Waste Elimination, Environmental Policy and Management - Coursework Example

? Waste Elimination Waste Elimination Many companies today, be it manufacturing, engineering or services are critically evaluating their processes and identifying and determining ways to be effective in order to bring maximum value to the customers. In times todays, the traditional factory management techniques are being replaced by more efficient and effective methods and ways that help in minimizing delays, improve quality and reduce costs. The concept of Lean Manufacturing (Elimination of waste) is a complete system approach that develops a culture within an organization enabling an environment for continuous improvement in production and processed. The system uses a two-way approach focusing and driving both customers, internal as well as external. The basic purpose of Lean Manufacturing is to eliminate waste at all levels of production including the product design, factory management, supplier networks and customer relations. Its basic aim is to reduce the overall human effort, reduce the inventory storage, taking less production time and less space to become responsive to customer demands while also producing high quality products in the most economic and efficient manner. In this context waste is defined as anything that customer is not willing to pay for (Ramnath, et al., 2010). In the current environment, no company in production or engineering can achieve success without the incorporating the lean production methods in their systems. The Lean production methods or the TPS system given by TaiichiOhno serves as a strong base for competitive, successful and modern flow of materials. (Berlec & Starbek, 2009) In the manufacturing process any activity that doesn’t add value to the product is considered to be waste. Hence it is important for the company to identify the waste in the processes and to find out ways that can be used to eliminate these wastes in order to achieve success and to remain competitive. The seven types of wastes include(Hutchins, n.d.): 1. Overproduction - Producing more than the customer requires 2. Waiting - Excessive machine time/downtime, or waiting for upstream information/advice 3. Transport – transportation of goods over long distances 4. Over processing – producing more than what is required by the customer 5. Inventory – Parts or stock which are not currently being worked on and are stored 6. Motion – the search for tools and other accessories 7. Defects – working out the defects In addition to these other categories have also been added to this which includes: Raw material and energy Damage to the environment Background Honda motor company was established in 1948 by Soichiro Honda with its core emphasis on competing in the Japanese motorcycle industry. However in the year 1962, Honda manufactured its first car and by the year 1995 the Honda group was manufacturing, selling, and repairing motorcycles and cars as well as other power products. Honda was the first Japanese company to establish its operations in US. Its first plant for producing motorcycles was in America, outside Marysville, Ohio in 1979. The company expanded its Marysville facility so as to gain localization which included: Production, products, profit and management. (Maxwell, et al., 1998) Environmental Policy and Management In the early 1990’s political pressure was built up concerning the environmental issue therefore to address these Honda strengthen its commitment to environment and its protection by adopting a Global Environmental Declaration and also by addressing the environmental issues on a global level. The Global Environmental Declaration dictated how each Honda company should strive to evaluate the impact of their activities to the environment, and to design the products in such a way that can reduce the impact of use and disposal, can help in recycling and conservation of energy and resources and to promote awareness in the employees and society. Honda adopted a policy that emphasized on the responsibility of each employee in the design and implementation of environmental activities. In order to implement this policy concerning environment, Honda used various means ranging from speeches by the president of the company and senior managers so as to establish concrete goals at the plant level. These speeches focused on the environmental issues specifically. Moreover, posters and documents were also used that highlighted the statements that motivated the workforce to be committed in achieving environmental goals (Maxwell, et al., 1998). In the year 2001, the first Honda plant to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill was the Alabama automotive facility in North America and since then the company has kept pace. Now Honda’s out 14, 10 plants in North America have achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status while the remaining four plants are at virtually zero waste. The rate of waste sent to landfills by the facilities of Honda has been reduced from 62.8 pounds per manufactured vehicle in year 2001, to about 1.8 pounds per vehicle manufactured by the year 2011. In comparison, the entire waste from all facilities sent to landfills is less than one-half of one percent of all operating waste to landfills. The main force behind achieving this massive zero-waste status has been the Honda employees, who were involved in identifying the waste and to implement the waste recycling and reduction initiatives. The constant efforts by Honda on recycling and reusing the waste streams from landfills have enabled the plants in Ohio and the support operations to work constantly on the elimination of all the remaining landfill waste (Honda, 2012) Eliminating Cafeteria Waste The waste from 11 cafeterias of Honda amounted to nearly 500 metric tons each year and thus this has been the major areas for waste reduction for the company. In the March, 2010 the waste reduction initiative began and the four largest cafeterias worked on reducing waste by capturing the organic waste for composting and using the washable dishware to eliminate the use of disposable food items which cannot be recycled. No waste from cafeteria will go to the landfills and Honda will separate the cafeteria waste for recycling, composting and energy recovery. Sand Recycling and Reuse The engine and transmission plants of Honda in Ohio have come up with ways to reuse the sand left from the casting operations of ferrous and aluminum. The materials recycled are then used as ingredients in concrete products as well as topsoil and mulch in gardens. No waste to landfills is being send by the operational activities of the plants. Less Steel Scrap The recycling the steel scrap from the auto plant operations had been going on from quite some years. The recycled material is sent to the Anna engine plant to be sued in the casting of drivetrain components and engine whereas the remaining goes to steel recycling facilities. In an effort to reduce the steel scrap, the plant in Marysville has taken measures to reduce the size of steel sheets used to form the body parts of automobiles. This reduction in the generation of steel scrap helps in the reducing the environmental impact of material recycling thus making it much closer to zero waste. This implementation has been quite successful in Ohio, thus Honda is implementing it through the North American region as well as in plants all round the world. Just In Time Just in Time (JIT) is another system adopted that reduces the building up of cushion of inventory. Those using the JIT maintain the inventory in small lot sizes. The three main benefits of the small lot sizes include: (1) using small lot sizes helps in the reduction of the cycle inventory i.e. the inventory in access. Reduction in the cycle inventory also helps in reduced time and space in manufacturing and holding the inventory. (2) Another advantage is that the small lot sizes reduce the lead times. This reduction in the lead time helps in reducing the pipeline inventory since the processing time is more for large lots at each workstation compared to the small lots. Similarly in large lots there is longer wait period, and if a defective item is detected in larger lot, the delays are longer as the inspection has to be accrued out on the entire lot so as to identify the items that require rework. (3) Small lots enable to achieve a uniform operating system (Elenchezian, et al., 2005). In order to achieve low setup times, there is a dire need to have a close cooperation among the management, engineering and labor. Changing of dies in large press takes about three – four hours to form automobile parts from metal sheets. In Marysville, Ohio plant of Honda the four stamping lines stamp, exterior and interior body panel’s production teams worked on identifying ways to reduce the changeover time for the massive dies. In this attempt they came with a complete change of dies for 2400 ton press, which now takes less than eight minutes. Out of many techniques to reduce the set-up time, those adopted included: moving large dies with canes, enhancing machine controls, preparing for change overs while current job is processed, using conveyors for die storage, simplifying dies, using microcomputers to automatically feed position work and enacting machine controls(Anon., 2002). Collaborative Supplier Model Honda adopted a collaborative supplier model. According to this model the supplier’s view their relationship with the company as collaborative, open and long-term. This in turn enables the company access to supplies and materials in a timely manner. Another benefit of this approach to Honda is less cost-reducing cooperation i.e. a two way sharing of product or process design knowledge and reduction in volatile demand cycles thus reduction in overall operating margins (Anon., 2002) Conclusion It can be quite challenging for the companies attempting to adopt and apply the principles of TPS so as to achieve the quality and efficiency as at Toyota. In order to achieve this level of quality and efficiency it is important to first fully understand the culture, embrace and then practice so that the utilization of the process is achieved through every employee of the company thus striving for continuous improvement in the business. Although there are variety of consulting practices, seminars encouraging and providing tools for TPS however in order to implement this top-down approach is required. This top-down approach then serves as a corporate fabric. As seen in the case of Honda, they adopted a top-down approach, establishing goals and communicating those through president speeches and senior managers thus serving as the corporate fabric. Similarly, they made a culture and engaged employees in the process of identification of waste in the process and then coming up with ways to reduce this waste which resulted in environmental consideration and zero-waste-to-landfills and JIT initiatives. As adopted in Honda, companies trying to eliminate waste must be aware of different forms of waste and therefore must be constantly vigilant in finding the opportunities to eliminate those wastes. In this respect the senior managers must make visits to the facilities and observe the operations, activities and ask questions thus demonstrating their commitment to the processes. This should be observed as a continuous process of improvement and thus must be inculcated in the corporate culture (Sutherland & Bennett, 2007) Works Cited Anon., 2002. A Collaborative Business Model for the tool and die industry, Altarum: Manufacturing Systems Group, Center for Automotive Research. Berlec, T. & Starbek, M., 2009. ELIMINATING WASTE IN COMPANIES. Ljubljana, Slovenia, Application of Contemporary Non-Destructive Testing in Engineering, pp. 187-196. Elenchezian, C., Selwyn, T. S. & Sunder, G. S., 2005. Computer Aided Manufacturing. New Delhi: Laxmi Publications (Pvt.) Limited. Honda, 2012. Enviornment: Eliminating waste to landfill. [Online] Available at: http://ohio.honda.com/environment/eliminating-waste-to-landfill.cfm Hutchins, D., n.d. Hoshin Knari: A strategic approach to continuous improvement. s.l.:s.n. Maxwell, J., Briscoe, F., Schenk, B. & Rothenberg, S., 1998. HONDA OF AMERICA MANUFACTURING INC.: Lean Manufacturing and Environmental Management at Honda, s.l.: World Resources Institute. Ramnath, B. V., Elanchezhian , C. & Kesavan, R., 2010. APPLICATION OF KANBAN SYSTEM FOR IMPLEMENTING LEAN MANUFACTURING. Journal of Engineering Research and Studies, Vol I, Issue I, pp. 138-151. Sutherland, J. & Bennett, B., 2007. The Seven Deadly Wastes of Logistics: Applying Toyota Production System Principlesto Create Logistics Value. CVCR White Paper #0701, August, pp. 1-9. Read More