In today's environment, factoring sustainable processes and goods into manufacturing is no longer an option -- it's a critical piece of a modern business strategy for companies trying to compete on the global market.
So said Giancarlo Losma, president of Italy's Federmacchine, during his speech at the "Fast Forward: Strategies for Solving Manufacturers' Most Challenging Problems" conference put on by IndustryWeek and the Italian Trade Commission last week.
"Sustainability is a fundamental requirement in manufacturing today," he said. "Climate changes and the increasing awareness of public opinion towards issues relating to the impact on the environment translate into a new approach to the way companies are run."
For manufacturers of capital goods -- a critical and oftentimes overlooked component of eco-friendly efforts -- this presents a particular set of challenges that determine the sustainability development success all the way down the supply chain, Losma explained.
"A product can only be considered truly eco-friendly if it meets certain conditions during its whole life cycle," he said. Because sustainability is traced all the way from design and selection of the materials to be used, through manufacturing to the recycling and reuse of materials at the end, to create sustainable products, manufacturers must take a closer look at their basic tools to meet the standards.
"At the base of the production chain, capital goods define the technological content, the performance, and the capability to meet the requirements of the end users of most of the products being sold," he said. "For this reason, machinery plays an essential role in the manufacturing of sustainable products and in sustainable systems."
Taking this view, manufacturers of capital goods face three challenges to successfully bring sustainability through the supply chain:
- Producing eco-friendly machines and products
- Limiting the impact on the internal and external environment
- Training highly-specialized personnel
Focusing a business plan around meeting these challenges can be the key to unlocking new profits in this age of sustainability.
