Some ups, some downs

Well, yesterday I went to see another automotive company who are keen to develop their green credentials. Interestingly, they’re an American company, like the air conditioning company I went to see last week, and they have a very similar policy when it comes to the environment – try to meet legislation, don’t go much further. I’m not saying that they weren’t doing a good job in reducing their waste water and their emmisions but they certainly weren’t trialling anything innovative. Similarly, the lean systems that I saw looked a little half-hearted and they indicated that they had had problems instilling a lean culture into the factory. I think I am beginning to see the difference between a multinational company telling their Brazilian site how to operate and a multinational company guiding their into sustainable policy.  It was also interesting to note that whilst at the automotive company I was told that they never have funding requests for environmental projects rejected, this was directly disputed by one of the university professors that I spoke with today. He told me that a few years ago they worked with this particular company on a project to treat their solid waste and that funding had never been approved for it, so it was dropped.

Today I spent the day with a team from one of the local universities who are working with a group of five women who have set up a social enterprise; they recycle commercial cooking oil into soap. The lead professor explained that a couple of years ago the university carried out a similar project with a local company who transported waste but the solution that they devised was not suitable. The reason for this, he said, was that they had only considered the technical aspects and not the way in which the product would be used by the customer. Learning from their mistakes, the university has set up a cross-campus team of students and professors to help this social enterprise develop not only suitable manufacturing processes, but also a suitable business model. There are team members from the Environmental Management department, Psychology and Chemical Engineering to name but a few. I think this is fantastic that the university is using such a worthwhile cause as a case-study for their students, instead of letting a multinational company use the knowledge and resources of the university for free.

A number of points struck me today – firstly, the vast majority of Environmental Engineers in Brazil are women. Almost everyone I have met both in companies and in universties has been a woman. Obviously this is great progress and will hopefully encourage more women to join other disciplines, but I wonder why it is so attractive to female students? When I spoke to people about it today, they said it was because it has a cleaner, more “glamourous” appeal than a discpline like mechanical engineering, which typically evokes images of workshops and heavy machinery (although there is nothing clean or glamourous about a sewage treatment plant or a landfill site so maybe there is a flaw in this thinking..?!).

Secondly – and I think the most poignant – I was talking to a Brazilian student today and he expressed his surprise in talking to me; he said “In school we are taught that English people are cold and not friendly”. I think this is so tragic; the impression that people have of England is really not good. Every time I speak to someone about football (on a daily basis… this is Brazil!) the first thing they say is “Hooligans!”. Even if they do not speak English they know the word “Hooligan!”. It begs the question, did we really deserve to host the World Cup if this is what the rest of the world thinks of us?

Laws and Lean Libraries

On Friday I went to see another factory here in the south of Brazil; they’re an American company who produce air-conditioning units and although they were keen to stress that “they’re not yet a sustainable company”, they certainly have a strong CSR company. I think that compared to the automotive company that I have been working with, this tends to focus more on the social aspects than the environmental; they ran many schemes such as training disadvantaged local students and providing free healthcare, vaccinations and exercise facilities to their employees. This is not to say that they did not have a strong policy of reducing their imapct on the environment, it is just that I came away with the impression that their motives for doing so were either because it was profitable to do so or because they were being forced to do so through legislation. (I found it very surprising that, before I came, one of my professors told me that he believes legislation has no impact on whether a company implements sustainable manufacturing or not; at the automotive company I certainly found this to be true but I do not think this was the case at the A/C manufacturers.).

Whilst on this site visit, I learnt a bit more abot a new law that has neen passed in Brazil which is very similar to the EU’s WEEE directive; all electronic equipment must now be returned to the manufacturer to be recycled. Speaking to Christiane, the environmental engineer who was showing me round, she explained that this would take a long time to come into effect because many manufacturers are not in a position to receive used products and dismantle them. She also highlighted the massive differences between the North and the South of Brazil and indicated that this would be another reason why it will take so long to bring this law into effect. In the South, there are many companies who are able to recycle materials but this infrastructure does not exist in the North. Not only that, there is not a culture of recycling (such as waste segretation) in the North and so she believes that people will need to receive better education on this before this law can work properly.

One thing that I was really impressed with here was the encouragement that the company gives to their staff to set up “volunteer improvement teams”. This is where 4-6 employees form a team to manage a continuous improvement project. One such team monitored energy usage and found that the company was using vast amounts of electricity at night when, theoretically, nothing was being used. To combat this, they implemented a very simple “Switch it off!” campaign which comprised of signs, stickers, monitor screensavers etc. As a result of this very simple project, the company now saves £132,000 per year. I like this type of initiative because, not only does it obviously benefit the company, but it gives the employees a chance to have their voice heard, lets them make a difference to the company and provides them with training in sustainability.

All of the companies that I have spoken to have placed a huge amount of emphasis on training and I think this is one of the main differences between Brazilian and English companies. I have always found training in the UK to be a bit half-hearted; managers see it more as a “tick in the box” than actually fundamental to business devlopment. In Brazil, it is very much the opposite – lean training at the automotive company that I have been working with proved so successful that they were required to provide their shopfloor with a “lean library” to meet the requests of their operators! I have yet to see a UK company where this is the case…

A lot to see, a lot to think about

Wow, so much to write. Since my last blog I have been spending time with the environmental team  learning about the environmental projects that are currently ongoing here at the Porto Alegre site. Once again, I can’t help but be amazed by what they’re doing. One of the most impressive projects is the effluent treatment system; this is where they take the gunk and the sludge that the factory produces (and  we’re talking really horribe gunk) and processes it to give clean water (which in turn is reused to clean the floors with and cool the machines) and a dried, solid material, which is then sold to another company who produce “BioBlocks” – bricks made using this recycled sludge. In addition to this, all of the material that cannot currently be recycled is stored in a large warehouse so that when the company develops a suitable technique, the material can be reused. It certainly seems like forward thinking to me.

Now that I am becoming more familiar with the products and processes here I have been able to start asking more questions about peoples opinions of the companys and the manufacturing systems here in Brazil and the motives behind sustainable manufacturing. What is continuing to astound me is the positivity with which people talk about their employers – people genuinely love their jobs! (I will be totally naïve and presume that this is always the case in Brazil, but their certainly seems to be much more widespread job satisfaction than in England). The other thing that has really surprised me about the company that I am working with is that they are not shouting about their acheivements in CSR and sustainable manufacturing – if anything I have to dig for information. Beore I came I was really ready to “sift” valuable information from corporate spiel; the reality is that the company proactively does not shout about their successes. (The reason for this, I was told, is that their customers then turn around and say “OK, well done, you have made your process X times more efficient; lets go halves on the cost savings”. I found this really interesting and I wonder if this is a block to companies sharing best practice?).

On a side note, I have started reading “Natural Capitalism” by Hawken, Lovins & Lovins; it adresses the need for a new industrial revolution to bring about the changes that are needed in the manufacturing world. I’m finding it really interesting, and it is certainly providing food for thought, but think I will need to read a bit further before I’m able to come to any conclusion about its message.

The First Blog.

Well, hello, and welcome to my first blog.

First up, I guess should explain what brings me to WordPress – a while ago I started working with Ignite Futures, an organisation which supports young engineers (http://www.ignitefutures.org.uk/); I’m currently studying Innovative Manufacturing  Engineering at Loughborough University and I thought this would be a good way to chart my progress into, what I hope, will be a succesful career! (And if that fails, at least you’ll be able to learn from my mistakes.)