sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

7

Click here to load reader

Upload: christopher-obrien

Post on 04-Jul-2016

229 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7

Sustainable production — a new paradigm for a new millennium

Christopher O’Brien*

University of Nottingham, Manufacturing Engineering and Operations Management, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

Abstract

In approaching the new millennium, industry is forced to recognise it has an obligation to society not only to createwealth but to develop sustainable production systems which minimise environmental consequences. Such objectives canonly be achieved if there is the political will backed up by a coordinated R&D policy in clean and sustainabletechnologies. Three underlying questions need to be addressed:

f what does industry need to do to address sustainable production?f who are the key players involved and what must they do to ensure that sustainable production is achieved?f how do government policy and regulation need to evolve in order to support the shift to sustainable production?

( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sustainable; Production; Environment; Re-cycling; Re-manufacture

1. Introduction

As society moves towards the millennium, oneissue above all others is likely to dominate thedevelopment of manufacturing industry well intothe 21st century — the concept of sustainable pro-duction. As a driving force sustainability will be to21st century industry what automation was to the20th century, and steam was to the 19th century.

By sustainable production we mean the develop-ment of manufacturing industry’s ability to under-pin society’s need not only to create wealth but todo so in a way which will support sustainable

*Tel.: 115 951 4013; fax: 115 951 4140; e-mail: [email protected].

economic development. Present industrial systemsare not sustainable into the long term because oftheir demands upon the world’s natural resources.Even the development of the present industrialisednations is unsustainable at current rates of con-sumption. Add to this the natural aspirations ofdeveloping countries to emulate the consumptionpatterns of the developed world, and the scale of theproblem becomes readily apparent. To cut the rateof economic development is infeasible. The stabilityof the economic systems of the developed nationsdepends upon growth and no developing nationwill accept externally imposed limits to their owneconomic improvement.

The industrial world was first alerted to thedangers of unchecked industrial growth by theClub of Rome, founded in 1968, comprising a small

0925-5273/99/$ - see front matter ( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 5 2 7 3 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 2 6 - 1

Page 2: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

group of researchers from a variety of differentbackgrounds, who sought to simulate the inter-dependence and interaction of the following criticalfactors:

f increase in populationf production of foodf industrialisationf natural resources depletionf pollution

In its report published in a book by D.L. Meadows,“The limits to growth: a report for the Club ofRome’s project on the predicament of mankind”the Club reported “If the actual line of developmentcontinues unchanged in these five principal sectors,humanity is destined to reach the natural limits ofdevelopment within the next 100 years. The mostlikely result will be a sudden decline in the popula-tion level and in the industrial system. The applica-tion of technological solutions can extend theperiod of industrial development/growth and ofdemographic increase, but cannot eliminate thefundamental limits of development” [1].

The report stimulated a major debate on theneed for new initiatives to balance the world’s de-mand for economic growth and its ability to sustainsuch growth. In 1984 the World Commission onEnvironment and Development (WCED) first metand published its report, known as the BrundtlandReport, in April 1987 [2]. The report first definedthe term “sustainable development”, stating that“humanity has the ability to make developmentsustainable — to ensure that it meets the needs of thepresent without compromising the ability of futuregenerations to meet their own needs”. Whereas theClub of Rome report had been somewhat alarmistand pessimistic, the Brundtland Report was rathermore optimistic and emphasised the need for newstrategies if sustainable development is to beachieved, including:

f establish environmental goals, regulations, in-centives and standards

f make more effective use of economic instrumentsf broaden environmental assessmentf encourage action by industryf increase capacity to deal with industrial hazards

f strengthen international efforts to help develop-ing countries

f strengthen the role of the technological systemswhich much search continuously for new solu-tions [3].

In 1992 the strategies put forward by the Brundt-land Report were further developed at the officialUnited Nations conference on environment anddevelopment (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeirowhere representatives of 179 governments adoptedthe following acts in its final session:

1. The Rio declaration on environment and devel-opment

2. A non-legally binding authoritative statement ofprinciples for a global consensus on the manage-ment, conservation and sustainable develop-ment of all types of forests

3. The United Nations framework convention onclimate change

4. Agenda 21.

The acts sought to underline the responsibilities ofconsumers and governments, to emphasise the roleof technology, and to lay down the strategies neces-sary to underpin sustainable production, including:

f more efficient production processes (in terms ofuse of energy and resources)

f preventive strategiesf cleaner production technologies and procedures

throughout the product life cyclef minimisation or avoidance of waste.

These concepts have been taken back by the vari-ous representative governments and built into theirown legislative and strategic frameworks. Forexample, the 1994 European Commission whitepaper entitled “Growth, competitiveness, employ-ment. The challenges and ways forward into the21st century” states that a policy for sustainableproduction should promote

f improved “nature productivity” of productsf a longer product lifetime, making repair and

control services more attractive (labour-intensiveactivities)

f more re-use and recyclingf improved process technologyf preventive strategies

2 C. O+Brien /Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7

Page 3: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

f environmental industriesf research and development in environmentally

sound technologiesf economic incentives for R&Df fiscal incentives for R&D (tax credit schemes for

research)f bio-technologyf common information areaf efficiency in transport networks (as well as for

energy)f internalisation of external costsf redistribution of tax burden so as to lighten the

burden on labour and increase the burden on theuse of natural resources [3].

Whilst the need to address issues of sustainabledevelopment are now recognised by governmentsaround the world, the realisation of the objectivesof sustainability requires a fundamental shift in theattitudes of governments, industry and consumers.A number of underlying questions have to be ad-dressed:

f what does industry need to do to address sus-tainable production?

f who are the key players involved, and what mustthey do to ensure that sustainable production isachieved?

f how do government policy and regulation needto evolve in order to support the shift to sustain-able production?

2. Industry’s challenge

In recent years, much of the attention of environ-mentally conscious industries has focussed aroundthe need for end-of-pipe solutions, particularly inrelation to the treatment of waste and the control ofemissions into the atmosphere, water courses orlandfill sites. Such solutions however do not inthemselves promote efficiency gains or improve-ments in productivity. If the concept of eco-efficien-cy (the achievement of economic and ecologicalefficiency at the same time) put forward by theWBCSD is to be achieved, then companies mustdesign, produce, distribute, and dispose or recycleproducts in such a way that the associated environ-

mental impacts and resource use levels are at leastin line with the earth’s estimated carrying capacity.This requires a fundamental re-think in the designof a product to take account of all stages of a prod-uct life cycle, and a shift in manufacturing processesfrom cleaning technologies to clean technologieswhich reduce the actual level of emissions producedand the energy and other resources used duringprocessing. Nor should the scale of the problem beunderestimated. If the objectives of sustainable pro-duction are to be achieved on a global scale, reduc-tions in material throughput, energy use andenvironmental degradation of over 90% will berequired by the year 2040 to meet the needs ofa growing world population fairly within theplanet’s ecological means. This demand on industryto achieve current levels of industrial growth withonly one-tenth of the input of resources has beenlabelled “the factor 10 approach”.

The achievement of such ambitious objectivesrequires a radical re-think of many of industry’spractices. Continuous improvement is not enoughand a step change in environmentally related per-formance is required. Environmental consider-ations must be integrated into the corporate cultureand business planning at all levels of design, manu-facturing, distribution, and disposal. In the past,product design and manufacturing processes havebeen developed to serve the needs to produce high-quality products at minimum cost to promote thecompetitiveness of the company. Although recycl-ing and recovery have always been considered, theyhave had to compete on purely economic termsagainst the use of virgin raw materials and disposal.Such economic decisions were biased against re-cycling and remanufacture as these concepts werenever built into the design of the products andprocesses from the beginning. The necessary reduc-tion in the demand for virgin raw materials andnon-renewable resources will only be achieved bydeveloping disassembly technologies, recycling andremanufacturing capabilities on a commercial scaleand by designing products with these concepts inmind, as an integral and fundamental requirementof product and process design. The results of suchthinking can be dramatic. Recovery and re-use ofmaterials can extend their useful life by severalhundred percent before eventual disposal to the

C. O+Brien /Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7 3

Page 4: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

Fig. 1. Role of recycling industries in future manufacturingsystems.

environment. For example, in automobile design,plastics may first be used in the manufacture ofbumpers, then recycled as dashboards, then intoundercarpet insulation, then underbonnet sound-proofing, etc.

There are already many examples of industrieswhich have changed manufacturing practices intheir attempt to respond to “green” issues. Notsurprisingly, given its economic importance, theautomotive industry has been setting a number ofexamples as indicated above, albeit prompted byincreasingly stringent legislation. German carmanufacturers have led the way in attacking theproblem of recycling and disposal at the designstage of the new generation of automobiles. InItaly, Fiat have set up over 100 recycling centreswhere customers may drive in and dispose of theircars. In Japan, the automobile companies have ledthe way in developing alternative power systems forthe automobiles of the future.

Despite such examples, a recent survey of 1500companies to assess the current extent of environ-mental management concluded that the process ofintegrating environmental management into thecore of the company’s business strategy is a realityfor only a relatively small number of companies,most of which are multi-national or very largenational companies. Very few SMEs have any con-cept of sustainable production!

All too often companies reject the idea of chang-ing their practices from a fear that introducingenvironmentally friendly and sustainable processeswill be costly. The evidence is to the contrary, andthe widespread experience of companies movingtowards clean and energy-efficient processing is to-wards achieving payback periods of 1—3 years. Fur-thermore, the increasing momentum towards thedevelopment of sustainable manufacturing systemsopens up very substantial market opportunities forcompanies to supply the new technologies.

3. Characteristics of a sustainable productionsystem

The particular nature of sustainable productionsystems will vary according to the industry sector.Amongst the generic characteristics that one might

expect of any sustainable production system are thefollowing:

Environmental consciousness must pervade the cul-ture of the whole organisation: this requires clearcompany policies and statements of objectives.Awareness programmes must be introduced to thewhole organisation and appropriate training mustbe given in environmental competences to all cat-egories of employees. Clean processes and mater-ials must become the norm in all aspects of thecompany’s operations.

Both product and process design must addresssustainable issues and incorporate them into basicdesign procedure: this has implications for the activ-ities of concurrent engineering design teams, theDFX which are incorporated into their design sys-tems, costing and decision support systems.

Make maximum use and re-use of recycled compo-nents and materials (Fig. 1): this requires funda-mental changes in the product design toincorporate re-processed and re-manufacturedcomponents and in the manufacturing processesand process capability to make recovery, disas-sembly and re-processing (i.e. the recycling indus-tries) as efficient as original manufacture.

Product life-cycle concepts must be applied to thewhole manufacturing system: just as product life-cycle design must become important in the designof products, such concepts must also be applied tothe whole manufacturing system. Factories must bereconfigurable to respond flexibly to changes inproducts, volumes, process technologies, etc. with

4 C. O+Brien /Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7

Page 5: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

the minimum of reinvestment, and making max-imum use of modular design.

Organisations must be lean as well as clean: theparadigm of clean and sustainable production mustbuild on previous paradigms incorporating lean-ness, quality and efficiency. Goods and servicesmust be produced with the minimum input of re-sources. Organisations must be re-engineered toachieve maximum efficiency and extensive use mustbe made of distributed IT systems.

Re-engineering must address environmental andsustainable issues: the re-engineering of both inter-nal company structures and the structures of com-plete supply chains must include the concept ofsustainability amongst the criteria for re-design.

Kaizen must address environmental issues: just asKaizen has been successful in involving the max-imum number of people in recognising and elimin-ating waste in promoting manufacturing efficiency,concepts of Kaizen in the future should addresssustainable issues in addition to cost reduction andelimination.

A company’s metrics must address sustainableissues: only by focusing on measurable aspects ofa company’s environmental performance willproper attention be paid to progressing towardssustainable production. This will require new ap-proaches to performance monitoring, financial ap-praisal and costing systems.

Manufacturers must support extended life cycles: ifthe re-cycling and re-manufacture of components isto be encouraged and the product life cycles ex-tended, then manufacturers must ensure that spareparts, for example, will remain available over theprolonged lifetime of the product. This must not beachieved through maintaining large stocks, but bythe capability to manufacture on demand, efficient-ly and at low cost.

ºse of clean technologies: it is better to use cleantechnologies to reduce pollution rather than usingcleaning technologies to remove pollutants whichhave already been generated.

4. Policy issues

One can be reasonably optimistic that sustain-able industrial growth is possible, but it requires

fundamental changes in the culture of industrialsocieties, the attitudes of consumers, and the tech-nologies and systems used in the design, manufac-ture and use of products. The concepts ofsustainable production are already well understoodin the various industrial sectors and many com-panies are already making major investments inclean technologies, recycling and manufacture.Further encouragement through the use of incen-tives are needed to encourage industry to promotethe development of sustainable technologies. Incen-tives are likely to be more effective than regulationalone and, wherever possible, voluntary negotiatedagreements between government and industry onrealistic and achievable targets should be con-sidered. If companies are to be persuaded to makethe investment in promoting sustainability, then itis important that a level playing field is established.A harmonized framework of regulation must bedeveloped and every effort must be taken to secureand enforce international agreements on clean andsustainable technologies because of the importanttrade implications of regulatory actions. It shouldalso be remembered that governments are themsel-ves major consumers and must use their consider-able purchasing power to encourage thedevelopment of eco-efficient products.

Governments also have a responsibility to do allthey can to bring about a change in consumerbehaviour to create the pull on industry for sustain-able products. This goes much further than theeco-labelling of products indicating their energyefficiency. In many areas it will require a funda-mental change in consumer thinking to the pur-chase of function rather than the purchase ofproducts. When a buyer purchases a car or a copy-ing machine they expect all components in thegoods they have purchased to be new, whereas ifthey lease the products then, provided the productslook good and perform well, they will be less sensi-tive to the fact that they may have 10 or 20 year oldrecycled components inside [4].

5. R&D issues

A detailed discussion of the R&D issues by in-dustry sector is beyond the scope of this paper,

C. O+Brien /Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7 5

Page 6: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

and well documented elsewhere. In the automotiveindustry, for example, research is focusing onrecycling technologies, clean manufacturing, andenergy efficient and alternative power systems. Inthe aeronautics industry it must be rememberedthat the working life of a jet airliner is over 30 years,during which it will burn several thousand tons offuel. Emphasis is therefore on lightweight designand fuel efficient engines. The industry needs toanticipate environmental legislation well into thefuture and has to promote harmonisation of aninternational regulatory framework. The processindustries have been at the forefront of cleanerprocessing to meet ever-more stringent environ-mental legislation, as society will no longer toleratethe widespread pollution of the past. The develop-ment of bio-technologies and gene technologies isopening up a whole new range of opportunities fornew production systems and waste disposal. Be-cause of the tremendous growth in the use of com-puters and the relative short life cycle of itsproducts, the IT industry has to be sensitive to theneed to recycle and reprocess its materials whilereducing the eventual disposal of toxic substancesto the environment used, for example, in the manu-facture of PCBs. In the white goods industry, about90% of the total environmental impact of the in-dustry occurs during the use of the products. Atten-tion must therefore be paid to designing moreenergy efficient products, while not losing sight ofthe need to eliminate CFCs (for example) and pro-mote maximum recycling at end of use. A study byElectrolux revealed that it was more energy-effi-cient to use recycled material than virgin material.

From the above, one can make a number ofobservations on the generic issues to underpin anR&D agenda in sustainable production. Sustain-able production can be economically viable but itwill require major investment in the development ofnew and improved technologies in all industrialsectors. Incremental improvements are not enough,and major initiatives are required to develop break-through technologies. Mechanisms must be de-veloped to establish a long-term vision of whatsustainable production will require throughout thecomplete supply chain in each industrial sector.Support must be given to R&D in the basic scienceswhich underpin the development of clean and sus-

tainable industrial processes. Concerted action isneeded to support SMEs in the development andapplication of competitive sustainable technolo-gies.

Appropriate attention must be given to employeeissues in the development and adoption of sustain-able technologies, and support given to educationand training initiatives to develop the new corecompetencies needed at all levels of industry.

Public awareness of environmental and sustain-able issues is growing, but new indicators are re-quired to put a value on the environmental impactof products and metrics must be developed to en-courage customers to assess the environmentalvalue of products at the point of sale when choos-ing between alternatives.

6. Conclusions

Society can no longer escape its responsibilitiesin developing a sustainable economy and protect-ing the opportunities and quality of life of futuregenerations. Industry has the capability to respondto its responsibilities in the development of sustain-able products and sustainable production systems.What is needed is the commitment and courage tobring about a change in corporate culture to em-brace the concepts of sustainability. New compet-ences in sustainable technologies have to bedeveloped and new criteria built into the designand costing of products and processes to reflecttheir environmental consequences. Governmentshave a responsibility to create the social climatewithin which companies can respond to their re-sponsibilities without losing competitive advant-age. Public awareness programmes must beencouraged to bring about a fundamental re-thinkin the criteria by which consumers judge, and sub-sequently purchase, consumer products. As indus-try becomes increasingly global, and the depletionof the earth’s natural resources and the conse-quences of pollution affects everyone, it is impor-tant that governments work together to developa harmonised regulatory framework within whichall companies must operate wherever they arelocated and whatever the level of a country’s indus-trial development.

6 C. O+Brien /Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7

Page 7: Sustainable production – a new paradigm for a new millennium

References

[1] D.L Meadows et al., The limits to growth. A report for theClub of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind.Earth Island Limited, London, 1972.

[2] The World Commission on Environment and DevelopmentOur Common Future, Oxford University Press, New York,1987.

[3] V. Chiesa, A. Messore, The emerging paradigm for sustain-able production, in: Proceedings of the First InternationalForum on Sustainable Production: A New IndustrialGrowth. ITIA Ser., vol. 1, Milan, 1996.

[4] C. O’Brien, Outline report and recommendations, in: Pro-ceedings of the First International Forum on SustainableProduction: A New Industrial Growth. ITIA Ser., vol, 1,Milan, 1996.

C. O+Brien /Int. J. Production Economics 60—61 (1999) 1—7 7