Holistic approach needed for sustainable operations.
Recent events in world markets have compelled business leaders everywhere to question the sustainability of their operations. While many factors are outside the direct control of management, such as raw material prices, demand for product and availability of capital, there are many areas that are within management’s control. These areas, if addressed holistically, will lead to more sustainable and profitable operations.
Business leaders in the process manufacturing industry have concluded that sustainability needs to be a combination of initiatives in three key areas: financial, environmental and social. When all three are addressed simultaneously, new value can be created. This makes good business sense, as companies that address these areas are likely to show greater returns to both shareholders and stakeholders.
A production manager can make a significant difference in the way a plant is operated. Previously it was sufficient for them to concern themselves mainly with production targets, such as production rate, conversion efficiency, cost of production (per ton), inventory and supply chain management. However, there are other significant KPIs such as incident rates, emission management, health and wellbeing of employees and community empowerment which need to be superimposed in order for a plant and business to operate responsibly and with sustainability.
The IT industry has acknowledged this and software vendors have understood that sustainability is a key driver in successful manufacturing operations. The philosophy is that safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) need to be embedded into all production processes and made intrinsic in the overall measurement and reporting of all activities. No longer is production cost the only factor.
Unfortunately, it is not enough to try and bolt SHEQ systems on top of business systems. It is far better when designing and selecting software based systems that SHEQ is seen as embedded in each and every step in the software, and when selecting systems the practical integration of these with each other and the business systems needs to be evident.
Islands of information
A simple example of how an holistic systems approach can be achieved is through the integration of production, maintenance and SHE in a typical operating company. It is often that these three areas report to a common production manager, but this is the only point where there is joint accountability. Production, maintenance and SHE teams often operate as separate ‘islands of information’; citing many reasons why they are different and need separate systems. A typical production environment therefore has separate maintenance, SHEQ and operational software with no thought given to the process integration between these areas, and the consistency between these systems. A fragmented approach leads to wasted opportunities to drive improved sustainability through a common integrated approach.
The overall production processes includes several activities including determining rules for safe work; enforcing these through the maintenance function when executing work orders, obtaining authorisation from operations through the permit to work process and integrating this into the SHEQ management system through incident management and non-conformance handling – all the while retaining a strong focus on process operations in the control room. Additional areas include measurement of production efficiencies, energy efficiencies, emissions and environmental spills.
IT systems are evolving (some quicker than others) to embrace this holistic approach. The business drivers are there and several vendors have been adopting the holistic vision for many years. Business and plant managers need to take a new look at these IT systems and understand how they are evolving to more comprehensive solutions. These new-generation systems can act as a vital tool for production managers to contribute to improved sustainability within their production environments. This will improve the chances of weathering the global economic storm and allow a business to emerge stronger to take advantage of the inevitable upturn in a world that will be much more aware of sustainability as a key business success factor of the future.
For more information contact Gavin Halse, ApplyIT, +27 (0)31 275 8080, [email protected], www.applyit.com
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