Environmental Objectives and Targets for Job Shop

[Bill Rudnicki]

Good afternoon;

Our company has several different manufacturing locations and is working towards 14001 registration. One problem we are having is related to objectives and targets.

Amongst the items we are looking at include utilities, such as reduction of electricity. The issue we are having is that our facilities are job shops and as such utilities (and just about everything else) use is dependent in the volume of business at any given time. More work=greater consumption=greater waste generated.

I am looking for ideas on ways to measure to determine if there is actual improvement or not. I'm assuming I will somehow need to normalize the values based on the volume of work. Your thoughts please?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Sturmkind]

Re: Objectives and Targets for Job Shop

Bill;

Two of the concepts we deployed across 6 plants were motion detectors for lights in areas not routinely used (like cafeterias) as well as power-saving vending machines. Both suppliers helped with calculating the savings across the plants (continuous power consumption for the devices versus power-down / average observed interrupts).

The state of MI also has a tax incentive for installation of radiant heat within 1 of our plants. This paid for itself in less than 1 year.

When toilets need replacement we always go with the most efficient water saving models as well. All the above is quantifiable.

Best of luck with your efforts!

 

[Duke Okes]

Re: Objectives and Targets for Job Shop

If you're asking about how to normalize the data I would consider something like normalizing based on sales or production hours worked.

 

[tigerfan51]

The five most common normalization factors I have come across include:
A. Hours worked
B. Machine hours
C. Dollar value of production
D. Number of widgets produced (usually only relevant to a production facility)
E. Some bulk parameter (for example ton of steel used or ton of plastic resin used, etc.)

 

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

We have used ratio indicators successfully. In your case it can be "primary energy used (e.g. KJ) per unit production".

Normally energy used in a manufacturing unit is used for Production (direct use), Utilities (partly for production) and Accommodation. For the purpose of monitoring please separate the production energy from other uses such as accommodation and utility. You may like to add that part of the utility energy used in manufacturing (such as compressed air, vacuum, cooling etc.) to the production energy. For this you need to have proper metering at different points of flow of energy in your manufacturing unit.

 

[Colin]

You mention that you are having difficulty in deciding what objectives to set. There may be a clue in you environmental policy e.g. if as part of your policy you mention, say, aiming to buy materials from renewable sources - perhaps 1 of your objectives should be related to what percentage of materials are bought from renewable sources.

This may sound simplistic but I often find that organisations don't always 'tie in' the objectives with the policy and this is a way to achieve that.