Reducing Waste Within Your Manufacturing Plant May Take A Fresh Set Of Eyes

When it comes to reducing waste within your manufacturing plant, it can be hard to take a step back and look at the processes and see where the waste is and where it is created.It can be especially hard when the company has undergone a strenuous waste reduction campaign.Bringing in a consulting company with fresh eyes can help with the issues of waste reduction, especially if they specialize in that area of business.

Waste reduction areas come in two places – in the actual physical manufacturing processes and in the administration processes.The importance of waste reduction includes reducing costs, environmental stewardship, good public relations and employee motivation.

Often times, companies can actually reduce their waste disposal costs by aggressively recycling.Many companies find that the extra work in recycling actually creates a better bottom line because of the savings on waste disposal alone.What they tend to forget to factor in is the employee motivation that comes from knowing the company is involved in trying to make the world a better place and the good will that can be created by a campaign in the community where the company does business.

Green businesses are often able to charge a little more for their products and gain the benefit of repeat consumers who are interested in helping the environment.Any type of environmental stewardship that a company engages in should be put at the forefront of that company’s public relations campaign, especially if that company can set a leadership example for other companies in the community.A company that has reduced its waste stream by 75 percent in the last year definitely deserves to toot its own horn about its creating a more sustainable business model.

Public relations should be more than just green washing.It may help to tell people about the conservation efforts that the company is involved in, but it helps less when the company is a known offender for the environment.It is nice to know that a strip mining company is trying to reduce its diesel emissions, but when the proof of that is a giant diesel truck bigger than most houses or that the plant is switching from diesel in three of its five generators to natural gas, it seems a little disingenuous.The effort to reduce waste if it is going to be part of a PR campaign needs to be genuine, and it needs to be run by a spokesperson who truly believes that the company is making changes to help make the environment better.

Most employees at any job have some sort of connection to the future generation and the last thing that any parent wants to know is that because of the line of work that he or she is in, he or she has contributed to the problems that the future generation is going to have to deal with.It is all fine and good to say that one had to do the work to put food on the table, but that kind of motivation will ring hollow when it comes time to review the impact of one’s life.Instead, when an employee can say that he or she worked in a job where people genuinely cared about the environment and did their best within the context of the job to make it better for the future generations, that employee will feel like he or she has done something meaningful with his or her life, especially if the company is at the forefront of the environmental movement in that industry.

Often times, companies only look at the next quarter for their profit margin.Taking a longer view can give the company an edge that its competitors lack.