Assists sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other industries tied to bio-based economies A new engineering platform offers collaborative cloud options for sustainable manufacturing. March 17, 2021 An engineering innovator has developed a cloud-based platform aimed at mapping inter-industry dependence networks for materials and waste generation among manufacturers in sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other industries tied to bio-based economies. Shweta Singh of the Purdue College of Engineering led a team that developed a new method of automated creation of physical input-output tables to track flows in manufacturing networks. The work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The physical input-output tables provide a detailed mapping of inter-industrial dependence to meet a manufacturing target that can help determine economic and environmental outcomes for manufacturing pathways based on material requirements.