Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 10

1-Introduction to quality and

productivity(general)
Quality in business, engineering and manufacturing has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-
inferiority or superiority of something. Quality is a perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective
attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on
the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace.
Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service
was produced correctly.

Numerous definitions and methodologies have been created to assist in managing the quality-affecting
aspects of business operations. Many different techniques and concepts have evolved to improve product
or service quality. There are two common quality-related functions within a business. One is quality
assurance which is the prevention of defects, such as by the deployment of a quality management
system and preventative activities like failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). The other is quality
control which is the detection of defects, most commonly associated with testing which takes place within
a quality management system typically referred to as verification and validation.
Productivity is a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input. For example, labor
productivity is typically measured as a ratio of output per labor-hour, an input. Productivity may be
conceived of as a metric of the technical or engineering efficiency of production. As such, the emphasis is
on quantitative metrics of input, and sometimes output. Productivity is distinct from metrics ofallocative
efficiency, which take into account both the monetary value (price) of what is produced and the cost of
inputs used, and also distinct from metrics of profitability, which address the difference between the
revenues obtained from output and the expense associated with consumption of inputs.[1]

Business organizations need to improve to meet the challenge of world competitiveness.


Productivity and quality improvement is most effective when it is done in a balanced manner
to include managerial, behavioral and technical initiatives. Organizations need to introduce a
much more data-driven orientation, facilitating both grassroots continuous improvement
and top-down strategic projects to correct bench-marked shortfalls. The most common
improvement theme is taking the variation and waste out of upstream systems in order to
create complete customer satisfaction with finished products and services.

One source of confusion in sorting out best practices in organizational


improvement is that very similar activities and initiatives carry a variety of
names, depending on whether the majo theme is quality, productivity,
customer satisfaction, excellence, competitiveness or something else.

Quality, for example, can be defined in a number of wasy. (2) Older


definitions emphasize fidelity to a set of final product or service standards or
specifications worked out by the organization in the past with (presumably)
some reference to the customer's interest. More recent definitions feature
the customer's complete satisfaction, excitement, or delight with the final
product or service. (3) The most recent definitions accept the need for
complete customer satisfaction, but also recognize that the organization
itself needs to design, install and operate high quality internal systems that
allow customer satisfaction to occur, and the organization must operate in a
strategic context that is satisfactory to all stakeholders, not just customers.

Productivity starts from a definition that relates an amount of physical output


to its related labor input. More recent work has recognized that other inputs
(capital, materials, energy, business services) are appropriately the subject
of productivity analysis, and that output, especially in support groups or
service-providers, may not be clearly physical. Productivity improvement
requires balanced attention to the behavioral and managerial systems in
addition to the technical configuration. (4) Output should not be counted
unless it is "good" output. Thus we find quite a convergence between
organizational productivity improvement and organizational process quality
improvement. Both are aimed at the customer's interest in better (including
lower cost) products and services and are achieved through balanced
systems improvement.

2-Green productivity

Green Productivity (GP) is a strategy for simultaneously enhancing productivity and


environmental performance for overall socio-economic development that leads to
sustained improvement in the quality of human life. It is the combined application of
appropriate productivity and environmental management tools, techniques and
technologies that reduce the environmental impact of an organization's activities, products
and services while enhancing profitability and competitive advantage.

Green productivity is a dynamic strategy to harmonize economic growth and


environmental protection for sustainable development. It offers small and
medium businesses a way to achieve a competitive advantage by doing
better with less. It is thus a practical strategy to increase productivity and
protect the environment simultaneously.

Traditional methods of pollution control were not cost-effective. The concept


of green productivity assures profitability and resource productivity.
Businesses and communities get multiple returns in the form of bottom-line
savings, value added products and services, and environmental protection.
Having a good green productivity programme -

• increases profitability
• improves health and safety
• makes quality products
• promotes environmental protection
• ensures regulatory compliance
• enhances company image
• raises morale
• leads to sustainable development

Green productivity uses a set of management tools, techniques and


technologies to encourage innovation and a continuous cycle of productivity
gains. The result is competitive enterprises, preservation of the natural
resources, and a better quality of life.

A typical comprehensive green productivity programme has three levels of


implementation:

• Management Systems and Programmes, using ISO 14001/EMS,


Total Productive Maintenance, Total Quality Management etc.
• Green Productivity Techniques, using 3Rs, Housekeeping/5S,
Resource Conservation, Product Improvement etc.
• Green Productivity Tools, using Eco-Mapping, Benchmarking,
Control Charts and Check lists etc.
• Green Productivity was launched in 1994 in line with the 1992 Earth Summit
recommendations that both economic development and environmental protection would be key
strategies for sustainable development. With the support from the government of Japan the APO
introduced GP as a practical way to answer the challenge of sustainable development.

• The objective of the APO's GP program is to enhance productivity and simultaneously


reduce the negative impacts on the environment. It seeks to realize this objective by propagating
GP consciousness. The APO pledges to continue the progress in the Asia-Pacific Region and through
cooperation, extend GP to accelerate a growing green global marketplace.

3-Feature or significance of green productivity


The process of Industrial growth plays a vital role in economic development, but any Industrial growth
seems to go hand-in-hand with environmental deterioration. Several decades of applying the conventional
methods to reduce environmental damage has proved to be just treating the symptoms, the world is
suffering from disease of environmental damage and a fear of getting it chronic is a possibility. It is high
time to combine technological solutions to overcome urgent pollution problems with ways to prevent
wastes from being generated or to reuse their valuable material. We, in India, are mindful of this growing
problem and have started interventions in form of awareness and practical solutions to reduce the impact
of environmental degradation. To reinforce this belief, National Productivity Council, under the Ministry of
Commerce & Industry, is celebrating Productivity Week from 12 th to 18th February, 2011 with a theme
‘Green Productivity for Sustainable Energy and Environment’. The Productivity Week will revolve around
the core concept of ‘Green Productivity (GP)’.
A New Paradigm
Green Productivity is a new paradigm in sustainable manufacturing where resource conservation and
waste minimization constitute the strategy in simultaneously enhancing environmental performance and
productivity. This productivity approach to the sustainability of industries requires the adoption of clean
production technology and the development of appropriate indicators and instruments to measure
environmental performance in a continuous improvement strategy that focuses on the manufacturing
stage of the product life cycle. The analysis may be expanded to include the entire life cycle with
increasing details on impacts, improvement strategies and indicators.
Green Productivity is the well-rounded socio-economic development that emphasizes on sustainable
improvement in the quality of human life with minimum or no damage to the environment. It is the
combined application of appropriate productivity and environmental management tools, techniques and
technologies that reduce the environmental impact of an organization’s activities, products and services
while enhancing profitability and competitive advantage.
Green Growth Dynamism
The thrust of the productivity week is to focus on generating awareness on the eco-efficiency
considerations and energy efficiency perspectives, which will be supported by principles of ecological
economics and impinged by equations of eco-financing and investments and returns cycles. Strategic
action by firms and stakeholders including consumers are increasingly focused on eco-design initiatives
including product improvement, product–redesign. The aim is to explore future scope in harvesting green
consumerism and green growth dynamics and emergence of eco-cities and eco-industrial parks that
would foster an eco-culture across boundaries on our planet.
Green Productivity as a principle and strategy has gained wider understanding, stronger support and eventually being applied
for enhancing productivity and environmental performance for sustainable socio-economic development. Exploitation of non-
renewable energy sources on one hand resulted in depleting the natural energy reservoirs while on the other hand, due to
excessive and imbalanced use, it made the world face one of the toughest challenges, Global Warming. Rise in sea levels,
fluctuations in the rainfall and frequent droughts are some of the impacts of the environmental damage. All these concerns
made us introspect on the situation and this led to the incubation of the concept of Green Productivity for sustainable
development.
Substantial Gains
Traditional focus of the productivity was to ensure cost-effectiveness through cost reduction, the quality
drive and the customer satisfaction. Now, along with these, productivity improvement programs are also
required to integrate environment issues. GP helps company increase its productivity and it is applicable
not only to manufacturing, but also to the service, information, and agricultural sectors, more so to
government and community economic development. By picking up the baton of quality, productivity has
metamorphosed to incorporate environmental protection and community enhancement as a means to
increase prosperity.
The challenges of shifting to a pathway of sustainable development embracing the energy &
environmental issues are substantial. Improvements in energy management and pollution-reduction
technologies will offset some of the problems associated with projected future growth in population.
Therefore, Green productivity was launched with the prime objectives to address the issues of increasing
profitability, improvement in health and safety, making quality products, promotion of environmental
protection, regulatory compliance, building up company’s image and raise employees morale which will
subsequently lead to holistic growth and development.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Nature is enough to satisfy man’s need but not sufficient for man’s greed.”
In this fierce race of globalization, countries of the world have lost the faculty to decipher the difference
between need and greed. They are rapidly being trapped into the sands of materialism and thus failing to
draw the line. This blurred distinction has consequently resulted boom to the consumerist concept leading
to the crude display of extravagance and has thus ushered mindless production of goods and services.
Productivity and competitiveness are the two faces of a same coin. Competitiveness of a nation is linked
to the productivity growth and ability of a nation to improve its competitiveness is measured by its
environmental performance in addition to more traditional economic criteria. This makes the concept of
Green Productivity a simple but elegant solution – to make environmental protection a core business
principle instead of an isolated cost element. “Green Productivity for sustainable Energy and
Environment” as a chosen theme for the ‘Productivity Week-20ll is the need of the hour.

4-Implementation and its working

Green Productivity is the application of appropriate productivity


and environmental management tools, techniques,
and technologies to reduce the environmental impact of an
organization’s activities, goods and services. Green Productivity
allows any enterprise, large or small, to understand
what it is they do or have that impacts the environment,
reduces efficiency, adds cost, and suppresses productivity.
In its formal definition, Green Productivity uses three terms
and phrases:
• strategy
• productivity and environmental performance
• socio-economic development
Building on its strategic foundation, Green Productivity
focuses on enhancing profitability through combined improvements
in productivity and environmental performance.
This brings an important mind shift that sees environment
from being an additional cost or external issue, to an asset
and opportunity for increasing efficiency and profitability.
The power of this mind shift should not be underestimated.
When excessive use of resources and materials or generation
of pollution is seen as a manifestation of lower
productivity as well as poor environmental performance,
these are seen as manufacturing defects that need correction.
The next level of Green Productivity offers the
logical method drawn from quality management and provides
practical tools and techniques. The knowledge and
approaches under the umbrella of Green Productivity can
help companies attack their productivity challenges with
increased confidence, leading to better bottom lines and
competitive advantage.
Green Productivity follows through on the strategic framework
by seeking technical and managerial interventions for
continual improvement. Asia’s strength in implementing and
improving through the cyclical nature of quality management
has been an asset in initiating Green Productivity.
Below are six simple steps that enterprises can examine
and evaluate for their production processes and products;
to reduce environmental impact, improve productivity and
product quality.
Six principle steps
1. Getting started is an easy task. Identifying the people
who are going to be involved and forming a Green Productivity
team marks the beginning. These people, led by
a champion, walk through and survey the site or facility
and record first impressions. This allows the team to
gather baseline data and identify areas where there may
be a problem. This data gathering activity is made even
easier through the use of Eco-mapping©2, a simple, visual
and practical tool for gathering, analysing and managing
environmental performance, especially suited to smaller
enterprises. Senior management’s buy-in is vital to ensure
adequate resources are available for successful implementation.
2. Planning allows an organization to leverage the information
gained in the first step to analyse the potential for
improvement, along with analytical tools such as material
balance, benchmarking, Eco-mapping and fishbone
diagrams. Objectives and targets can be established
and performance indicators identified to help guide the
improvement process, allowing the company to manage
and measure progress.
3. Generation and Evaluation of Green Productivity
Options involves the development of options to meet the
objectives and targets formulated in planning. It involves
a review of pollution prevention and application of existing
or new control procedures to support the development
of options to enhance productivity. Options are screened
against performance indicators. Those most likely to net
the economic and technical results desired are given first
priority; the company is now ready for action.
4. Implementation of Green Productivity Options involves
two actions, preparation and execution. Preparatory
work includes awareness building, training and the development
of competencies. If new equipment or systems
are required, these are installed along with the operator
instruction and hands-on training.
5. Monitoring and Review of the new Green Productivity
options is vital to check to see that they are producing or
exceeding the anticipated results. This includes monitoring
the whole system to ensure that it is on track and
performing as designed. Findings are reported for review
by management.
6. Sustaining Green Productivity requires action on
course correction where necessary or to build on existing
success. Having a feedback loop is essential to keep progress
on track and to respond to the changing circumstances
imposed by internal and external drivers including customer
expectations, the environment and other innovations that
may accelerate the green productivity.

Green Productivity Techniques


GP techniques are used to bring about the changes that will result in better environmental
performance and improved productivity They range from simple housekeeping techniques to
designing "green" products.
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
GP techniques include awareness programs and the 5S management techniques
which focus on keeping processes, equipment, workplaces and work forces organized,
neat, clean, standardized and disciplined. Other good housekeeping techniques relate
to measures that prevent the loss of materials, minimize waste, conserve and save
energy, and improve operational and organizational procedures.
DESIGN CHANGE
The environmental impact of a product is to a large extent determined by its design.
By taking environmental considerations into account during product planning, design
and development -- and so designing environmentally compatible products -- a
company can minimize the negative impact of its products and process on the
environment.
PROCESS MODIFICATION
Process modification is a key GP technique which encompasses both simple and more
complex changes -- from replacing inefficient or old processes with new technology.
to totally changing the production process used. Such alterations can also involve
energy conservation techniques such as the use of efficient appliances and the re-use
and recycling of heat.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Waste stream segregation and the promotion of recycling, reuse and recovery are two
broad techniques used to reduce the amount of waste a company produces and to
improve waste disposal. Off-site recycling is often implemented if on-site recovery
and reuse of resources is not feasible. Often substantial improvements can be made
in the nature and quantity of waste produced by the substitution or purification of
some material inputs.

5-Area of business where green productivity is found


suitable
4.1 Scope of GP and evolution of GP
The trend in the evolution of GP over the last few years is towards broadening
the scope of GP. The initial GP effort was aimed at the manufacturing industries,
especially SMEs, and later to farms and then to communities.
The first phase of GP application is at the level of the factory and farm and the
problems to be solved are usually quite straight forward, such as reducing the discharge
of pollutants to acceptable legal levels.
The second phase is the application of GP at the community level as the
community is more complex with a different set of problems. The approach of the
implementation of GP is that in the community, all the major stakeholders reach a
consensus. It cannot rely only on directives from top management as in the case of the
factory and enterprise.
The next phase is the application of GP to organizations such as municipal
councils and industrial estates. The application of the GP approach should be in
principle similar to the extension of the application of EMS and ISO 14000 from the
factory floor to the higher levels of organizations, such as to municipal councils.
4.2 Applications of GP in Industries
Over 20 projects by APO on industries have been successfully completed in
different APO member countries. Most were SMEs and these are often promoted as
success stories. In general, these factories have been able to increase their productivity
while reducing the pollution levels and achieve environmental compliance with the
existing regulations of the country.
4.3 Applications in agriculture
GP has been applied to a number of farms, with some success. This includes
the environmental and productivity management of farms. The methodology is
essentially similar to that of the factory. GP has also been applied to Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) whereby the use of pesticides has been significantly reduced.
4.4 Applications in Community Development
The application of GP at the community level is more problematic as the
community is more complex and participation in the GP project is largely voluntary.
The community in the village is treated as a unit, while in actual fact, there are many
family units as well as enterprises within the community.
_ ___
However, GP has been successively carried out in 3 communities in Vietnam
and the methodology was adapted to suit the particular situation. The issues that GP was
able to help solve were clean water supply, solid waste management, animal waste
treatment and IPM.

6-Benefits of Green Productivity


The benefits of Green Productivity are immediate and long term.

Adopters realize immediate improvements in productivity as a result of:

• Increased efficiency gains in resource use


• Lower cost of production
• Decreased waste disposal and treatment cost
• Lower environmental compliance costs

Other benefits include:

• Competitive advantage
• Better working environment
• Better employee participation and teamwork
• Greater job satisfaction

7-Challenges in adopting green productivity

The present methodology of GP as described in the GP manual is designed for


the implementation of GP at the factory or enterprise level. It is not always clear
what
the equivalent function or role would be between a factory and an industrial estate,
as
the structure and objectives of the two different levels of organization would differ.
The
methodology of GP would therefore need to be adapted for the industrial estate.
The kind of methodological adjustment that has to be made is similar to that on
the application of the EMS and ISO 14000 from factories to large institutions and
municipal councils. A similar adaptation took place when the methodology was
applied
to problems of the community, rather than a factory. While in theory GP can be
applied
at the level of the industrial park, this has not been tried out as of yet.
The adaptation of methodology would need to look into the problems hierarchy
levels and scale as the industrial estate is at a different organizational level
compared to a factory.

The scope of GP is constantly broadening to include more economic sectors


and a wider range of human activities, such as community development and
management of industrial estates. The sustainability of industries would become
more
critical as more and more of the developing countries embark on ambitious
industrialization programs. With the economic expansion projected to increase 5 to
10
times in Asia over the next 30 to 40 years, the tasks to ensure the sustainability of
__ _
industry and of development takes on an added urgency. The issue of sustainability
is a
challenge that GP is attempting to meet.

8-conclusion

The concept of ‘green productivity’ is an attempt to show that productivity can be enhanced
whilst maintaining a concern for the environment. The concept stems from the 1992 Earth
Summit and was picked up enthusiastically by the Asian Productivity Organization, a body
which brings together productivity centres and institutes from throughout the Asia-Pacific
region.
The challenge, of course, is to operationalize the concept – to show how green productivity
works in practice. In particular to demonstrate that a concern for the environment is not a drain
on business – an additional cost – but an opportunity to change businesses practises AND
increase productivity.
One key element of green productivity – which helps distinguish it from ‘simple’
environmentalism – is the realisation that it is necessary to move from attempting to clean up
the damage created by a particular process ( a so-called ‘end of pipe’ approach) to focus
‘beginning of pipe’ and ‘all pipe’ prevention. For example rather than focus on scrubbers at the
top of the smokestack to prevent air pollution, change the characteristics of the incoming fuel
that will eliminate the need for the scrubbers.

This line of reasoning is directly comparable to the lessons learned in the quality revolution. In
the initial phase of quality, end of the line inspectors sorted good product from bad product. As
we moved into the era of quality control, the focus was on prevention so we moved inspection
from the end of the process to the beginning of the process (e.g. incoming inspection) and
added the use of statistical sampling methodology. Further improvement led to the elimination of
inspection of incoming parts altogether by choosing and certifying suppliers who demonstrate
the ability to deliver error-free parts and components on time.
It is possible to 'go green' and still run a successful business. In fact, your business can be more
successful by ‘going green’.

If you don't do it voluntarily now, you might in the future have to play 'catch up' as compliance rules
toughen.

If you want to do it effectively, you have to take a holistic view of the entire organization and all of its
processes

Вам также может понравиться