Managing Automation - May 2008 - (Page 22) [ COVER STORY ] package fuel per year, and stopping 667,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, according to information on the Wal-Mart Web site. It is, indeed, a virtuous effort, some people proclaim. “Wal-Mart is saying they want to be the steward of the economy, but it is not like RFID, when we ended up with malicious obedience,” says Phil Friedman, vice president of consumer products at QAD, an ERP vendor. “This is really Wal-Mart’s recognition that retailers and manufacturers need to collaborate and cooperate on improving our environment.” The companies in the supply chain understand the objective behind Wal-Mart’s initiative. And starting with packaging is an obvious first step because results WAL-MART’S SUSTAINABILITY can be more easily seen. SCORECARD FOR PACKAGING Going green “is such a Wal-Mart’s new retailing standard promotes sustainabilhumongous concept that it ity by reducing packaging across its supply chain. This scorecard is a tool that Wal-Mart will use when making is hard to get your arms purchasing decisions this year. around it,” says Darin Jones, executive vice president of How Wal-Mart weights its decision: operations at Pacific South● 15% for greenhouse gases/carbon dioxide per ton of west Container (PSC), a production packaging company in Cali● 15% for material value — how much raw material is fornia that produces boxes used to create the package for customers in the elec● 15% for product/package ratio — how small a package tronics, food and beverage, is used for the product pharmaceutical, and cos● 15% for cube utilization — how effectively space in palmetic industries. “Our cuslets and shipping containers is used tomers are looking for any● 10% for transportation impacts thing tangible to make ● 10% for recycled content in the package progress or satisfy their cus● 10% for recovery value of the packaging material tomers’ requests [specifically] Wal-Mart’s request.” ● 5% for renewable energy used to product the package PSC is taking steps of its ● 5% for packaging innovation own in order to satisfy WalSource: Wal-Mart Mart’s sustainable packaging scorecard requirements (see char t, this page). But Jones warns manufacturers that they can’t embark on this mission simply to gratify a big retailer. It’s more a matter of doing the right thing — reducing waste and cost. PSC’s strategy is a model that blends financial and ecological judgments to make good business decisions. “We call that ECOnomics,” Jones says. “Economics and ECOnomics go hand-in-hand.” deal SHADES OF GREEN One way that PSC abides by the rules of ECO-nomics is in package design. The company will use a computer-aided design (CAD) model to construct a package for its customers that can fit more unit density on a pallet. That same design then gets expanded to see how much more product can fit into a truck. Collectively, these things result in environmental efficiencies. “You fit more on the truck and it drives down emissions and drives down fuel cost,” Jones says. Many companies are taking the transportation aspect a step further, figuring out ways to reduce drive time and drive miles, not so much in product deliver y to store shelves, but for field service. Technology, such as Servigistics’ Service Workforce Management software, which includes knowledge management, intelligent routing, and parts forecasting modules, can ensure that the right product or component is available on the first service call. The software can also schedule routes so that trucks ser vicing customers in a specific vicinity have all the products and parts they need to complete the job — rather than sending for a truck that is 100 miles away. “We did a study for one customer that had 150 technicians, each doing eight jobs per day. [Using Servigistics software] that customer could reduce drive miles by 1,000 miles per day,” says Joe Berti, Servigistics’ vice president of Service Workforce Management products. For operational folks, 1,000 fewer miles translates into lower gas costs and less wearand-tear on trucks. But there is an indirect green effect that the corporate side of the house can appreciate, too. That’s 1,000 fewer miles of gas burned and emissions each day — another feather that a chief sustainability officer can put in the corporate cap. However, in the big picture, smoothing out transportation and logistics is only one small step to take on the road to sustainability. There are other small, but extremely important best practices to adopt in manufacturing operations. Specifically, energyefficient drives and motors can be installed in a factory to save money. “Within the four walls of manufacturing, 60% of electricity usage goes into rotating motors,” says John Nesi, Rockwell Automation’s vice president of market development. Customers often call in Rockwell to conduct energy management audits using special monitoring software tools, Nesi says. Often, the first suggestion is to move from fixedspeed drives to variable-speed drives, a system for controlling the alternating current of an electric motor. The next suggestion Rockwell representatives might make is to monitor the use of ma May 22 2008
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