Plant Services - June 2008 - (Page 52)

IN THE TRENCHES The scenario presented here is based on a true story; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Different types of green anufacturing in this country isn’t dead yet. Just ask the folks working at the Acme plant, where it’s doing a brisk trade in the contract manufacturing. Independent entertainment media companies and software developers distribute compact disks filled with audio, video and software. Acme identified quite a few of these players and set up a publish-on-demand production line to crank out CDs. By doing this, Acme served the industry. But, Acme also helped the community by serving as a sheltered workshop for the handicapped and disabled. It’s not beyond their ability to burn CDs, package them, gather them into customized collections and distribute them using mailing labels the media and software companies provide. If some custom CD assortments were undeliverable, the shipping company returned them to Acme. The contracts with the media and software companies generally required Acme to accept the returned shipments and dispose of them. Such wastage isn’t a particularly green way to operate and the disposal added a cost to the contracts, but it was more economical than requiring Acme to open each package and restock the items. So, Acme merely tossed the returned boxes into a Dumpster. Acme also hired disabled and handicapped janitors. The night shift janitorial supervisor, Al Bumme, isn’t handicapped. Passionate about environmental issues, it troubled him that the “trash” that landed in the Dumpster was destined for a landfill, a situation he couldn’t abide. If the scavenger service hadn’t yet hauled away the Dumpster before the end of his shift, Al would load his car with as many of the undeliverable cartons as would fit. It was like a grab bag; he never knew what he’d find when he opened them at home. Al recycled those CDs either through his eBay account or through local consignment resale shops, thus doing the environment a favor and converting other’s garbage into his own cash. 52 An Acme employee learns the difference between minimizing trash and maximizing cash M But someone in accounting took notice. Joe Jobah, a summer intern, was assigned to handle the paperwork from both the shipping company and the scavenger service. After studying recent bills, Joe couldn’t reconcile the discrepancy between the number of undeliverable mailings and the number of full Dumpsters. The returned CD count remained at historical levels, but the number of Dumpsters trended downward. After reviewing the records, Joe identi- Bottom line, the media company is much better off in trashing these returns. fied the onset of this apparently anomalous pattern. In spite of knowing that a smaller scavenger service bill is good for the bottom line, Joe reported his findings in hopes of justifying the paycheck he so much needed for college next fall. One thing led to another and Acme’s IT department installed miniature, wireless surveillance cameras at the dock where the shipping company returned the undeliverable CD packages and at the Dumpster out back. It wasn’t long before Acme had a lot of time-stamped footage that showed Al shoving cartons into his car. After Al was confronted with the evidence of what Acme considered to be theft of garbage, an examination of his car turned up nearly 150 of the undeliverable packages. Al freely admitted taking them, citing as his reason that they were going to be dumped into a landfill, an act that was neither consistent with his philosophy nor with contemporary concerns about the environment and sustainability. Recycling, Al argued, is the right thing to do in every case. June 2008 www.PLANTSERVICES.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - June 2008

Plant Services - June 2008 Contents From the Editor Letters The PS Files Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works Asset Manager Technology Toolbox Cover Story HVAC Coatings Motors Web Hunter In the Trenches Product Picks Classifieds Energy Expert

Plant Services - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.