What is Manufacturing Waste?
What is Manufacturing Waste?
Common Manufacturing Waste
One definition of manufacturing waste is any material or resource that is discarded or not used during the manufacturing process. Examples of manufacturing waste include excess raw materials, scrap, broken or defective products, and energy or water consumed in the production process.
These types of waste have a negative impact on the environment and the economy, and many manufacturers are committed to reducing or eliminating waste to improve efficiency and sustainability.
With the introduction of lean manufacturing, perceptions of manufacturing waste management have changed significantly.
Lean principles embody the philosophy of eliminating waste in manufacturing processes. Lean manufacturing principles require you to define value and then categorize it into two types based on whether the process provides value to your business and customers. This process helps you identify and systematically reduce waste in the manufacturing process.
What are the solid wastes generated in production?
In the production process, solid waste mainly originates from industrial activities, including manufacturing, processing, and mining. Common solid wastes include:
-Scrap metals: such as scrap iron, scrap copper, scrap aluminum, etc., usually from machining or building demolition.
-Waste plastics: plastic scraps or substandard products generated during production.
-Waste paper and cardboard: packaging materials or byproducts of the printing industry.
-Waste glass: waste from the production or use of glass products.
-Waste rubber: waste generated from tire manufacturing or other rubber product manufacturing.
Main Types of Industrial Solid Waste
Industrial solid waste is diverse and can be classified into the following categories based on its source and properties:
Smelting waste: such as blast furnace slag and steel slag, originating from metal smelting processes.
Chemical waste: including spent catalysts and waste acids and alkalis, posing a high degree of hazard.
Construction waste: such as concrete blocks and brick fragments, originating from building construction or demolition.
Electronic waste: including discarded electrical appliances and circuit boards, containing precious metals and hazardous substances.
Textile waste: such as scrap fabric and waste fibers, originating from the clothing or textile industry.
How to properly handle industrial solid waste?
The treatment methods differ depending on the type of industrial solid waste:
:
Recycling: Scrap metals and waste plastics can be recycled through sorting and smelting.
Landfilling: Suitable for harmless but difficult-to-recycle waste, such as construction waste.
Incineration: High-calorific-value waste can be incinerated for power generation, but flue gas emissions must be controlled.
Chemical Treatment: For hazardous waste, such as chemical residues, neutralization or stabilization treatment is required.
Biodegradation: Organic waste can be converted into fertilizer or biogas through composting or anaerobic fermentation.
8 Tips to Reduce Waste in Manufacturing
1. Set Waste Management Goals
Once you clearly understand and identify the waste you generate, the next step is to set a waste management goal and commit to achieving it. Don't worry—it won't be a waste of time.
Setting goals helps you and your team stay on track and assess the company's progress in reducing excessive waste. For example, you could set a goal to reduce waste by 25% next quarter. Developing a plan quantifies your progress toward achieving your goal.
2. Minimize Excess Inventory and Overproduction
Excess inventory and overproduction can lead to significant resource waste due to indirect costs.
An effective way to address this is by establishing a pull production system, allowing you to produce only what is needed. Such a system allows you to focus on improving workflow efficiency.
3. Closely Monitor Inventory
Eliminating excess inventory can be a challenging goal.
Your workflows may frequently require maintaining a certain level of inventory. In such cases, comprehensive inventory control is essential. A batch of expired products can disrupt your entire production schedule and delay your orders.
4. Develop a Preventative Maintenance Plan
Machine malfunctions during production can cause unnecessary delays and generate additional operating costs in the form of repairs.
As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, developing a preventative maintenance plan and conducting regular maintenance activities can prevent unexpected machine failures and ensure uninterrupted production processes.
5. Optimize the Shop Floor
Imagine your shop floor workers are unaware of customer requests for modifications.
In the worst-case scenario, this could mean the product ends up in the trash, and you have to remake it. Paper-based communication systems can lead to similar errors and waste. Or imagine a technician having to walk around the shop floor searching for the specific tools needed to complete a task.
6. Reduce Packaging
Rethinking how products are packaged and shipped can also significantly reduce waste. After all, plastic has a lifetime lifespan, and reducing plastic use has significant benefits for both your business and the environment.
For example, starting with the iPhone 12, Apple decided to include only a data cable with the iPhone, instead of an adapter. This resulted in smaller packaging for the new iPhones. This controversial move significantly reduced packaging waste, reportedly increasing Apple's profits by $6.5 billion.
7. Conduct a Professional Waste Audit
A waste audit allows you to analyze your waste stream and identify different ways to reduce it.
While you can conduct one yourself, an external audit can help you on the path to green certification. Therefore, hiring a professional waste auditing firm may be a worthwhile investment in obtaining certification.
8. Invest in Processes that Enable a Circular Economy
Today, there is a growing trend towards designing environmentally friendly products and processes, with a particular focus on reuse, repair, refurbishment, and recycling. This ensures your products have a longer lifespan and can be reused at the end of their lifespan, avoiding ending up in landfills.
The Importance of Reducing Manufacturing Waste
Waste Report:
Waste is no good for businesses either. According to a 2022 report, "Billions of Dollars Gone: The Real Cost of Waste in the Supply Chain," an average of 8% of global inventory (totaling approximately $163 billion) rots or is discarded each year. To give a specific industry example, about one-third of consumers recently surveyed are demanding that food and beverage brands do more to protect nature, use sustainable packaging, and improve waste management.
Frequently Asked Questions about Reducing Manufacturing Waste
How can businesses prevent manufacturing waste?:
In the digital realm, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, integrated with specialized software, can provide deeper insights into manufacturers' production and supply chain processes, pinpointing problems precisely. Businesses are also leveraging AI-based predictive maintenance to enhance waste reduction and operational innovation, preventing water and energy waste, such as recycling wastewater from one process to another, and waste heat recovery systems.
What is Manufacturing Waste?:
In manufacturing, waste refers to any use of resources that does not contribute to the value of a product. Manufacturing waste not only harms the planet but also erodes a company's profitability. It takes two forms: material waste and operational inefficiency. Material waste includes overproduction of surplus materials, excessive energy consumption, and environmental pollution—ranging from textile scraps and packaging waste to wastewater.
How can businesses minimize manufacturing waste generation?:
A popular approach to reducing manufacturing waste is to shift from a linear "get-to-make-dispose" system to closed-loop or circular manufacturing. This might include leasing products instead of selling them, designing products with a focus on their lifespan to create a used market, or rethinking designs and processes to maximize material recycling, such as transforming plastic waste into new materials.
How to eliminate waste in Lean Manufacturing?：
The Lean Manufacturing model, popular in the 1990s, addresses operational inefficiencies by focusing on eight areas where time and effort are wasted. These areas include unnecessary motions, overly complex designs, production bottlenecks, exceeding customer expectations, inefficient transportation, excess inventory, quality control issues, and underutilization of employee skills.
