Environmental Management System: Alghazer Carpentry Company - Case Study Example

Alghazer Carpentry Company Lean production is a systematic method for waste elimination within a manufacturing process. It is a Japanese management approach that centers on reducing waste whilst ensuring quality standards are not compromised. The main objective of lean production is to cut production costs by making the enterprise more efficient and responsive to market needs. Industrial engineering is a specialization which deals with the optimization of complex manufacturing systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, and implementation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis and synthesis, as well as the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems or processes. Problem Statement The purpose of this work is to identify the mistakes and try to eliminate them by applying lean concepts and strategies. This will help to avoid forming wastes that will affect the company negatively. In addition, the students will interact with the environment of the company such as talking with the employees and understating the system of how the company works. This interaction will provide an outlook for their future as industrial engineers and get some experience beforehand. Environmental Management System Environmental management system (EMS) is a set of guidelines and practices that enables an organization to downscale its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency. This unique approach helps reduce the risk of non-compliance and improve health and safety practices for employees and the general public. Implementing an environmental management system (EMS) is a process by which an organization’s management identifies regulated and unregulated environmental aspects and impacts of its operations, assesses current performance, and develops target on how to achieve both significant and incremental environmental improvements. ISO 14001 is a standard for environmental management systems for implementation in any organization, regardless of capacity, location or income. The objective of the standard is to reduce the environmental footprint of a firm and to decrease the pollution and waste generated during the manufacturing process. The global standard for EMS is based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001. EMS aims to address the following in an organization; Analyze its impacts on the environment and the legal requirements. Sets a framework for training in order to achieve the desired performance through objectives set earlier. Educating employees on environmental awareness s and competence. Reviewing progress the EMS undertakings and making improvements. Literature Review Alghazer Company is a furniture production firm that makes furniture for hotels and resorts in Kuwait. It has an integrated green manufacturing tools and sustainability concepts with discrete event simulation modeling and analysis as well as mathematical optimization to make a positive impact on the environment, society and its own financial success. The principles of green manufacturing that aid in the elimination of waste have helped the company meet ever increasing customer demands while preserving valuable resources for future generations. The implementation of lean and sustainable manufacturing was aided by the use of discrete event simulation and optimization to overcome deficits in lean’s traditional implementation strategies. Lean and green manufacturing can have a more significant, positive impact on multiple measures of operational performance when implemented concurrently rather than separately. Description of Tools Bottleneck Analysis: This tool identifies a certain part of the production process which limits the overall output and improves the performance of that section of the process. It improves production by strengthening the weakest link in the production system. Level Scheduling: A form of scheduling production with the intention of manufacturing products in smaller batches through sequencing product variants within the same process. This tool reduces lead times and inventory mark ups. Jidoka: The aim of Jidoka is to design equipment to partially automate the manufacturing process; which is more cost effective than full automation, and to automatically stop when the system detects any defects. Just in Time: This system generates products based on customer demand instead of pushing for products based on projected demand. It relies on many lean tools which include; Heijunka, Standardized Work, and Takt Time. Highly effective in reducing inventory levels and improves cash flow. Kaizen (Continuous improvement): This is a strategy where employees are encouraged to work proactively to meet regular incremental improvements in the production process. It combines the collective expertise of the firm employees to create an avenue for constant waste elimination from the manufacturing process. Alghazer Carpentry Company uses several tools to strategically align not only their production facilities but their supplier’s facilities in the elimination process of the green wastes (Bergmiller and McWright, 2009) as seen in Table 1. Form Description Overproduction Producing more than what the market needs. Human Resources Not using people’s mental ability to full capacity. Transportation Moving equipment/materials to their point of use. Inventory Materials or information. Includes WIP and Finished goods. Motion Movement of people (walking, riding) as well as smaller movements. Corrections This includes rework or fixing of products. Over-Processing Additional work above the requirements of the customer. Waiting Time delays for materials, information or people. Green manufacturing is defined by Allwood (2009) as a method to “develop technologies to transform materials without emission of greenhouse gases, use of non-renewable or toxic materials or generation of waste”. Notably, the green wastes are very different from the lean wastes. Lean seeks to eliminate traditional production objectives like cost or time while green is concerned with wastes that impact the environment. Concept Description Permit Compliance Compliance with applicable permits. Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Over 300 chemicals subject to release. 33/50 Chemicals A subset of TRI chemicals identified by the EPA as priority candidates for voluntary reductions by industry. Clean Air Act Toxics 189 chemicals listed in the Clean Air Act as air toxics. Risk-Weighted Releases Toxic chemicals weighted by their relative toxicity. Waste Per Unit of Production Percentage of production lost as waste, generally measured by weight. Energy Use Total energy use by all aspects of corporate operations; also expressed as carbon dioxide. Solid Waste Generations Total solid waste going to landfills or other disposal facilities. Product Life Cycle The total impact of a product on the environment from raw materials sourcing to ultimate disposal. Firms that adhere to these measures are found to be significantly greener than a general population of other manufacturers in the same industry. This survey was divided into three sections, as follows: Status of the company in environmental management system. Five questions regarding the application of environmental waste techniques at the plant Five questions about merits/ demerits of the EMS at the plant Data Analysis and the Outcomes After approximately ten years of steady growth, customer demand for Alghazer furniture products had allowed a paradigm shift in the company’s production model of operation. Four different product groups represented approximately 40% of the company’s demand. VSM and Shingo Assessment procedures, as were described by Robinson (1990) and Shingo and Dillon (1989), showed that these products could be produced in a work cell much more efficiently than they could in the company’s traditional job-shop layout which generated a lot of waste. They also focused on waste recycling to optimize their ouput. Consequently, the integration of a new work cell centered on semi automation of the entire layout to reduce on pollutants and waste while saving on energy. The group reported that several green manufacturing characteristics in Alghazer Carpentry Company have an upward trend positively as listed below. • Air pollution was lower in a woodcutting stage since exhaust and power consumption was less. • Employee’s safety and health were better with an optimized plant layout. • Exposure to dangerous material was reduced by eliminating unneeded material transfers. Gantt Chart GanttChart Project Report: Alghazer Carpentry Company Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Submit project proposal Week 6 Collect data from the company Week 7 Analyze data Week 8 progress report Week 9 submission of progress report Week 10 Work on the final report Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Submit final project report Week 14 Submit final presentation Conclusion The case for Alghazer Company provided validation evidence for the importance of EMS in the manufacturing process. The recycling project resulted from a lean process concerning the solid waste disposal process and led to the recycling of a significant amount of material previously disposed of as waste. In the optimized supplier selection project, the Lean concept of reducing the number of suppliers was addressed using mathematical programming that resulted in a consolidation to fewer suppliers, reducing the number of miles driven and thus making the supply activity more green and sustainable. The optimized supplier selection project showed that the use of quantitative analysis tools makes a lean transformation more precise and thus leaner. Using mathematical optimization to select the company’s suppliers resulted in a significant cost saving with respect to transportation and consolidation to fewer suppliers in one step, thus minimizing the time to realize these savings. Thus, the effectiveness and validity of both premises for Alghazer Company have been demonstrated. References: Bergmiller, G., & McWright, P. (2009). Lean Manufacturers’ Transcendence to Green Manufacturing. Proceedings of the Industrial Engineering Research Conference, May 30 – June 3, Miami, FL. Read More