Category Archives: Lean Manufacturing

This article on Reuters caught my eye this last week, as we have been working hard on the designs for VirTex Assembly’s new facility.  One of the largest considerations we have is ways that we can reduce, not only our overall consumption, but our peak demands.  LEDs offer a number of important benefits in a manufacturing environment over traditional halogen based lighting.  Halogen lights give off nearly 90% of the energy they consume as heat.  This is wasted energy and requires additional energy to remove this heat using air conditioning.  Even fluorescent lights can waste nearly 50% of the energy used. 

In addition to being more efficient than fluorescent lights, LEDs can be dimmed and have little to no maintenance cost.   they also can offer better visibility and a more natural look than fluorescent lighting.  This may translate to better employee morale in a building with little outside lighting.  Take a look at LED lights if you are looking to upgrade your facility or move into a new one.  It may be one of the simplest and most effective green changes you can make.

In its small business section last month, Business Week has an interesting article regarding manufacturing growth in the green sector.  This article focuses on how small companies can establish new markets through focusing on the manufacture of innovative green products.  These products can be easily sold to larger industries looking for a green method of reducing costs.  As our nation focuses on alternative energy sources and ways to do things with less energy and more efficiently, this will become more the norm, but for now, companies embracing green resources have an open playing field.

 This article came to my mind again this week as talks continued about stimulating the economy through the focus on green and the further talks of bailing out the ailing auto industry.  proposal is the generation of $2 million green collar jobs via $100 billion in tax credits and direct investment.  What is not immediately clear, is how this money would be spent to actually make this happen.  How do we change an entire industry to provide the technology America wants and needs?  What further remains to be seen is whether, as gas prices continue to drop, whether the public will forget what got us to $140 per barrel oil, and go back to our ways of waste.  Even as interest in the cost effectiveness of hybrid vehicles continues to fall, it is important to look back at where we were so that we do not lose our focus on the creation of greener technologies.

We should learn from the lessons of the auto industry, who ignored the advice of Edward Deming and his quality teachings, only to have Toyota learn it first.  Today, Toyota is still one of the world’s most progressive manufacturing companies, leading the charge toward lean manufacturing.  Through lean and green techniques, the American manufacturer can establish areas of competitiveness, if we do not become complacent through the prospect of a government handout.  With the expansion of other world economies, America needs to reestablish itself as the leader in innovation.  Only through innovation can we gain a competitive advantage over lower labor markets.  We have to be first to be able to achieve the highest margins.  We simply cannot sit back and wait for someone else to develop the technology we need while the government rewards poor business practices.

I would challenge all US manufacturers to look inside themselves and eliminate the waste within their organizations and create a culture of lean and green.  At VirTex, this is our focus and we are continually investing in the development of new ways to reduce our waste, wherever it may occur.  Our customers have come to expect it and now embrace it.  It’s time other manufacturers did the same.  We are lean and ready, even for a continued economic down turn.  Are you ready?  Go green.  Green pays.

Brad

http://www.virtexassembly.com