Is Seru a Sustainable Manufacturing System?

Abstract

Seru production is an innovation in Japanese manufacturing since 1990s. Its essence is converting traditional assembly conveyor lines into some mini-assembly units, called seru, a Japanese word for cellular organism. A seru production system is economically sound for manufacturers to improve sustainability and to increase profits simultaneously. By introducing seru from 1998 to 2002, Canon dismantled belt conveyor assembly lines of 20,000 meters in their 54 factories. It had an environmental impact of 54,677ton CO2 emissions reduction in 2002, which corresponded to more than 50% of their total emission. So could we say Seru is a sustainable manufacturing system? This paper makes a positive research on Japanese seru production systems to clarify the sustainable features of seru, comparing with their sustainability reports. Real case studies can help us to evaluate seru's sustainability and how to measure its performance of seru implementation is discussed.