Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – For cost/price
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-18
2002-12-03
Trammell, James P. (Department: 3621)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
For cost/price
C705S028000, C705S030000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06490569
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and more particularly to a process for combining Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with Activity Based Costing (ABC) using relational database software. This software program application, referred to herewithin as the LCAPIX module, can be used to determine, by a proactive means, what the environmental burden and associated costs are or may be for current and future products, processes, or services. Specifically, the software utilizes elements normally associated with Activity Based Costing, including drivers, driver values and driver factors for determining the environmental burden using associated valuation for a complete Life Cycle Assessment. Additional uses of the software program application includes providing a means by which an environmental management strategy can be implemented using International Standards Organization (ISO) 14000 guidelines adopted in 1992 for Life Cycle Assessment, and also provides a means for improving ecoefficiency.
DISCUSSION OF THE BACKGROUND
Life Cycle Assessment/Analysis; LCA, can be defined as an objective process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or service by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment. The assessment includes the entire life cycle, from “cradle-to-grave” of the product, process, or activity, and encompasses the extraction and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use, reuse, maintenance, recycling, and final disposal. A complete Life Cycle Assessment/Analysis is comprised of the following three stages;
(I) The Inventory Analysis, which is an objective quantification of the raw materials, energy requirements, air/water effluents, solid wastes, manufacturing, processing, formulation, distribution and transportation, use/reuse/maintenance, recycling, and other processes and services required within a previously defined system boundary. The LCA Inventory must have scientific basis, be quantitative, appropriately detailed, replicable, comprehensive, broadly applicable, consistent, and peer-reviewed.
(II) Impact Assessment, which is the stage where the Inventory is analyzed for its effect on the environment and includes the following steps:
(1) Classification, defined as the characterization of the inventoried elements
(2) Characterization, which is the analysis and quantification of the inventoried elements, and
(3) Valuation which is how the data of different specific categories associated with the inventoried elements are weighted and compared for further interpretation.
The valuation data should be subjected to a sensitivity analysis or equivalent analysis to ensure meaningfulness within the scientific and technical community
(III) Improvement Assessment, here defined as the systematic evaluation of the needs and opportunities required to reduce an environmental burden. This involves changes in the product design, raw material use, processing, waste management, etc. required to improve the product, process, or service.
This conventional approach to LCA was developed in 1991-1993 by SETAC, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and then subsequently adopted by the ISO 14000 committee (International Standards Organization) on Environmental Management Systems and as schematically presented in FIG.
2
. The arrows associated with
FIG. 2
indicate that the “triangle” of (I) inventory, (II) impact analysis, and (III) improvement analysis (or assessment) is a continuous process so that improvement, by reduction of environmental burden, can be accomplished.
Activity based costing, ABC, can be defined as a non-traditional accounting method which encompasses determination of the costs associated with any action that can be performed by a human or machine. Traditional accounting reports generally have little in common with manufacturing results. Activity Based Costing/Management (ABC/M) is a realization that traditional accounting procedures do not empower management to sufficiently identify and reduce costs and wastes. Activity Based Management, ABM, analyzes and utilizes the information supplied by Activity Based Costing to yield continuous improvement strategies and conditions. ABC includes determination of the costs for all products, projects or services associated with an activity so that continuous cost reduction improvement strategies and conditions can be accomplished.
A typical approach to ABC includes the use of drivers, driver factors, and driver values, which are specific to a task or set of tasks associated with the activity that is being reviewed on a cost basis. Once the specific operations are determined, for example welding for the manufacture of a metal box, drivers are developed that would include length of the weld and the time taken to perform the welding operation. The driver units, for example could include inches, for the length of the weld, and minutes for the time taken in welding (as shown in the screen capture of
FIG. 11
d
). Driver values may be estimated or taken directly from the product, process, or service based on the knowledge of the individual performing the task required for the item(s) under analysis.
In the past, the conventional approach to performing LCA or ABC has been either by humans writing “pen and paper” reports that took weeks or months to prepare. These reports were often static in that the data and subsequent analysis could not be easily changed or compared as new or additional information became available.
FIG. 1
shows the conventional LCA approach using energy and with raw materials inputs. Assessing effluent outputs completes the major elements of a traditional LCA. With the advent of software and spreadsheet systems such as Excel and Lotus 1,2,3 together with the provision and use of electronic databases, both LCA and ABC studies have been used at an increasing rate because the manpower and costs associated with performing such studies has decreased dramatically.
Within the last 10 years, LCA software programs have been developed to manipulate data within databases and provide valuation results according to the traditional approach shown in
FIG. 1
, where the data from these LCA software programs is predominately in the form of mass and energy balances including input and output to and from the manufacturing site or within various operations inside the manufacturing site. Likewise, for processes or services, data is provided regarding inputs or influents and outputs or effluents.
FIG. 3
is a block diagram depicting the LCA approach for the available software tools existing prior to the present invention. In the conventional approach, using mass and energy balance data, the user provides only the amounts of each inventoried item. The software tool then provides the valuation units (ELU's—environmental load units for example—or other valuation schemes) from a database and the program calculates the total environmental impact. The missing information in this approach is significant, in that several inventoried items required for each process specified by the user, are not included. Dimensions of the product, size of the process equipment, or time required to perform a task are also elements missing from the conventional LCA software program.
In short, there has not been an easy and useful technique to provide for analysis of the product, process or service based on the specific tasks or activities required for each of these items (while also incorporating data from mass and energy balances).
As can now be understood by the foregoing explanation, there has also been no known system for analysis of the manufacture of a product, development of a process, or provision of a service that allows for performing a Life Cycle Assessment in a manner such that an Activity Based Costing approach can also be included. Further, there has been no earlier known inventive concept for combining these two traditional methods from the two uniquely differen
Grune Carla Owen
Grune Guerry Leonard
Sharma Sanjay
Greene Daniel L
Grune Guerry L.
KM Ltd.
Pennie & Edmonds LLP
Trammell James P.
LandOfFree
System for combining life cycle assessment with activity... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System for combining life cycle assessment with activity..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System for combining life cycle assessment with activity... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2959453