Life Cycle Inventory Software (LCI)

Life Cycle Inventory Software is used to build and manage the quantitative model behind an LCA. The inventory covers what enters and leaves the product system: materials, energy, water, fuels, chemicals and other resources on the input side, and products, co-products, emissions, wastewater, scrap and waste on the output side.

The supplied ComplyMarket LCA manual defines LCI as cumulative physical, resource and emission flows before environmental characterization. LCI is therefore the inventory layer; LCIA comes later and converts relevant elementary flows into environmental impact indicators.

Good LCI software should connect product composition to flows, flows to processes, processes to providers, and foreground operations to background inventory data while preserving units, locations, assumptions and evidence.

LCI work becomes difficult when data is spread across ERP exports, supplier declarations, engineering files, utility records and spreadsheets. Missing materials, wrong units, duplicate inputs, incorrect geographies or unsupported providers can distort the model.

A structured workflow helps teams connect product versions to defined BOMs, tie supplier and facility information to inventory lines, document process data by location and year, and review assumptions before calculation. ComplyMarket’s LCA preparation guidance calls for product identity, BOM and supplier data, manufacturing inputs, logistics, use-phase information, end-of-life scenarios, method information, uncertainty and data-quality evidence before modelling begins.

ComplyMarket’s BOM structure can represent a hierarchy from finished products through components and materials to substances, supporting product composition as connected parent-child relationships rather than a flat list. The wider system also provides a product tree showing direct and indirect components, materials and substances connected to a product.

1. Define the Product, Unit and Boundary

Start with product identity and the declared or functional unit. Confirm product mass, geography, reference year, service life and system boundary. These choices determine what belongs in the inventory.

The supplied ComplyMarket workflow also requires one physical inventory database to be selected for a study rather than mixing background databases line by line, helping keep flow, process and provider choices consistent.

2. Build and Reconcile the BOM

Import or create the BOM and capture relevant materials, parts and packaging. Record quantities, origin, recycled content and supplier or facility information where known. Then compare BOM mass with the declared product mass and investigate significant differences.

A structured mass balance is important because missing components, incorrect units or duplicated lines can propagate through later LCI calculations.

3. Map Product Data to LCI Flows and Processes

A BOM name is not automatically an LCI dataset. Each physical line needs the correct product flow, reference property and unit, followed by a suitable production, market, recycling or supplier-specific process.

The supplied workflow requires manual review of low-confidence matches and checks geography, technology, reference year and process type. Recommendations should therefore support expert review rather than replace evidence-based modelling decisions.

4. Configure Exchanges and Exact Providers

Each exchange needs a direction, amount or formula, unit and provider. ComplyMarket’s documented workflow also supports line-level geography, uncertainty, cost or revenue, avoided-product or avoided-waste flags, evidence and Pedigree-style quality ratings.

This structure helps prevent errors such as using a generic provider when an exact process is known or entering a characterized CO2e value where an inventory exchange is required.

5. Build Foreground Processes and Enter Site Inventory

Foreground processes represent product-specific operations such as manufacturing, assembly, packaging, use or waste treatment. Physical BOM inputs should be assigned to the process where they enter, with a quantitative reference, location, year, technology and documented assumptions.

At process level, the inventory can capture electricity, heat, water, fuels, chemicals, auxiliaries, wastewater, waste, scrap and direct emissions. The ComplyMarket manual recommends measured site data where available and documenting how facility totals are allocated to the declared unit.

6. Construct and Validate the Product System

The product system links the reference product, processes and providers into the graph used for calculation. The ComplyMarket workflow includes checks for provider linking, multiple valid providers, process representation, allocation, parameters and the reference amount before the LCI matrices are solved.

This concept is consistent with openLCA documentation, which describes a product system as connected processes and flows used to calculate inventory results and impact assessment results. Its inventory-result view reports the input and output flows of the product system together with their quantities and units.

Validation then reviews scope consistency, BOM mass balance, flow and provider mapping, foreground assignments, product-system links, uncertainty and method compatibility before calculation.

LCI and LCIA: Keep the Layers Separate

ComplyMarket’s manual explicitly separates these layers and includes an LCI-only reporting path for inspecting raw cumulative flows without applying an LCIA method. This separation is consistent with the ISO LCA framework.

A strong inventory should be reproducible, not merely calculable. Teams should be able to identify where important values came from, which period and facility they represent, whether they are measured or estimated, and what uncertainty remains.

Practical controls include consistent units, mass reconciliation, supplier evidence, documented proxies, geography and technology review, and assumptions recorded at process or exchange level.

ComplyMarket’s documented reporting workflow includes LCA reports, CSV inventory/result exports, Excel-compatible workbooks and a calculation manifest or model record containing database and method releases, provider selections, parameters, scenarios and timestamps.

For B2B organizations, structured LCI management can help:

• Build a reusable data foundation for repeated LCA and product footprint studies
• Identify missing supplier, material or manufacturing data before calculation
• Improve traceability from BOM lines to processes, providers and evidence
• Reduce manual reconciliation across spreadsheets and disconnected files
• Support scenario modelling when design, sourcing or production changes
• Prepare structured inventory information for environmental reporting and EPD workflows
• Create clearer audit records for internal reviewers, customers or external specialists

The value is not simply faster calculation. The larger advantage is stronger control over the data and modelling decisions that determine whether an LCA result is credible and reproducible.

Begin with a clear product reference and defined study purpose rather than collecting data without a modelling structure. Establish which product version, facility, production period and functional or declared unit the inventory represents.

Prioritize primary data for important foreground processes where reliable measurements are available. When secondary datasets, estimates or proxies are needed, document why they were selected and how well their geography, technology and time period represent the actual process.

Keep evidence close to the data it supports. Supplier declarations, certificates, purchasing information, utility records and calculations should be traceable to the relevant product, process or exchange.

Revisit the inventory when materials, suppliers, manufacturing sites, energy sources, routes or product design change. LCI should be treated as managed product data rather than a static calculation created once and forgotten.

ComplyMarket can support LCI work by connecting product structure, inventory modelling, supplier information and evidence within a guided LCA workflow.

Based on the supplied documentation, the workflow supports BOM-based product modelling, flow mapping, activity and provider selection, exchange configuration, foreground process modelling, process-level inventory capture, product-system construction, LCI-only or LCIA reporting paths, uncertainty settings, validation and structured exports.

Product inventories can also be connected with supplier-response information and supporting documentation. The BOM interface records supplier questionnaire or campaign response statuses, while ComplyMarket’s questionnaire functionality can structure supplier questions and document requests.
The broader platform dashboard also provides visibility into product, component, material and substance counts, together with supplier-response status, helping teams monitor the wider data environment around their product and compliance workflows.
This approach can help organizations manage LCI data across multiple products, suppliers, facilities and product versions while maintaining a controlled modelling trail that can be reviewed and updated as product or supply-chain data changes.

For transparency, the current ComplyMarket manual states that the standalone demonstration interface illustrates the complete modelling workflow, while authoritative LCA or EPD values require the production backend to execute the captured model against licensed inventory data, the openLCA calculation engine, an applicable LCIA method and verified source data.