Criticality of material resources in industrial enterprises - structural basics of an operational model

Resource use in industries is attended by various risks for companies. Sustainable decision making thus requires a valid information basis. Most companies, however, neglect major information concerning the application of resources. While many analysis in this area have been published on a national level, few focus on operations in companies. In this paper we present structural basics of an operational model to quantify resource criticality on the business level based on the diffusion curve of environmental problems. Therefore, we describe methodological procedures, identify various causes that may lead to possible effects within upstream and downstream system and present tailored indicators. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.