CLEANER PRODUCTION (CP): Harnessing Business Advantages

Cleaner Production Strategies

The Tao of Cleaner Production and Waste Minimization

YIN (passive, accepting side). Outside-In: Green Procurement. Working with purchasing staff to identify suppliers that meet 'industry best practice' in cleaner production; ensuring that your suppliers meet certain environmental requirements
YANG (active, aggressive side). Inside-Out: Design for Environment. Working with process designing and production staff to select materials and/or processes that are less wasteful.

Cleaner Production Strategies

By: Graedel and Allenby²

Eliminate residue streams that contain substances under phase-out regulatory restrictions
Minimize the use of de-ionized water, the generation of which consumes substantial amounts of energy and the use of which generates an additional residue stream to worry about
Avoid the introduction or substitution of new residue streams requiring new discharge permits, modifications to existing permits, or off-site disposal
Eliminate or minimize residue streams containing toxic substances, especially those found on regulatory lists
Redesign factory layouts and product routings during manufacture to eliminate all necessary cleaning steps
Replace processes using organic solvents with processes using water-based solvents
Substitute less volatile chemicals for more volatile chemicals in industrial processes
Change processes to eliminate the use of volatile solvents altogether
Attempt to reduce the temperatures of manufacturing processes
Avoid using heavy metal catalysts by substituting processes that achieve the same products by reactions between environmentally benign chemicals

Lean Production

The Seven Wastes To Be Eliminated

Overpoduction and early production – producing over customer requirements, producing unnecessary materials / products... More

Main Subjects for Suggestions in Japanese Companies

Improvements in machines and processes... More

Discover much more!

Eco-Effectiveness

Design for Environment (DfE)

Design for Waste Minimization

Measuring Cleaner Production

Case Study: Shwee Shwian Food Co.

Lean Production

7 Principles of Toyota Production System (TPS)

5 Elements of Enabling a Lean Approach

TPS-Lean Six Sigma – Linking Human Capital to Lean Six Sigma

Efficiency Improvement

Kaizen

10 Commandments of Improvement

Quick and Easy Kaizen

Japanese-style Suggestion System

9 Waste Categories and 6 Guidelines of the Canon's Suggestion System

Five Ss at Canon

Technology Acquisition

Evaluating and Selecting Technology

Questions for Analyzing the Appropriateness of a Open-System Technology

Ten3 Mini-Courses Presentation: View Download

Synergizing Business Processes (60 slides)

Synergizing Value Chain (200 slides)

Cleaner Production Defined

By its definition, cleaner production is a business strategy for enhancing productivity and environmental performance for overall socio-economic development.

Cleaner production processes are those that produce less waste, whether in terms of liquid wastes discharged to waterways, solid wastes going to landfill or gaseous wastes discharged to the air. Many companies have achieved environmental and economic benefits by implementing cleaner production programs.

Main Features

Although it is not possible to totally eliminate the negative environmental impact caused by mass production, you must strive to make it cleaner when compared with traditional processes. A cleaner production must have one or more features listed below⁴:

Using less raw material,
Using recycled material,
Using less types of material for the ease of waste recovery,
Using less packaging material,
Using renewable energy,
Using chlorine-free plastics and solvent,
Using less energy and nature resource (including land, water and biodiversity, etc.),
Generating less waste,
Having components that can be reused after disposal.
Causing less noise and malodor.

Integrated Environmental and Quality Management System (EQMS)

A recent market study in the Netherlands initiated by The Dutch Technical Committee on Quality Management and carried out by the Netherlands Standardization Institute (NEN) in collaboration with Tilburg University TIAS Business School concluded that full integration between ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 was possible and it was easiest for organizations that had structured their ISO 9001 Quality Management System together with their business processes and such integration could lead to valuable synergies... More

Lean Manufacturing

Lean is about doing more with less: less time, inventory, space people and money. Lean manufacturing is, in its most basic form, the systematic elimination of waste – overproduction, waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, over-processing, defective units – and the implementation of the concepts of continuous flow and customer pull.

Kaizen is the heart of lean manufacturing. Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for improvement involving everyone in the organization – managers and workers alike... More

Measuring Cleaner Production

Measuring CP is of critical importance. You must use appropriate indicators, which are generally applicable, yet specifically measurable. The indicators should enable not only estimation of the CP of a product or process and its comparison with other equivalents, but also improvement of the existing process or product and the development of new products.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Total Cost Assessment (TCA) are two types of CP indicators that help managers understand the practical implications of GP and make right decisions³... More

Case in Point Canon

Canon is famous for its environmentally-conscious manufacturing and logistics. The Canon Production System (CPS) includes:

Environmental care, quality, cost, and delivery (EQCD) to optimize production... More

According to Canon Production System, 9 wastes are to be eliminated:

Product Design. Producing products with more functions than necessary.... More

A Model Workshop means a workshop where:

There is always Kaizen for reducing wastes... More

Case in Point Shwee Shwian Food Co. (Thailand)

A cleaner production program was implemented in the Shwee Shwian Food Co., a medium-sized ginger factory in northern Thailand. The results showed that the incentive program linked to benefits gained by the company through better control of ginger quality led to better results than the awareness programs.

The farmers could benefit from improving the quality of their ginger, lower their operating costs, and improve their productivity as well. Return on investment amounted to 1,483% within the first year... More

Case in Point Ford Lio Ho Motor

Ford Lio Ho, Taiwan established a Corporate Synergy System (CSS) with its suppliers to enhance its overall corporate environmental performance. Ford Lio Ho has also requested that all of its suppliers become certified under ISO 14000.

The total investment in the Green Productivity Demonstration Programs (GPDP) options and corporate synergy projects was estimated to be US$ 15.6 million. The environmental benefits generated from these GPDP options during the second year are listed below and resulted in savings of US$ 6.8 million:

§ Raw materials consumption reduced by 8,000 tons;

§ Water consumption reduced by 58,000 tons;

§ Electricity consumption reduced by 8,900,000 kW;

§ General waste reduced by 1,000 tons;

§ Hazardous waste reduced by 290 tons; and

§ CO2 emissions reduced by 4,500 tons.

Case in Point Toyota

The 7 Principles of Toyota Production System (TPS) are:

Pull Production:
To reduce inventory holding costs and lead times, Toyota developed the pull production method wherein the quantity of work performed at each stage of the process is dictated solely by demand for materials from the immediate next stage. The Kamban scheme coordinates the flow of small containers of materials between stages. This is where the term Just-in-Time (JIT) originated.