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Adopting material flow cost accounting model for improved waste-reduction decisions in a micro-brewery

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Abstract

This paper report findings from a pilot study in a micro-brewery that demonstrates the adoption of the MFCA model to capture adequate waste-cost information to support and improve waste-reduction decisions. While studies have shown that applying MFCA is a relevant tool in providing both financial and non-financial waste information for improving waste-reduction decisions in large- and medium-sized organizations, its adoption in a micro-brewery set-up is lacking. Findings reveal that the MFCA model can be adopted within different management systems to improve waste-reduction decision and cost savings. A significant implication for practice is the potential to adopt the MFCA model under different organizational circumstances that generally do not support systematically structured management approaches. A major significance of the findings in this study serves to focus the attention of owner–managers in micro-business circumstances on the management of product material and energy losses as well as the inclusion of certain production processes costs in product cost.

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Acknowledgments

The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Financial Management, School of Accountancy, University of Limpopo, Sovenga, 0727, South Africa

    Michael B. Fakoya

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  1. Michael B. Fakoya
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Correspondence to Michael B. Fakoya.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 2.

Table 2 Brewery process record sheet for each batch
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Fakoya, M.B. Adopting material flow cost accounting model for improved waste-reduction decisions in a micro-brewery. Environ Dev Sustain 17, 1017–1030 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-014-9586-x

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