Georgia Institute of Technology Systems Realization Laboratory Environmentally Benign Manufacturing...

Georgia Institute of TechnologySystems Realization Laboratory

Environmentally Benign Manufacturing -Trends in Europe, Japan, and the USA

-- Results from the NSF/DoE Sponsored

“Environmentally Benign Manufacturing”WTEC Study

Environmentally Benign Manufacturing -Trends in Europe, Japan, and the USA

-- Results from the NSF/DoE Sponsored

“Environmentally Benign Manufacturing”WTEC Study

Bert Bras

George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0405

USA


Module ObjectiveModule Objective

Having read this, you should know the following:

1. What the definition of EBM is

2. How this type of study was performed

3. Cultural differences that can affect how EBM is pursued by different actors

4. What each region’s priorities are and why

5. Examples of specific company activities


What is EBM?What is EBM?

• Environmentally Benign Manufacturing (EBM) =

• Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing =

• “Green” Manufacturing =

Manufacturing in a way that does not impact the environment

• EBM Pollution Prevention


Some US Waste Figures...Some US Waste Figures...

• The USA generated 180 million tons of Municipial Solid Waste in 1988

– One third of US MSW consist of packaging materials

U.S. Industry, on the other hand, generates

700 million tons of hazardous waste, and

11 billion tons of “non-hazardous” waste.

U.S. Industry, on the other hand, generates

700 million tons of hazardous waste, and

11 billion tons of “non-hazardous” waste.

0

200

400

600

800

Industrial WasteK tons per $M GDP

Municipal Waste(kg per capita)

US Japan EU


What is Manufacturing’s Impact?What is Manufacturing’s Impact?

• See www.epa.gov/tri/ and use “TRI Explorer” to find the Toxic Release Inventory data for manufacturers in your neighborhood.


Complexity of EBMComplexity of EBM

• Decisions in manufacturing, including design, can have profound implications throughout the entire product life cycle, from raw materials production, through the use phase of the product and into it’s end of life treatment.

Disposal

MiningMaterial

processingProduct

manufactureDistribution

Product take-back

Material de-manufacture

Energy recovery with incineration

Use +

Service

Product demanufacture

Environment: air, sea, land 1234

Clean fuel production via pyrolysis

2 = Remanufacture of reusable components

3 = Reprocessing of recycled material

4 = Monomer / raw material regeneration

1 = Direct recycling / reuse

Manufacture

Demanufacture


Environmentally Benign Manufacturing (EBM) PanelEnvironmentally Benign Manufacturing (EBM) Panel

• Mission: to study and evaluate the current efforts and state of the art in EBM in Europe, Japan, and the United States

• Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF) with the Department of Energy

• Panel members: representative of government, academia, and industry

• Activities:– Visits to Japan, US and EU– Generation and distribution of public documents– Public workshop in July, 2000 in Washington DC

• Final Report: Environmentally Benign Manufacturing. WTEC Panel Report, Baltimore, MD, Loyola College, 2001.

• Online: – http://itri.loyola.edu/ebm/ebm.pdf– www.srl.gatech.edu/education/ME4171


PanelistsPanelists

Dave Allen, UT AustinDiana Bauer, EPA (formerly UC Berkeley)Bert Bras, Georgia TechTim Gutowski, MIT (panel co-chair)Cindy Murphy, UT Austin (panel co-chair)Tom Piwonka, University of AlabamaPaul Sheng, McKinsey (formerly UC Berkeley)John Sutherland, Michigan TechDeborah Thurston, Univ. of Illinois - Urbana-ChampaignEgon Wolff, Caterpillar


Japanese Sites VisitedJapanese Sites Visited

Fuji Xerox NIRE

Hitachi PERL New Earth Conf. & Exhibition

HORIBA LTD. NRIM

Kubota PVC Industrial Association

MITI/Mechanical Engineering Lab. Sony Corporation

MITI/AIST/NOMC Tokyo Seikan Kaisha

Nagoya University Toyota Motor Corporation

NEC Corporation University of Tokyo

Nippon Steel Corporation Institute for Industrial Science


European Sites VisitedEuropean Sites Visited

Corus Holland ICAST

DaimlerChrysler IVF

Denmark Tech. U. MIREC

EC Environmental Directorate Siemens

EC Research & Technical Development TU Aachen

Excello TU Berlin

Fraunhofer, Aachen TU Delft (Ministry of Environment,

Lucent Technologies,

Philips Consumer Electronics)

Fraunhofer, Berlin University of Stuttgart

Fraunhofer, Stuttgart Volvo


US Sites VisitedUS Sites Visited

Applied Materials GM

Caterpillar IBM

CERP Interface Flooring Systems

Chaparral Steel/Cement Johnson Controls

Daimler Chrysler MBA Polymers

Corus Tuscaloosa Metrics Workshop

DuPont Micro Metallics

Federal Mogul NCMS

Ford


Society/CultureSociety/Culture

The difference and importance of culture was striking.


JapanJapan

• Avoiding waste and saving resources is culturally ingrained.

• Japanese are on a “small ship in the pacific”

• Environmental stewardship is part of “being a good citizen”

• Criticism on US


EuropeEurope

• Green space is scarce and thus precious.

• Strong environmental stewardship and associated action groups, sometimes reinforced by religion (mankind is “custodian” of the Earth).

• High degree of cooperation between governments and industry.

• Recycling is culturally ingrained from bottle recycling - consumer goods is just a logical next step.

• Resource/material based tax systems (rather than labor/income based) are being introduced.

• Still, average citizen is not overly environmentally conscious at all (traffic problems).

• Criticism on US


StrategiesStrategies

• The development of a strategy is a critical part of EBM

• In general, companies develop strategies that are compatible with their national strategies, while multinational companies need to respond to the strategies of many countries

• The strategies of the EU, Japan and the U.S. are strongly influenced by their national concerns, and societal structures.


Main Issues - JapanMain Issues - Japan

• Focus on the conservation of resources including reductions in energy, materials, solid wastes, and greenhouse gases

• Alignment of internal resources by public education, environmental leadership, consensus building, and tools development including LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), DfE (Design for the Environment), and ISO 14000 certification

• Systematic implementation of EBM as a competitive strategy


Main Issues - EuropeMain Issues - Europe

• Concern for solid wastes and toxic materials

• Product take back focus

• Systems orientation built upon interdisciplinary agenda setting, and tools development

• Strong political basis for environmental concerns


Main Issues - USMain Issues - US

• Regulatory focus on pollution by medium,

• Materials, process, technology, and cost orientation

• Reliance on free enterprise to solve system level problems

• Tendency toward adversarial positions which are solved by litigation


Motivation for EBMMotivation for EBM

• Cost reduction

• Risk mitigation

• Market advantage

• Regulatory flexibility

• Corporate image

• Etc

• At the core: many companies really do understand the problem;

Any long term sustainable business policy must address the relationship to the environment.


Take Back and Recycling - EuropeTake Back and Recycling - Europe

• High emphasis on take-back for recycling - due to legislation.

• Working take-back system in place in The Netherlands.

• Reprocessing still highly dependent on manual labor (for sorting, disassembly, inspection). US may lead in mechanical separation technologies.

• Recycling/reuse is seen as new job opportunities, especially in Germany.

• No magic silver bullets.


European Take-Back LegislationEuropean Take-Back Legislation

• Take-back law in place for cars in EU– Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of September

18 2000 on End-Of Life Vehicles

– Car-makers bear responsibility for recovery and recycling

• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive will follow soon at EU level

• No objection from population to pay extra for disposal fee on consumer goods.

• European laws to be implemented are stricter than Dutch law.

• Experience from Dutch recyclers: – should be economically viable to be self-sustaining;

– find market for materials first, then recycle.


Japan and US...Japan and US...

• US:– Recycling efforts either self-motivated or in response to

European initiatives.

• Japan:– Avoidance of waste and saving of resources is culturally

ingrained.

– Take-back laws considered are derived from European initiatives.


Trends in Electronic IndustryTrends in Electronic Industry

• Japanese and US companies are highly responsive to activities in Europe,

– particularly the WEEE directive, with the primary focus being elimination of halogenated flame retardants and lead-containing solder.

– US electronics companies are moving more slowly and reluctantly than in Japan

» The general feeling is that the benefits to the materials far outweigh the environmental risks

• ISO 14000 certification: – key concern for Japanese companies

– moderate effort to complete certification in Europe

– primarily pursued by international companies in US

• In US:– Strong interest in disassembly technologies and design for disassembly in US.

– Strong emphasis on metrics and supply chain management.

– Most recycling activities in the US are occurring (or have occurred) as partnerships with OEMs.


Trends in Automotive IndustryTrends in Automotive Industry

• Disturbing trend: Individuals from U.S.-based plants frequently commented that existing regulations tend to inhibit technology changes that could result in positive environmental effects.

– Burden to pursue the formal approval of new technologies is often so large that the technology changes are not pursued.

– In sharp contrast to industry-government interactions abroad where there is a common vision regarding technological innovations directed at environmental improvement and economic development.

• All of the automakers and suppliers visited have (or will) achieved some level of ISO 14000 certification, but for different reasons.

• Extended producer responsibility and vehicle take-back represent considerable challenges to the auto industry, incl. suppliers.

• Principle difference between the U.S. and Japan/Europe: attitude of consumers toward vehicles.


Material IssuesMaterial Issues

• Highly engineered tailored materials cause problems for recycling– May imply that alloy compositions would have to be frozen

• Iron and steel face a challenge in all applications that use energy during their life cycle (such as cars and trucks) because of weight

– Thin-wall castings and high strength steels are being researched worldwide.

• Three largest contributors to pollution in metal manufacturing:– machining (the use of lubricants),

– casting (air pollution from binders)

– surface conditioning (cleaning, painting and plating).

• Polymers face fundamental conflict between performance (e.g., low weight and low cost) and the ability to either incorporate recycled content and/or recycle the engineered material.

– Chance for successful plastics recycling increases as the waste stream quality and quantity increase and as the cost of the virgin material increases .

– Some recycling infrastructures are set up to capture particular target materials because they are either valuable or troublesome (e.g., PVC can produce HCl during incineration)


Design for Environment (DFE)Design for Environment (DFE)

• Europe arguably leading this area

• Japan heavy on tool development

• Most larger companies seem to have some expertise in DFE– Seen now by many as “just another Design for X” to be done, but lower in priority to

technical and economical concerns.

– Fits in concept of lean manufacture -> avoid waste.

– Low hanging fruits can easily be identified.

• Even in Europe’s large companies, getting practicing engineers to do DFE can be a problem.

• Trade-off and detailed analyses are still difficult to do.

• Trials with implementing DFE in Small & Medium-Size Enterprises have been conducted in Netherlands and Sweden.– Current tools are good enough to get them started.

– Self-motivation and sustaining of effort is difficult -> SME may not see business advantage or simply has no time.


Integration with BusinessIntegration with Business

• EBM is seen by many in Europe and Japan as a natural extension of lean manufacturing and/or concurrent engineering.

– In the US, it is still often viewed as a separate and special activity.

• European EBM/DFE support strategies seem to have evolved to a) have a group of experts at corporate R&D level, but b) definitely have a few dedicated DFE/EBM persons at the business

unit/manufacturing plant level.

• Integration with company wide information systems (and beyond to suppliers) is being pursued.

• Interestingly, few if any have really linked environmental assessments closely with business/economic assessments.

– Mostly on a case-by-case basis– Not systematically– In some cases, governmental bid packages include request for environmental

analysis in addition to financial budget.


Symbiotic ThinkingSymbiotic Thinking

• Next frontier: integrate manufacturing and industry with Nature.– “Quantify -> Qualify -> Symbiosis” (Interface Flooring Systems)

• Noticeable was the interest of several companies in natural fibers.

• Also, “waste” is a relative term: a waste may be a food for something/somebody else. Key is to find that thing or person.

– Industrial Ecology

• If symbiotic, closed-loop, links can be established, then impact reduction could be significant.

– Within the industrial system by teaming with diverse partners ->Industrial ecology

– With Nature by using renewable and (bio)degradable materials ->Natural ecology


Government ActivitiesGovernment Activities

Activity Japan US Europe

• Take-back legislation — • Landfill bans • Material bans • LCA tool and database

development • Recycling infrastructure • Economic incentives • Regulate by medium • Cooperative /joint efforts

with industry • Financial and legal liability


Industrial ActivitiesIndustrial Activities

Activity Japan US Europe• ISO 14000 Certification • Water conservation • Energy conservation/CO2 emissions • Decreased releases to air & water • Decreased solid waste / post-industrial recycling • Post-consumer recycling • Material and energy inventories • Alternative material development • Supply chain involvement • EBM as a business strategy • Life-cycle activities


Research ActivitiesResearch Activities


Relevant Basic Research (> 5 years out) • Polymers • Electronics • Metals • Automotive/Transportation • Systems Applied R&D (≤ 5 years out) • Polymers • Electronics • Metals • Automotive/Transportation • Systems


Educational ActivitiesEducational Activities


• Courses • Programs • Focused degree program — — • Industry sponsorship • Government sponsorship


Systems Level Problem SolvingSystems Level Problem Solving

• Progress in EBM requires integration of technology, economic motivation, regulatory actions and business practices to be successful.

• Examples abound of missed opportunities when any element is missing.

• Fundamental is dialog and cooperation between stakeholders.

• In the most effective firms a clear strategy is developed and woven into business practices.

– The setting of targets and constancy of mission are essential to this process.

• By far the most highly coordinated efforts seen by the panelists were in Japan. For example at Toyota “Lean Manufacturing” and “Green Manufacturing” were seen as essentially the same thing


Regional Observations in ShortRegional Observations in Short

• The US appears to be most heavily involved in materials and processes and in avoiding litigation.

• Japan is focused on applications that incorporate EBM into their business strategies, introduction of new products (primarily to gain market share), and resource conservation.

• Europe is heavily concerned with product end-of-life, infrastructure (supply chain and reverse logistics), elimination of materials of concern, and systems level modeling.


Some Major ConclusionsSome Major Conclusions

• Each region (US, Europe, and Japan) has different approaches to developing an environmentally benign manufacturing strategy.

• Each region has different drivers.

• Key finding: Japanese and Europeans view EBM as a systems problem, and have put in place various aspects of a systems solutions.

• There was no evidence that the EBM problem is solvable by a “silver bullet” technology.

• There was evidence that plenty of win-win situations are possible.


AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements

• Delcie Durham (National Science Foundation).

• Fred Thompson and K. Rajurkar (NSF).

• Geoff Holdridge (WTEC) - operational management.

• WTEC personnel for operational support.

• This presentation is a result from the work sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy under NSF Cooperative Agreement ENG-9707092, awarded to the International Technology Research Institute at Loyola College, MD. Any opinions, finding, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US government, the authors’ parent institutions, or Loyola Tech.

• Full report can be found at http://itri.loyola.edu/ebm/ebm.pdf

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