A decision support tool for improving value chain resilience to critical materials in manufacturing

A number of non-energy materials have been identified by the EU as being critical to the manufacturing sector and wider economy. A material is termed a critical material when it has a “high economic importance combined with a high risk of supply shortage” relative to other materials as defined by the EU. This criticality of specific raw materials will become increasingly acute as the escalating use of finite resources continues, driven by increasing consumer demand for an ever wider variety of products by a growing global population. Critical materials are vital elements in the value chain yet many manufacturers are unaware if they are affected by the use of a critical material in their operations. We have previously developed a framework that takes a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and mitigating risk associated with critical materials bilaterally up and down the value chain. In this paper we examine how this framework can be facilitated for application in industry through the specification and development of a decision support tool.