Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) to Manage Continuous Productivity Improvement (Case Study: Recovery Section (Line 6) and Cutting and Packaging section of Iran Aluminum Factory (IRELCO))

Green productivity strategy with foresight and relying on the foundations of productivity improvement is considered as a key strategy in line with the goals of the Millennium Development and Sustainable Development. The most important green productivity technique is material and energy flow cost accounting, which in addition to having a complementary role with other ISO 14000 series (environmental management system), includes other green productivity techniques such as Deming cycle, Six Sigma, 3R and there are cases like this.

In this paper, in addition to tracking the flow of materials and energy in production processes, quantitative and monetary estimation of quantification centers, the balance of inputs and outputs in each part is estimated and also the potential for reducing materials and energy in these sectors is specified.

According to the calculations, the amount of material and energy losses was equal to 17910.6425 tons worth 901761.462 million Rials. The most losses are related to the "CD Hall" quantification center in the resuscitation section and the "cutting" quantification center in the cutting and packaging section, which accounted for 51.61% and 99.94% of the total waste in each section, respectively. Also, the lowest losses were related to the "FTP" calibration center in the resuscitation section and the "transportation" calibration center in the cutting and packaging section.

As calculations and its results, by using Material Flow Cost Accounting in sections that considered in IRALCO, weight of wastages equals to 17910,6425 tons that worth 901761,462 Rials. According to the findings and estimations most of wastages belongs to measurement center of “CD hall” in reduction and measurement of “cutting” in cutting and packing section, respectively with 51/61% and 99/94% of total wastages. Furthermore the lowest amount of wastages belong to "FTP[1]" measurement center in reduction section and “transferring”  measurement center in cutting and packing section that has few wastages.

Material Flow Cost Accounting is one of the green productivity techniques that by reducing production inputs consumption per production output unit or provision of services unit, reducing production costs, reducing wastages in production processes leads to increasing quality and competitiveness of product and also it leads to economic growth and profitability environmental protection and improving production efficiency of the organization.