Page 147 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

126 Cha pte r Ei g h t

energy management practices, e.g., heating, cooling, and light-
ing systems, and materials management practices, e.g.,
maintenance, inventory, and waste management. Newer facil-
ities are being designed with recycled materials and ad -
vanced energy-saving features, as interest in “green building”
has mushroomed. But the largest gains in resource con -
servation come from redesigning production processes to
reduce throughput requirements and install more efficient
equipment.
Example: From 2005 to 2007, General Electric (GE) conducted a
“Lean and Energy” initiative that identified over $100 million in
potential energy savings through over 200 “energy treasure hunts”
at GE facilities worldwide. This effort resulted in 5,000 related
kaizen* projects, most of which are funded and in various stages of
implementation. GE was able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by 250,000 metric tons and realized $70 million in energy cost
savings from implemented projects.
• Reduce transportation requirements—An often overlooked
aspect of energy and material use is the distribution chain of
products, including shipments from component vendors to
manufacturers or assemblers, from manufacturers to distri-
bution centers or retail stores, and from these intermediate
points to customers. It is not uncommon for a product to go
through a half dozen shipment stages by various modes
before arriving at its ultimate destination. Each leg of such a
journey may entail significant cost as well as packaging and
energy consumption; the most extreme case is shipping a
missing part by courier to meet a delivery deadline. Some
products may have physical characteristics, such as thermal
and vibration tolerance, that limit the available distribution
options, but in most cases there are a number of options for
increasing transportation efficiency:
Reduce the total transportation distance for a product or its
components, e.g., by shipping outsourced modules directly
from the supplier to the final customer.
Reduce transportation urgency by allowing greater lead
times.
Reduce the shipping volume required by redesigning the
product geometry, packaging volume, or stacking configu-
ration so that less space is wasted.
Reduce temperature requirements or other energy-
consuming constraints.
*In the practice of Lean, kaizen activities are intensive team exercises used to solve
problems and eliminate waste, based on the Japanese philosophy of continuous
improvement.