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A new discipline in the era of knowledge economy: material flow science and technology
Author(s) -
Xu Shou Bo
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
systems research and behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 1092-7026
DOI - 10.1002/sres.749
Subject(s) - material flow analysis , material flow , china , science, technology and society , flow (mathematics) , position (finance) , engineering ethics , engineering , computer science , sociology , social science , business , political science , ecology , mathematics , geometry , finance , law , biology , waste management
The paper puts forward a new Chinese concept of ‘Wu Liu’ (material flow) which is different from the concepts of logistics and physical distribution popular in the West and Japan in four aspects: characteristics, contents, properties and applications. The paper points out that the research on material flow science and technology in China has lagged far behind, especially in the application aspect of material flows which is not in line with the position that material flow holds as the third biggest backbone industry group of the national economy. The paper also discusses issues in researching material flow in economic development, social development, as well as natural sciences. At the end, a framework of material flow science and technology is proposed which includes four components: disciplines supporting material flow science and technology, engineering and technological disciplines supporting material flow science and technology, theoretical disciplines supporting material flow science and technology, and other disciplines supporting material flow science and technology. About forty disciplines are related to material flow science and technology which need to be either built or enhanced. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.