Product Life Cycle - Case Study Example

Environmental Management: Answer 1: a) The phrase, ‘know the life of the products you use form the cradle to the grave’ implies management of the entire product life cycle. Integrated maximization of the ‘economic’, ‘technological’ and ‘social aspects’ of the product is the objective of life cycle management. Product life cycle assessment is done from a technique called ‘integrated product management’. This is done to access the overall impact of the product on the environment. It is important therefore to know the stages and the by-products at each stage of the life cycle of production. The technique also aims to minimize the impact of environment on the entire product life cycle. Raw material extraction to final disposal, product life cycle creates an impact in the environment during this process. In a product life cycle maximization of the product must necessarily consider the entire production consumption chain. In an organization which is totally product oriented, each part has to play a specific role in relation to the overall goal of maximizing the products. Product Chain is congenital to quality management. But the full life cycle of a product goes beyond the immediate suppliers and consumers. For environmental management, the product life cycle perspective can for mostly be implemented in alliance to the environmental reviews. It not only takes into account the direct environmental effects but also the effects caused by action elsewhere, due to the raw materials bought or due to the products sold. http://www.lca-net.com/products/integrated_product_management/ b) The phrase implies that proper knowledge of the technique used in the process of production would enable the business to care for the environment. The technique to convert the raw materials into the final products is very crucial to the environmental management and social responsibility of a production house. For instance, oil or fuel is a crucial input. The rise in the prices of oil is a major threat to all the companies whose main focus is to find an alternative source of energy to run their business. The emphasis that the companies are giving is to find out alternative source of energy at a reduced price. The introduction of ‘ethanol’, ‘biomass’, ‘fuel cells’, ‘wind’, ‘solar’, ‘nuclear’ are the various sources of energy that the companies are focusing on in terms of choosing an option from them. However it has be kept in mind that whenever the companies are going in for an alternative source of energy such as biomass and fuel cells it will definitely increase the overall pollution in the environment. To tackle the rising prices of oil companies have to be very careful in choosing an alternative source of energy from them as they have a responsibility towards society. The material, which is provided as an input, must be environment friendly for the companies as, when it passes through the transformation mode the product must become an improved “by- product”. Finally when it reaches the output level the disposal process sees that the product is in the same environmental friendly mode when it started off. (Energy costs and conservation, n.d. p.1) “Energy costs and conservation”, n.d. (case study given) c) Component-level thinking is an approach which most of the companies are still following. It is a mindset, which defines what should be the lowest price of a particular component. When any system is formed it requires several components and hence the organization tries to find the lowest price of each component, which lowers the overall cost of the system. Also in addition to this the companies do not give too much focus on the importance of the component. In case of “entire system thinking” the case is that the company tries to value the entire system by valuing each component. This approach is much more scientific in nature as it analyses the overall importance of a particular component in forming the system. We will like to give an example to simplify the difference between both these approaches. When a new building is constructed it requires steel cement and many other raw materials along with stone chips. People who only values the building at a fixed price do fall in the group of component level of thinking as they do not prioritize the importance of steel and cement while others who gives stress on each item even though it forms a small part in terms of money they actually defines the scientific way of valuing a system. (Penfield, 2008, p.29) http://www.america.gov/media/pdf/ejs/0309.pdf d) Electrolux has been chosen as one of the companies and ‘Smart Heavy Duty Refrigerator’ has been chosen as one of its products. The refrigerator is capable of providing superior performance under stressful conditions. It helps in saving electricity as well as it helps in saving the environment. Around 73% of energy can be saved and there will be emissions. The savings are possible due to the presence of insulation material, which is highly an efficient compressor, and a smart defrost technology. The refrigerators are foamed with ‘cyclopentane’. This is hydrocarbon gas, which does not damage the ozone layer and helps in maintaining the ‘green house’ warming effect. Some of the other products can also be spoken about which gives benefits to the environment. http://www.electrolux-professional.com/files/mini/green-spirit/Electrolux-Professional-Green-Spirit.pdf The supply chain management of Electrolux has been improved so that the market position and sales can be boosted and strengthened. Electrolux has implemented Information, Technology instrument to enable the checking of, inventories. There are regular periodical checks, of status of the supply chain and logistics arrangement. Electrolux has enforced Cognos "business, intelligence"(BI) for its sales and supply chain, transactional databases in the year ‘2000’. The 'sales', 'marketing’ and 'supply chain' departments can swivelonline, information on sales and inventories. One can maneuver down to different levels of products based on,’ technology', 'colour', 'capacity' and 'segment customers’, based on 'channel', 'geography'. This information has assisted Electrolux in better,’ inventory management' to the branch level. , overall inventory has been reduced into finished products in the system and this has helped the organization to built up a robust channel for serving buyers. http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache%3AtadTv8A9o60J%3Aibef.org%2Fattachdisplay.aspx%3Fart_id%3D6809+electrolux+Improving+the+supply+chain&hl=en&gl=in The second company, which has been chosen, is ‘Eureka Forbes’. The name of the product, which we will be discussing, is ‘Euro Clean’. To keep our environment friendly we need to get rid of the pollution that is nearby us. ‘Dusting’, ‘wiping’ and ‘sweeping’ does not always get rid of the fine dust. Fine dust is a microscopic health damaging dust mites. Dust generally floats in the air and settles down in the ‘pillows’, ‘mattresses’, ‘furniture and fixtures’, and even into ‘soft toys’. The innovation of ‘euro clean’ is able to get rid of the fine dust from the houses. Now the question is how it is able to help the environment? The answer is it helps to reduce the air pollution from the homes in a big way. It has to be kept in mind that air pollution has increased immensely and it is contaminating the environment in most of the cities of the world. General people have been facing the problem of respiration due to the increase of air pollution. Also the fact that the homes have been made in such a way that outside air comes in freely into the house, which causes the various pollutants to enter into the houses. Hence it is very necessary to remove the air particles from our homes because if we can remove air pollutants from our homes we will be able to reduce the pollution of the outside world to a large extent. http://corporate.eurekaforbes.com/support/corporate-faqs.php http://corporate.eurekaforbes.com/products/product-category.php?id=OQ== e) Since global warming has become an issue hence consumers are also becoming much conscious in buying their products. In case of Electrolux the approach to environment has enhanced the confidence in the consumers to buy products of ‘Electrolux’. Not only does it save electricity but also it helps in saving the environment. Electrolux does have a total approach to environment and the consumers are benefitted to have the new TNS system conditions. The system helps to reduce dependence on substances from the earth’s crust. It also helps to reduce dependence on the unnatural substances. Consumers have reviewed the refrigerators in a positive way as it does not use the CFC’s or HCFC’s in the cooling system. Consumers are also benefitted to replace the dangerous solvents in case of commercial dry cleaning. The refrigerator also avoids shrinkage by ‘computerized timing’, ‘temperature’ and ‘moisture controls’. The consumers have also given their positive response to the usage of ‘water based powder paints’ instead of ‘solvent based paints’ on white goods. It was found that from the year ‘1992-95’ that emissions have been reduced to almost 45%. http://www.naturalstep.org/en/usa/electrolux When we speak about the impact of ‘Euro Clean’ in respect to environment and the response it creates in the minds of the consumers we need to analyze it in a detailed manner. The “Waterx centre of the Eureka Forbes” along with “Environment information system” (ENVIS) has got invitation for the “environmental excellence awards” for best practices in housing societies and apartments. This is a great sign as not only the environment is protected but also the mankind is served in a big way. Consumers have also liked the response as the awards are provided on the basis of environmental practices. This includes harvesting of the rainwater, management in the solid waste department, water management and greening. http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/12/stories/2005071215250400.htm f) Effective decision making of atmosphere requires information, on the outcome of alternative designs. To make proper choices, 'businesses', 'consumers' and 'regulators' must know the, environmental outcome of available 'materials', 'designs’,’ manufacturing processes', 'product use' 'patterns' and 'disposal'. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a logical technique, which provides this information. LCA attempts to find out the major stages, and channels engaged over the entire life cycle of a product, from 'raw material extraction' to ultimate 'disposal', 'quantifying, environmental burdens' at each stage. When we speak about protecting the environment in relation to products it poses some serious problems. One of the most significant problems is the choice of an appropriate problem horizon. We have to consider that, each industry relies, 'directly' or 'indirectly', on all other, industries. For example, vehicles are made from steel. Again steel is, made up from 'coal' and 'iron ore', which need 'automobiles' for, conveyance and so on. Similar analysis is required for every, input into vehicle making. Hence it is impossible to find out all the, direct and indirect interactions and the environmental burdens of the products. It has been widely applied for planning throughout the world –“It is used to estimate additional production required in all the sectors of the economy to support increases in output of any given sector” http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/gd/Research/eio-lca-99.pdf . The input/ output analyses are completely based on the product life cycle analysis. Sectoral environment indices impact the wide environment of output of selected industries. 485 sectors have been chosen from the input/output tables of the U.S. which determines the environmental impact on the society. The inputs include, ‘electricity consumption’, ‘usage of fuel’, ‘consumption of ore’, ‘fertilizer use’, and ‘water consumption’. The output can be framed into, ‘toxic emissions from the toxic release inventory’, ‘Toxicity-weighted chemical emissions’, ‘RCRA hazardous waste generation’, ‘Ozone depletion potential’, ‘Global warming potential’, ‘Conventional pollutant emissions’. http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/gd/Research/eio-lca-99.pdf Answer 2) a): In the history of United States the people of America have always attempted to use the environment for their own growth and benefit. In the early periods "colonists" vacated the forests. The purpose was to create farmland. America was built on the base of "agrarian society". American forests were cut for the furs demanded by the European society. When the industrial revolution began in America early entrepreneurs and companies tried to extract oil, coal and iron ore from the fields which resulted in the erosion of land. However with the beginning of the 20th century government looked to preserve and protect the environment along with developing the industry for the future generations. Prior to the introduction of the governmental regulation environment was primarily viewed as a tool for development. Land and other resources were utilized in any manner, which fueled the growing capacity of the industries in America. During the period of government intervention into the business and industry some of the resources that they focused on were oil exploration and the requirement of coal. In the development of the industry oil proved to be a precious resource. "Kerosene" which was a byproduct supported the first fuel for the "stable heaters and lamplight". Later on it became an essential component to transportation. Oil was transported via gasoline and it was required for the internal combustion of automobiles. The market for oil boomed and that’s why the fields were drilled. The drilling started from Ohio to Texas and oil was explored from it. This created the land to erode and environment pollution was inevitable. Government also focused on the utilization of coal much in the earlier stages which helped in the production of the electricity. Power plants were benefitted from the utilization of coal. However this also created air pollution. In the South Eastern part of the United States exploitation of coal reserves were made as the demand for coal was very high. Rivers and streams were diverted and also the mines were stripped for the purpose of extracting coal. This caused the environment to degrade on this part of the nation. In the current generation the United States will have to struggle to weigh concern over the world's environment. The economic development of the nation has exhausted the ozone layers and caused green house emissions. Along with these issues modern policies are becoming increasingly complicated and contentious to control the "nuclear wastages", "pesticides", and "chemical impacts". An environmental cleanup is necessary otherwise the whole species will be in danger. Recently the government of United States has received a lot of flak in the building up their environmental policies. The main issues of concern are the exhaustion of the ozone layer and the restrictions of the carbon dioxide emissions. Many scientists have shown their concern over the increase in the global climatic temperature. This has happened due to the rising level of carbon dioxide emissions, which is associated with the use of fossil fuels (such as coal and oil). Now the question is how the use of fossil fuels does damage the environment? The answer is the usage of fossil fuels contributes to the air pollution and brings in ‘global warming’ and ‘acid rain’. Government is finding out new policies to shift to alternative sources so that the environment can be protected from the global warming. The common alternative source of energy is those which will always be renewable. The government of US is focusing on the energies of ‘solar’, ‘wind’ and ‘geothermal’. http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/ushisgov/themes/environment/history.cfm http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/ushisgov/themes/environment/issues1.cfm b) The Federal government is currently carrying on its oil exploration activities even in the Arctic Circle and is not likely to stop it unless the demand from big business houses falls. NGOs that are environment friendly have worked in collaboration with the business houses to help them and convince them to use alternative sources of energy for their business and even help them cut costs elsewhere so as to keep their business profitable despite the usage of alternative fuels. One such example is the NGO Environmental Defense, which has worked with Wal-Mart Inc. and set a big example. (Kenney, Brad, NGOs and Business – shared goals and Mutual trust, eJournal USA (given case study) n.d., p.15) Mutual cooperation is therefore necessary between the corporate houses and the NGO. Environmental defense has even helped Wal-MartInc build its experimental environmentally friendly supercenter in Texas. (Kenney, n.d., p.17) This has set a brilliant example to all other big business houses with whom the NGO may work and move towards a common goal of conservation of energy. Retail stores sue up a lot of energy and Wal-Mart along with Macy’s, Whole Foods are using solar panels built on their roofs. Though solar power is costlier than using coal and other non renewable fuels, “[R]etailers believe that they can achieve economies of scale. With coal and electricity prices rising, they are also betting that solar power will become more competitive, especially if new policies addressing global warming limit the emissions from coal plants.” http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/category/energy-technologies/ Thus the NGO discussed here can continue with a goal of reducing the demand from the side of these business houses such that government will be forced to take up serious measures towards generation of alternative fuels. Read More