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Understanding Green Project Fundamentals • 43

taBle 3.2
Quality/Greenality Trilogy a
Quality Planning Greenality Planning
Identify who are the customers. Identify who are the customers.
Determine the needs of those customers. Determine objectives.
Translate those needs into our language. Translate those objectives (SMARTER). b
Develop a product that can respond to Develop a plan to address those objectives
those needs. (SMARTER).
Optimize the product features so as to Optimize the green objectives so as to meet
meet our needs and customers’ needs. our needs and customers’ needs.
Quality Improvement Greenality Improvement
Develop a process that is able to produce Develop a process that addresses the
the product. greenality issues.
Optimize the process. Optimize the process.
Quality control Greenality control
Prove that the process can produce the Prove that the process can produce a
product under operating conditions with product with high greenality with a
minimal inspection. minimal inspection.
Transfer the process to Operations. Ensure product is environmentally
responsible in the future.
a Based on the quality management ideas of Joseph Juran in his book, Quality Control Handbook, ed.
Frank M. Gryna (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988).
b For further information on SMARTER, see Chapter 2.

reduCing nonProduCt outPut
Nonproduct output (NPO) is an interesting phrase used by many to
describe production-related wastes that are not part of the final product.
It is essentially what is left prior to reuse or recycling, yet after all efforts
for redesign and reduction have been exhausted. The first step in reduc-
ing NPO is to try to redesign the product or process so that all of the
raw materials necessary (including human resources) are utilized to their
maximum extent, ultimately producing zero wastes. As an example, if the
product you are producing requires the use of disposable batteries, per-
haps it can be redesigned to use rechargeable batteries. However, driving
out all NPO in a product or process is a feat that is nearly impossible.
There seems to always be some sort of by-product. After all, we humans
expel CO as a by-product of breathing.
2
The second step in reducing NPO is to reduce the usage of the type of
raw materials that produce waste. Keeping with the previous example,