Sustainable manufacturing is a strategic initiative in many industries to increase energy efficiency, continuously reduce waste, improve pollution abatement, and make greater use of renewable resources. Manufacturers and engineering firms are discovering that there are strong links between “green manufacturing” and “lean manufacturing.”
Lean practices and strategies are designed to achieve more efficient and effective processes through the elimination of waste—how we spend time, money, inventory. These same lean transformation processes can help simultaneously identify and eliminate the tangible or physical waste streams that make manufacturing less sustainable. The result? More profitable operation.

Use basic maintenance to get “lean” and “green”
Systematic maintenance that corrects minor, yet long-standing inefficiencies and waste is a lean technique with environmental impact. For example: many production systems use pneumatics to power everything from automatic nut runners to material lifts. Tracking down and correcting all the air hose leaks, in every pneumatic circuit, generates a two-fold cost-lowering result: manufacturing waste is eliminated, and energy consumption is reduced, since compressors don’t need to use as much electricity to maintain pressure throughout the plant.

A lean process to identify and correct all those leaks needs to be followed by an improved maintenance process to help keep them fixed, so the energy efficiency and manufacturing savings are sustained. This same approach can be applied to many different processes – on a machine-by-machine basis, on a given production line, or across an entire plant – to identify and eliminate energy waste and lost productivity.

Controlling inventory multiplies waste reduction
Aggressive inventory management has long been a tool companies use to become “leaner.” Typically, excess inventory is used to cover up waste in production and production operations. Lean companies identify underlying sources of waste in their processes and reduce their inventories to the minimum required, controlling costs and improving profitability.
It can also make their manufacturing more sustainable. Extra warehouse space doesn’t need to be built to store wasted inventory, so we utilize land better and don’t waste materials and energy building excess storage. Forklifts need to be charged, environmental systems need to be on 24/7, containers full of inventory need to be trucked from location to location – all energy consumption that occurs simply to maintain inventory levels. A lean production environment reduces demand on our environmental resources – and always helps the bottom line.

Request Rexroth’s Lean Resource CD and Podcasts
Keeping your production environment lean is a constant challenge – that’s why Rexroth created our Lean Resource Kit to help you stay up to date on the latest techniques and strategies. The CD includes our Lean Productivity Guide, software tools, and our informative Lean Manufacturing podcast series, featuring lean industry experts.

Visit www.boschrexroth-us.com/leanpodcast to listen to the podcasts and order your Lean Resource CD.