Lean & Green: a quick checkup to fight environmental waste

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Our client is a company specialized in the production of gaskets, technical articles and metallic components for the industrial and motorcycle sectors. It has three plants in Italy which occupy 40.000 square meters and is part of an International group with 12 plants in five different countries and about 600 employees.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Challenge[/custom_headline]
Since its very beginning one of the basic principles of the company has been continuous improvement, the only way to be and remain innovative and competitive. In line with this philosophy it has implemented a lean transformation project and has got quality and security certifications. Its attention to environmental problems brought to the installation of a large photovoltaic system in 2009. In recent times the company has become particularly sensitive to the problem of waste and environmental protection.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Action[/custom_headline]
The aim of our work was to analyze the production process in order to detect those aspects that might cause waste and environmental problems. Our project was divided into two steps. In the first step we examined all available information about scraps, emissions and waste in order to have a measure of the company’s environmental impact. In the second step we made an accurate inspection plants, offices and equipments.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Results[/custom_headline]After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each plant we proposed the changes that could improve their functioning and significantly reduce energy consumption. On the whole the company could reduce energy costs by 20% and most of the improvement work was done by its own personnel. As a sign of its growing attention to the environment the company has started the necessary steps to get environmental certification and has decided to create a new function, that of “Energy Manager”.