Continual Improvement from the Ground Up
Once you’ve got a gatekeeper system in place and operational, it will pay big dividends towards the continual improvement of your processes. Through comparative forecasting, you’ll also have the raw data needed to identify the most efficient materials and know when to seek alternatives.
With the development of more sophisticated internal lists, the gatekeeper system should become an essential part of your material decision making process, helping to select more environmentally sustainable and more cost effective materials.
Vetting all incoming materials, whether manually or automatically, is arguably the embodiment of being proactive in the manufacturing industry. It protects your business from having to fix noncompliance events as they occur and instead addresses noncompliance at its source. And because lean manufacturing and continuous improvement planning rely on agility, you shouldn’t waste time fixing preventable mistakes.
Start your processes off on the right foot by keeping noncompliant materials out of your facility entirely.
Gary Vegh, co-founder of ERA Environmental Management Solutions, has more than 15 years of experience in providing environmental compliance software to manufacturing companies looking for solutions to comply with complex environmental regulations. Vegh graduated from Concordia University - Montreal, where he studied Chemistry/Ecotoxicology. He later moved to Raleigh, NC to complete work in the Research Triangle, where ERA was founded to meet the compliance needs of the local wood furnishing industry. Today the company’s clients include Volkwagen, Toyota, Nalco, Vigor & BMW. He can be reached at gary.vegh@era-ehs.com.
