IBM says manufacturers should aim for sustainable supply chains

One of the most common mistakes manufacturers make when trying to assess their carbon emissions is limiting their outlook to their own operations, points Bruce Anderson, General Manager of the Global Electronics Industry at IBM. ‘Manufacturers will stop by measuring only what they can directly control in their own facilities,’ he says. ‘They should be looking across the supply chain, from suppliers to logistics providers and contract manufacturers.’

Anderson will be presenting at the upcoming Sustainable Manufacturing Summit on April 8-9 at the Art Institute of Chicago. Over 50 top companies are confirmed to speak at the summit including GE, Honeywell, Philips, Dell, HP, Sharp, GM, Frito Lay, Motorola, General Mills, Patagonia, and Toyota.

Bruce Anderson, General Manager, Global Electronics Industry, IBM

What are some other mistakes manufacturers make when assessing their carbon emissions?

Payback. Manufacturers often assume that "getting green" is going to create additional cost. We have found that properly structured, green programs can more than pay for themselves.

How do you begin to identify the most logical areas of carbon reduction in the manufacturing supply chain?

IBM has put together a "house of carbon" analytical tool, to help put a framework around the problem. We use the tool to quantify the impact of the various activities of the enterprise, and their respective impact on carbon production. Options are identified and selected for implementation.

Please tell us a bit about IBM’s “Lean to Green Sigma”?

As a company that applies Six Sigma to incent and measure continuous improvement, and one that uses Lean principles to remove complexity and increase throughput in our operations, we have found that these existing techniques can be readily adapted to attack the problem of carbon emissions.

Approaching the problem this way means we are dealing with facts, focusing on continuous reduction, and using established methods and tools on a different problem - and enhancing the techniques to solve a specific set of issues.

What are you most looking forward to at the Sustainable Manufacturing Summit?

Hearing about the initiatives being undertaken by the other companies in attendance.