Improving resource efficiency in an ice cream factory based on material flow cost accounting method / Mohammad Amin Ameri

• Main Author: Mohammad Amin , Ameri
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences; Q Science (General)
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/9180/1/Mohammad_Amin_Ameri.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/9180/6/amin.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/9180/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

Due to the anthropogenic activities for the last 300 years, the earth has had so many changes. Human’s first conflict with nature started after the industrial revolution in 18th centuries, when factories were being built one after another. Among all these industries, food industry like many others generate wastes but the attention to this industry has always been less as the waste characteristics is non-hazardous and biodegradable. The main challenges for food industry when it comes to waste are: packaging, processing wastes and their influence over municipal solid waste. For waste reduction, there has been many tools and approaches in which Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) is the latest. MFCA was applied for the first time in Malaysia in an SME and an Ice Cream factory in Ipoh. Based on the MFCA approach, one product with highest amount of production was picked. Next step was to study the product’s process flow, data collection, data analysis with STAN software and countermeasure to reduce the cost and increase the profit. The result was interesting as waste generation regardless of its measurement unit becomes more expensive as the process moves forward. Therefore, after identifying the source of waste, the main efforts was to reduce waste and costs at the later stages. Even though the cost reduction might not be significant but by considering the number of SMEs in Malaysia, even small amount of saving from wastes could have a positive impact on country’s economy and environment.