Sustainable Value Chains
In the research group "Sustainable Value Chains" strategies for a more sustainable design of value chains and production systems as well as the affiliated logistical, organisational and information related functions are developed.
We define sustainability as the parallel consideration of economic, ecological and social aspects.
To cope with the related manifold problems, we use different approaches from economics, engineering as well as environmental and social sciences. We develop methods based on the regarded specific problems and transfer them to concrete problem situations.
One of our focus is on the development of computerbased planning systems, with which an integrated analysis, assessment and optimization of material streams, complex interconnected plants or also complete production networks is enabled. Other considered aspects are empirical stakeholder and acceptance analysis.
Aim of the works is the development of sustainable concepts for material stream management and for the decision support on regional, national and global scale. The research focus is currently on industrial plants, products and networks of the metal, energy, chemical and automotive industry as well as on the utilization of renewable raw materials.
Overview methods:
- investment and production costs estimation
- assessment of investment
- operations research
- empirical social studies (especially questionaire design and statistical methods)
- Life Cycle Assessment
