Page 178 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Design Rules and Guidelines 157

As in chronic risk management, many companies have gone
beyond compliance to ensure safe working conditions and hazard
minimization, and have instituted extensive training and emergency
preparedness programs. A properly implemented process safety
management program will not only reduce the likelihood and con -
sequences of adverse incidents at operating facilities, but will also
deliver direct economic benefits to the business. Examples of such
benefits include improved reliability, reduced downtime, improved
yield, reduced operating and maintenance cost, and, of course, re -
duced liabilities and insurance costs. To maximize the value of p ro cess
safety, a company should consider the following guidelines:
• Minimize on-site hazards, such as storage of caustic or flam-
mable materials and use of high-temperature or high-pres-
sure vessels.
• Strive to recognize the underlying root causes of process
safety incidents, and design systems and procedures to elimi-
nate these root causes.
• Take advantage of capital investment opportunities, when
building or upgrading facilities, to design them for inherent
safety [9].

Business Continuity and Supply Chain Resilience
Business continuity refers to the ability of an organization to main-
tain operations despite disruptive events and to recover quickly
from a business interruption. Recently, the supply chain manage-
ment community has embraced the broader concept of resilience —the
capacity of an enterprise to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of
turbulent change (see Chapter 20). The trends toward globalization
and outsourcing have resulted in global supply chains that are long,
complex, and often beyond the control of the final manufacturer.
Designing a resilient supply chain requires consideration of a variety
of factors that can increase agility and flexibility or decrease vulner-
ability. For example, geographic dispersion of assets makes compa-
nies less vulnerable to natural disasters.
Many of the factors that influence resilience are connected with
environmental issues. For example, the likelihood of supply chain
dis ruptions may be higher when products and processes are sensi-
tive to variations in climate conditions, constrained by the availabil-
ity of scarce natural resources, dependent on a continuous energy
supply, or susceptible to hazardous releases. Moreover, assurance of
environmental and social responsibility will decrease the likelihood
of deliberate supply chain interruptions by regulators, environmen-
tal groups, or local activists that are concerned about the environ-
mental impacts of business operations.