"Reduce, reuse and recycle" are the new watchwords for manufacturing managers looking to set a new standard for manufacturing excellence. And just like any other improvement idea, there are benefits to being the first, and the best, at implementing it.
Take Subaru of Indiana (SIA). The automotive facility manufactures a number of different models for Subaru's North American marketing effort, as well as manufacturing the Camry under a production partnership with Toyota.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this altogether remarkable plant is its achievement of zero -- specifically, zero landfill waste. According to safety and environmental compliance manager Denise Coogan, Subaru of Indiana didn't start out with zero even as a stretch goal, but a series of small improvements over time has enabled the team to achieve it nonetheless.
With all the "green spin" these days, this flavor of zero is all the more noteworthy in that SIA management didn't change the goalposts to meet the goal. "We didn't redefine 'zero'," she says. "Zero means zero. Nothing from our manufacturing process goes to the landfill."
With great claims come great responsibility, and precisely because these aggressive zero-waste claims leave SIA open to criticism, Coogan says the company is adamant in taking pains to ensure that all is as it should be in its waste stream. "We audit our partners ourselves personally, to make sure they are doing what they say they're doing with our product," she says. "We wouldn't want to find this stuff out in a field somewhere."
| Subaru's Reverse Supply Chain |
| In 2007 alone, one Subaru plant recycled: |
Thereby conserving: |
| 13,142 tons of steel |
29,200 mature trees |
| 1,448 tons of cardboard and paper |
670,000 gallons of oil |
| 194 tons of various plastics and foams |
34,700 gallons of gasoline |
| 20 tons of pop cans and bottles |
10,136,000 gallons of water |
| 10 tons of solvent-soaked rags |
53,116,000 KwH of electricity |
| 4 tons of light bulbs |
34,500 cubic yards of landfill airspace |
And what is "this stuff" of which she speaks? The term "recyclable material" at SIA is a long list. According to Coogan, the company couldn't have achieved such large numbers from such a multifaceted recycling program without a lot of helping hands -- from both its employee and supplier base.
For instance, setting stretch goals has spurred innovative responses from the shop floor on up in initiatives devised by sharp-thinking employees. "Our stamping associates were looking to meet their targets, and discovered that every roll of steel that we blanked out had 3' 9" left, when we needed 4 feet to stamp out a hood," Coogan notes. "So our associates worked with our supplier and specified a more exact amount, and we found that by changing this little thing, we saved 102 pounds of steel for every car that we build."
The savings realized by this simple step extend far beyond the obvious elimination of scrap. "It saves raw materials that we haven't had to buy, and that we don't have to ship those extra few feet of scrap, and have to recycle it -- it's not much on the face of it, but it adds up," she says.
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