According to Manufacturing Learning Australia , enterprises are investing in green improvements, or planning to improve their sustainability. With the imminent introduction of carbon trading or similar schemes and the social pressure to improve corporate citizenship by reducing the impact on the environment and climate change, all businesses will have to take stock of their environmental footprint.
According to Kevin Hummel, LeanSkills, effective green solutions can range from behaviour improvements, such as reducing energy use by turning off lights that are not needed, to technological research and development to achieve better efficiency.
Lean production is a structured system for identifying waste and improving efficiency, so it provides a tailor-made set of concepts and tools for going green. Lean tools such as 5S and Kaizen blitz get rid of unused items and reduce consumption of energy/materials.
Businesses can ensure that they get sustained improvements across productivity KPIs, operational equipment efficiency, product improvement and efficient work systems using Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, Just in Time and Total Productive Maintenance. LeanSkills will launch seminars, tailored to the needs of senior and middle managers to ensure that they have the knowledge to choose the best Lean path to achieve defined improvements to their bottom lines.