Sustainable production and quality management: a successful combination?

Why sustainable production?

Sustainability is a term that has long been indispensable from our vocabulary. Since 2018, the year Extinction Rebellion was founded, the global resistance against plastic straws, and the year the IPCC published a significant study on global warming, the concept of sustainability has also become inseparable from the entrepreneurial landscape. The world has been awakened.

What is sustainable production?

Corporate social responsibility is not only encouraged by the government, but consumers also demand it from you as an organization. With a global production of around 360 million tons of plastic per year, the manufacturing sector can make a significant impact in the area of sustainable production. Sustainable production is the mandate!

Sustainable production means that products are manufactured in a way that minimally impacts the environment during the production process. This includes measures such as reducing waste, minimizing CO2 emissions, and conserving energy and water.

Benefits and dangers of sustainable production

Sustainable production, compared to non-sustainable production alternatives, positively contributes to a "healthier" planet. This is somewhat simplistically formulated, but it's clear that sustainable production has fewer negative effects on the environment. For this reason, more and more regulations are being established to promote sustainable production in the manufacturing sector.

But sustainable production also offers a significant advantage to your organization. When you implement sustainable production correctly, you can significantly improve your organization's operational efficiency. This can lead to needing less manpower, consuming less energy, and purchasing more efficiently, positively affecting your organization's profit.

However, there's a significant danger lurking in the transition to a sustainable production process: loss of quality. When you start with sustainable production and thus search for a different supplier or different production machines, you risk decreasing the quality of your final product. This underscores the importance of quality management at every stage of the production process. Careful monitoring and regular quality assurance checks are essential to guarantee product quality while simultaneously meeting sustainability goals.

Balancing quality management and sustainable production

In a general and cross-industry sense, quality management is everything you undertake within your organization to ensure quality. Good quality management involves continuously monitoring and improving the processes within the production of your product. And it's these subprocesses that are altered when you start with sustainable production. Finding the right balance is therefore essential.

To guarantee the quality of your product when you start with the sustainability of your production process, it's important to phase in sustainability. Don't start with ten different sustainability actions at once. The reason is simple: when it turns out that the quality of the product has deteriorated, it's much more difficult to determine the exact cause if you've started with ten different subprocesses at the same time. In short, proceed in phases and ensure you always keep the quality management system in view.

How to start with sustainable production?

Now that we've outlined the benefits and you roughly know what to watch out for, the next question is: where do I start? What steps should I take in the context of sustainable production?

1. Buy fewer machines
   The most sustainable machine is the machine that isn't running. In short, running fewer machines is already a significant step in the right direction. This sounds easier said than done. How can you produce the same with fewer machines?
   Look critically at what is really necessary for production. For example, is it possible to produce multiple products on the same machine? By working with interchangeable modules or smart scheduling? Or is it possible to increase the number of shifts by expanding the workforce, thus increasing the number of production hours per machine?
2. Opt for accuracy
   Choosing accurate production machines reduces the chance of variation in the produced products. This ensures you can purchase the correct amounts of materials, reducing material loss and producing less waste.
   Moreover, accurate machines ensure a consistent quality of the product, resulting in fewer products being rejected. This saves material and energy, positively impacting the environment. This not only positively affects emissions and sustainability but also the quality of the product.

Update and invest

Machines, pumps, and electrical components are huge energy consumers within production machines. Replacing parts due for replacement over time with newer and more energy-efficient parts will logically lower energy consumption.

Small adjustments to start with sustainable production

While we've discussed significant adjustments within the production process above, you can also achieve excellent results with relatively small adjustments to make your production process much more sustainable. Examples include:

• Exploring the possibility of eliminating product packaging
• Choosing biodegradable materials
• Separating all waste
• Reducing your CO2 emissions by producing locally
• Using environmentally friendly cleaning agents
  
  

Ultimately, it comes down to making a conscious decision whether or not to produce sustainably. The benefits are clear, but it does require an investment. However, there are options to start small and keep the costs of necessary adjustments limited. Whether big or small, every step towards sustainability counts. But ensure that you measure the effects, both positively and negatively: you need to know what it yields you on the bottom line, and you must understand how the quality of your product evolves to prevent quality loss.