Lean and Green is Free, But its Not a Gift – Lean Blog
In this article, Keivan Zokaei shares his thoughts on Mark Graban’s Lean Blog site. He says that the environmental movement is heading down the same path as the quality movement did in the 1980’s. A famous book from Philip Crosby in 1980 was called “Quality is free: The Art of Making Quality Certain”.
He reminds us that quality became more important when customers shifted their spending to competitors with more reliable and lower cost vehicles and electronics. Same thing is happening with sustainability. Customers are speaking with their wallets, and it is hurting companies financially.
Using Lean thinking and methods is a great complement to a sustainability program, as both are focused on eliminating waste and engaging employees.
He shares an example at a sandwich company, where they found nearly 6500 tons of solid waste and around 1500 tons of liquid waste going down the drain. The “Lean and green” team used simple tools and techniques such as value stream mapping and A3 problem solving to tackle the root causes of those wastes. This led to nearly 1000 tons of trash prevented in just a few weeks. Another example was to apply Six Sigma principles to the thickness of the bread slices. By reducing variation, they were able to effectively obtain one more slice out of each loaf of bread.
When we prevent physical waste, increase energy efficiency or improve resource productivity, we save money, improve profitability and enhance competitiveness. Environmental waste is the best proxy for identifying and eliminating economic waste.
You can read the entire article on Lean Blog
Another version of the article can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20160815093529/http://leanandgreenbusiness.com/archives/827
