Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) is a management tool that developed in Germany in the late 1990s. It is used to enhance the transparency of business procedures so that the company can trace the process flows, transformation, as well as the status of its production inputs.

MFCA is widely used to help the management better understand the potential environmental and financial consequences of their business practices. It has been promoted by government as it makes all environment-related costs and benefits visible.

Here are some ways that MFCA also can be applied in our daily life.

1. Quantify the invisibles

MFCA provides an avenue to measure the resource usage and the environment related cost that the business. These variables, especially environmental impacts, are usually hard to quantify. Hence, with MFCA, the companies will have a better idea of their business processes and their impacts on both the society and the environment.

In our daily life, time is something that is relatively ‘invisible’ as well. You cannot really see or feel the passing of time and the only way for you to confirm the time is to check your watch. It is often hard to build a good sense of timing. However, this is essential to your time management and along the way you achieve your goals. In order to get ‘extra time’, you should be able to gauge its amount first.

A time tracking software may help you ‘quantify’ your time. Everything becomes so visible about what you have been doing during different periods of time.

TimeCamp is one of such software. Most importantly, it is totally FREE if you sign up for their solo package. It provides you a great way to monitor your productivity. You will also know how you have been losing to different distractions. Unlike the free trial packages in many other websites, it does not need your credit card details. By accessing through this link, you will also enjoy a 10% discount when you upgrade your packages.

Besides basic time tracking, you will also be able to receive productivity reports generated. You can access the app both on your phone and your desktop. This will be a great tool for you to monitor and manage your time among all your busy schedules.

If you are currently engaging in a project with your customers, you can also purchase other packages through TmeCamp at very affordable prices. You will be able to access other more advanced functions such as quick online invoicing, time-sheet approvals as well as billable time and budgeting through their other packages.

When you treat time with full respect, it will return good favors of some ‘extra time’ – in terms of high productivity and efficiency.

2. Recognize the cost of action

Another reason for why MFCA has received so much recognition is also because it recognizes the cost of the business practices, both visible cost, i.e. drop of stock prices, and invisible cost, i.e. environmental impacts.

In our life, we should also develop a habit to constantly recognize the cost of our daily activities. Once you start to quantify the ‘invisible costs’ of these activities, you may have a better idea of how you should better plan for your time.

Sometimes many of our actions may seem to be done at ‘free cost’. For example, staying at home during the weekend and watching Netflix for the two whole days sounds relaxing and entertaining. If you can get your friend’s Netflix account, you don’t even have to pay a single dollar. However, what you have paid during these two days is the time that you spent watching these videos. Instead, you could have spent this time doing something more helpful towards achieving your goals.

When we can minimize the use of time that have ‘high cost’, we will be able to get some ‘extra time’.

3. Find a buddy to work together

Through MFCA, companies also can improve its coordination and communication between different departments on the use of resources within the company. This promotes the efficiency of utilizing the resources and lowers down the cost of business.

In order to become efficient in our life, we won’t be able to ‘communicate’ with time itself. What we can do may be constantly check upon our schedule and see if we are still on the right track. However, sometimes we like to find excuses for our ‘relaxing moments’ and may just tell ourselves that ‘I just take a small break, it’s nothing’.

When you are making excuses like this, you are actually losing the chance of grabbing some ‘extra time’ for your work.

While you are striving towards certain goals, find a buddy that have the same ambition with you. Share plans and schedules with each other and regularly update if you have followed your designed routine. In front of your buddy, it may no longer be easy for you to continue with your excuses for wasting time. In addition, having someone to work alongside also gives you more motivation and keeps you away from the various distractions.

In this series, there are also other articles discussing about how to improve efficiency and time management with different tools such as lean thinking, Six Sigma, as well as Kaizen philosophy. Feel free to check them out!