Do You Make Waste Efficiency A Priority?
Jun 30th, 2010 Posted in environment | no comment »Why is it that we avoid the question when it comes to waste efficiency? It seems that we consider ourselves to be very good at avoiding waste whether individually or the corporate level, because we are “naturally efficient,” in some way. The truth is that pretty much any activity involves waste, essentially when we use anything more than the absolute minimum of resources.
There are at least six separate areas that we can identify in a corporate environment where waste is an issue. Overproduction is one of the most serious examples of waste efficiency problems. Whenever a delay occurs in the process, waste is incurred and whenever an element of motion is involved, waste inefficiency is also apparent. One of the most glaring areas for concern is inventory stock.
You should provide products for your customer on a “just-in-time” basis and any stock that is in existence over and above this is wasteful and an indication of waste efficiency problems. It’s often the case that the company has a poor tracking system and its bureaucratic procedures just exacerbate elements of waste.
Getting to the roots of the process is one of the first tasks that a waste efficiency committee should tackle. If current processes cannot handle the workload, waste will be incurred and this is especially troublesome if the goods being produced are perishable.
Right at the top of the tree, waste can be produced at the sales level as poor forecasting methods are used. When errors are included at the customer level they aggravate the situation throughout the product lifecycle. The waste efficiency committee has to interact with the sales team and investigate the generation of paperwork to start off with.
The supply chain is a clear focus for improved waste efficiency, especially as they will probably be providing you with your products complete with additional packaging materials, as an example. It will be up to you to incur disposal costs for these items and you should turn this around to your supplier to make sure that they become waste efficient as well.
During the production process, poor measurement activities will develop all kinds of clippings, cutoffs or other material that will find its way to the landfill. You should know that many organizations have made a pledge to cut out the use of landfills altogether in the relatively near future, subscribing to waste efficiency comprehensively.
Waste efficiency can often be destroyed by the corporate culture itself. The handling of waste is part of a push for ultimate sustainability and each company must do its part to become more frugal, to impose less upon resources and the surrounding environment.
Daniel Stouffer has much more information about your waste efficiency and how a visit to www.verisae.com can be of use to you.
