Abstract
In the last century, the evolution of manufacturing was characterized by several innovations, concerning technologies, processes, but also entire production systems, with radical changes in strategies, product design, and management of organizations. Cost, time, and quality are the pillars on which was based the industrial competitiveness during that era. In the most recent years, a renewed interest in environmental issues and socio-ethical values has gradually promoted the transition towards the so-called low impact economies. Producers are then required to pursue a more rational and eco-efficient use of resources and reduce production wastes to survive; also the concept of value chain has been often associated with the terms environmental/green or sustainable. Various studies have been carried out to encourage companies in including the environment in their strategic and operational decisions making. Industrial Ecology (IE) represents the latest and most ambitious attempt to reach this goal; however, a great deal of work remains to be done to achieve this goal. As a result, enhancing companies to integrate efficiency and sustainable practices still has a long way to go. This study presents an overview on the evolutionary dynamics of manufacturing in the industrial age, and offers a discussion about the potential synergies in integrating IE approaches and tools in Lean Manufacturing, by introducing the environmental load as a further type of Muda; the systematic actions to reduce this waste can build up the basis for improving competitiveness through the eco-efficiency.
Highlights
The environment has become part of the technical-economic, strategic, and managerial decision-making of companies only in recent decades
On the basis of the value/waste relationship and the concept of eco-efficiency, contributions in the literature on the possible links between Lean Manufacturing (LM) and Industrial Ecology (IE) approaches and tools will be highlighted; as a result, integrating sustainable strategies in the Lean models is suggested by considering the environmental load as an additional kind of Muda
A further extension of the boundaries of the production system, adopting an approach based on the life cycle would allow to detect new sources of internal efficiency, a reduction in the intensity of matter or energy in a process or a product, with the same performance, allowing to save costs of materials, energy, handling, transport; a proper management of hazardous or toxic substances, can reduce the costs of any penalties or compensation for damages related to products; investing in recovery and recycling of waste materials would allow to diversify the business, and get at significantly lower cost of quality secondary raw materials
Summary
The environment has become part of the technical-economic, strategic, and managerial decision-making of companies only in recent decades. IE has been recognized as a wide research field, focused on environmental improvements in production and consumption activities; conceived as the science of sustainability, IE uses an interdisciplinary approach to the design and operation of economic systems in an interdependent way with the natural system, in analogy with biological ecosystems [5,6] It involves products and processes design and technology, organization, and management solutions [7]. On the basis of the value/waste relationship and the concept of eco-efficiency, contributions in the literature on the possible links between LM and IE approaches and tools will be highlighted; as a result, integrating sustainable strategies in the Lean models is suggested by considering the environmental load as an additional kind of Muda
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