Sankey Diagrams for Material Flow Management

Mario Schmidt, a professor at Pforzheim’s University of Applied Sciences has published a paper on Sankey diagrams and their use in material flow management. The article, entitled “Der Einsatz von Sankey-Diagrammen im Stoffstrommanagement”, has two main sections: In the first part the author reviews how and where this type of diagrams have been used since they first appeared in a publication by Capt. Riall Sankey. This section also contains numerous samples: Sankey diagrams displaying the energy efficiency of the steam engine and of a 1911 a race car, material flow diagram from the iron and steel industries and many others. In the second part Schmidt elaborates on the methodology of Sankey diagrams and explains how extensions to the original Sankey diagrams (e.g. for cost flows or for material stocks) can be made.

The article is in German (sorry folks!), but according to Schmidt he’s working on an English publication…