Material Flow Cost Accounting as a Way to Apply Lean Manufacturing

Abstract

The industrial sector is under an increasing pressure to achieve quality products with the lowest possible cost and environmental impacts, leading to the necessity of developing methods to support management decision. The Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) and the Lean Management tools usually provide that support, separately. The MFCA assess the economic and environmental performance of the production system, evaluating the physical flows in monetary units, presenting the results in terms of costs of the product itself and the waste. The Lean philosophy analyses, mainly, the physical flows and physical waste. Lean methods/tools allow the diagnosis of different systems and uses problem solving strategies towards continuous improving. This paper present an approach combining both methods/tools, MFCA and Lean, supported by its application to a real case study. This approach allows a clear and quick identification of critical cost and energy related problems, allowing an early problem-solving phase.