have to be implemented. The practicability of the method depends on initial situation on corporate site. In a case study with the automotive supplier TRW Restraints Occupant Systems, Alfdorf (Germany), the implementation of Corporate Material Flow Management is discussed against the background of specific conditions of mass production in automotive supplier industry.