An environmentally friendly manufacturing strategy

Manufacturers are being encouraged to make their products environmentally friendlier using more recyclable and degradable parts. The purpose in all this is to reduce the amount of scrap and make better use of valuable materials. A more environmentally friendly strategy would be to build products with longer lifetimes but this would not help the turn over necessary to maintain turn over and higher profitability. It is even doubtful if customers would be prepared to pay for the extra cost in using higher reliability components There is surely a better way to conserve valuable commodities and that is by extending the useful product life of instrumentation. By using a strategy of good maintenance and refurbishment to extend the useful life of products, the amount of raw material used for manufacture would be reduced. This would also increase the lifetime value of customers' investments. Admittedly, sales of new products would fall, and other ways would have to be found to maintain the profitability of suppliers.

When Companies bring out the same products in a "new dress" simply to maintain their sales volume, they create unnecessary obsolescence of older, perfectly good instruments with some years of useful life. In cases where the difference is simply the addition of a new feature, a module could be manufactured and sold as an add-on to be attached to the existing equipment. New products could be launched only where an add-on would not be possible in incorporating major improvements. A carefully thought-out design with this in mind could achieve savings in materials. Manufacturers would price their add-ons appropriately and would in addition increase their revenues through extended maintenance or leasing of their products. Their Service organisations would make money in selling the maintenance spare parts.

Another strategy for systems manufacturers would be to "sell the use" and retain the property of their instruments as is done with software. This would provide an extra incentive in extending the life of their hardware and thereby make a contribution to the environment. They would design, manufacture and maintain their products, selling value in use, thereby giving the customer the ability to do their work and not be responsible for the equipment. In the end, suppliers, customers and the rest of us would all be better off.