Obstacles to material efficiency

There are various reasons that can hinder efficient use of materials. These include, for example, start-up problems with plants, poor process control, neglect of waste products, lack of opportunities for material substitution or weight reduction, possible process substitution, damage during transport or limited repairability.

Unfortunately, the saving of materials is often neglected behind aspects such as customer satisfaction, scheduling and quality. Smaller companies in particular often lack the time to acquire new knowledge, they have no access to specialized engineers, there is a lack of operational organisation, sufficient equity capital and occasionally also space for improvements.

If manufactured to order for other companies, the design cannot be changed, which means that potential savings through design changes cannot be realised. Exaggerated quality requirements from customers often lead to unnecessary rejects, which can then only be disposed of as scrap.

Although employees in all areas of the company are often aware of the need for high material efficiency and therefore have both technical and value competence, there is often a lack of the necessary competence to act. This is because employees need to focus on more pressing goals. In such cases, management is responsible for finding and using potential for material savings.

An insufficient rough investment calculation can also inhibit material savings. The amortization period for main processes should be a maximum of two years and for ancillary processes a maximum of one year. As a result, many profitable investments with a longer useful life are not implemented.

Companies and their employees are often risk-averse. Therefore, experiments with current production processes are often avoided and new, material-saving processes are introduced.

The shortage of skilled workers expected in the future will further impede the increase in material efficiency. The VDI estimates that by 2029 there will be a shortage of 84,000 engineers in Germany. Since small and medium-sized companies can only fall back on foreign skilled workers to a limited extent, it is to be feared that increasing material efficiency in companies will play a subordinate role in the future.