A 'lean' approach to sustainabilty

Alison has been out and about again. Here she reports on an interesting topic:

I can honestly say that I never stop learning in my job. That is a privilege but also hard work sometimes! It means you constantly have to review how you think, what you are doing and how you are advising your clients.

Working with the manufacturing sector has taught me a lot about efficiency and waste, and not just tangible efficiency and waste. Time, use of raw materials, distance travelled, stock management, communication between the office and the shop floor; all of these elements of manufacturing have the potential to create tangible waste and intangible inefficiencies in the system.

However, when I look at that list of potential wastes I immediately think about sustainability as opposed to lean manufacturing. It is clear that the two are inextricably linked. Generally speaking, efficient processes, efficient use of raw materials, reducing miles travelled and improving communication are tools that we use in our jobs to discuss the environmental element of sustainability with clients.

Sustainability is about the environmental AND social impacts of the economic activities that we carry out. So we can’t forget the social side of this too. It may be that more efficient or ‘leaner’ processes in manufacturing leads to loss of jobs as processes become streamlined or automated. That is a challenge for society as a whole – if you ask a manufacturer what their primary aim is it will probably be something like ‘creating value’ not ‘creating jobs’.

On Tuesday I was at an excellent event on ‘Lean Office’ organised by the very practical and supportive Manufacturing Advisory Service. Despite the potential challenges of having ‘lean’ organisations on society, it is a tool that can be effectively linked to sustainability. Carrying out value stream or process mapping of any organisation’s processes can highlight areas of waste within the system that may be able to be managed out. Reducing physical waste has an immediate cost benefit to the company and will help you conform to the new legal requirements of adhering to the waste hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle).

We need to start taking a broader approach to all these tools and concepts available to organisations – sustainability effectively challenges us to see the bigger picture and look at things as a whole, without forgetting people and the environment. Taking a ‘lean’ approach can be an excellent starting point.

Alison Fanshawe