A Sustainability Problem in Manufacturing.

If you work in an industrial capacity, especially if you work in manufacturing, there are a few things that you should worry about. Sustainability is a huge worry in any type of manufacturing these days, though IoT is helping a lot. Sustainability can be a difficult task for any manufacturing company due to operating challenges. However, it is still something that should try to be achieved. Different aspects of the business can affect sustainability such as energy efficiency, the role of the equipment, and even saving water. It doesn’t matter how well you are planning from an equipment standpoint, everything can be undone by bad operations and conversely, good operations and bad planning can also cause all your efforts to go awry.

Whether you are a facilities manager or a backroom employee, there are plenty of instances of operations messing with the sustainability goals. There are times when this is unavoidable, for instance if production has to be ramped-up because of a spike or demand. Unfortunately, in a situation like that, it is unavoidable. You can be doing everything right and still have your sustainability efforts take a hit.

Normally, the issue will have something to do with people taking shortcuts or changing things that they shouldn’t be changing. While these may seem obligatory on the surface, they can influence the underlined part of the process. For instance, they might affect your water bill or the electric bill. That can cause you an issue. It would be nice if there was an easy answer, but sustainability is an ongoing fight and in a lot of cases, it is a knock-out blow that puts them down for the count.

You should never just throw up your hands because of sustainability as a challenge. You must ask yourself the hard questions; What caused the problem? When did it start? Who could have prevented this? Why did this happen? What can I do to fix it? Once you have answered these questions, you need to try to fix the issue. Sustainability can’t just be something that is ingrained in the culture of a company. If you are not consciously trying to improve, you will get left behind and that is not what anyone wants. Most people can also do amazing things if they have the proper training and techniques.

James Kemper is the president of W. H. Meanor & Associates, an executive placement & training company specializing in engineering & manufacturing careers. Register to receive regular blog posts and industry specific articles at: http://eepurl.com/dtKsDL or visit at www.whmeanor.com