Green and lean: separate entities
May 1st 2009

Phil Scotcher, general manager of TDK-Lambda's power supply manufacturing facility, outlines what he understands by 'Green Manufacturing' and how it is applied at his site in Ilfracombe

The term 'Green Manufacturing' defies definition although the explanation given by David Foster of the Blue Green Alliance is an enlightening one. Foster says "Green Manufacturing is a philosophy rather than an adopted process because it motivates ongoing improvement efforts, even though it may be impossible to achieve." This ongoing improvement element closely matches the Lean Six Sigma business improvement model that was started at TDK-Lambda's Ilfracombe site 10 years ago.

Lean Six Sigma is a combination of the Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma models that uncover where quality improvements, additional efficiencies and cost savings might lie. Since starting Lean Six Sigma the site has undergone two major realignments to move from a cell manufacturing model to a more flexible, modular manufacturing set up that allows mass customisation.

This approach achieved a notable success recently with the launch of the EFE Series of embedded front-end power supplies that take digital control to the next level. As well as the impressive technical performance, the EFE Series meets TDKLambda's design brief for environmentallyresponsible products that consume less energy in manufacture and use, have fewer parts, weigh less and have a long life expectancy.

Lean Six Sigma is essentially about establishing processes which may offer 'green' benefits, such as a reduction in the use of resources, but it is not its raison d'être.

Green manufacturing, to my mind, is an entirely separate element but one which inevitably crosses boundaries. Often, projects can have complementary aspects. A recent project to improve quality in our Surface Mount Technology process began as a desire to introduce nitrogen reflow. Space constraints forced us to look at alternatives, and a Six Sigma project identified vapour phase reflow as a sound alternative. Not only would we improver solder joint integrity, we would reduce our electricity consumption. In another project, we replaced an unreliable compressor with a new one, and relocated it.

We expect to reduce service costs, save electricity and improve our noise footprint, important for our neighbours as we are located in a residential area.

For those who are excited by the idea of Green Manufacturing, but don't know where to start, then ISO 14001 accreditation is a strong beginning. The environmental management system is structured similarly to ISO 9001 and therefore its procedural requirements can be integrated easily.

As part of TDK-Lambda's ISO 14001 accreditation at its Devon site, a 'Waste and Recycling Team' was established which identified different initiatives that would have great environmental and cost-saving effects. Polypropylene and polystyrene trays used in the production department are returned to the supplier and re-used, saving £40 000/year. Additionally, drinking cups are recycled and made into office equipment by a local supplier. In conjunction, simply by purchasing a baling and compacting system the number of 1100L bins collected per week has been cut by 79%.

Prior to the acquisition of Lambda by TDK, a green movement had already begun at the site involving a wide spread of personnel in terms of seniority and department. This led to the success of several simple environmental projects which, if they had been management sponsored, would not have had such great effect. Therefore, when TDK acquired the company and introduced its own environmental beliefs it was less of a culture shock than it might once have been.

If Green Manufacturing is a philosophy then TDK-Lambda's parent company (TDK) encourages. Our safety, health and environment manager, Andy Dorr, reports monthly on the use of: paper, card, wood, textiles, chemicals, water, energy, emissions, waste, effluents, utilities, etc. This will help as we embark on a project to calculate the true carbon footprint of one of our products.

Green Manufacturing is not about fulfiling one or two environmental criteria as part of Lean Manufacturing and then labelling the entire process 'Green'. It is about having additional environmental policies, separate from Lean, and pursuing them separately for their own ends. It is worth noting though that both Green and Lean are continuous journeys, and at TDK-Lambda we are not the finished article, the nature of which means that the more closely you look the more you find in the continual pursuit to change lean and green into gold.

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