FEATURE
Cleantech and lean are not as distant as you think
Where does lean fit into the cleantech equation? BY RICHARD KUNST
Initially, it may seem that cleantech and lean are distant, until you look deeper. Clean technology is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. There are subtle changes happening in many sectors. For example, in the chemical industry, common solvents are being reinvented, turning away from a base of petroleum to becoming a derivative of a biologic solution. Another example is the advancements being made in the use of
Lean can be applied everywhere that any process exists. It is the systematic identification and elimination of ‘waste’, helping a process become more agile, while providing additional capacity. In the lean community, “waste” is defined beyond what we tend to throw in the garbage or the recycle bin; it covers many other attributes, and is defined by the thought peg of “downtime”. The followings are some examples of how lean can relate to cleantech: Defects: Consider all the extra energy we consume while producing a defect. A focus on making it right the first time becomes more critical.
Lean is the systematic identification and elimination of ‘waste’, helping a process become more agile, while providing additional capacity. hydrogen, and even in food, as protein is being replaced with plant-based meat products. So, where does lean fit into this equation? 20 Plant / Winter 2022
Overproduction: overproduction can be a robber of energy. Not to mention the cost of sheltered storage for excess production.
Inventory: Cost to-make and to-store consumes so much energy. Have a look at the landscape of multitude of warehouses surrounding your cities, and just imagine if we could provide a good on-demand. It would be a great opportunity for on-shoring, or dramatic reduction in your set-ups and change-overs. Motion: The extra time consumed to provide a good or a service, and time consumes carbon, so we need to look at that gift of time and how much do we cherish it from an energy-consumption perspective.
Waiting: In this case, it is like idling a vehicle in a line while waiting for morning coffee, but it also happens in our working environments, since we most likely do not shut down our machines, Excessive processing: It can computers, and lights while we wait for an answer. encompass excessive reporting, redundancy of information, miss Not fully utilizing people: communication, which in many Yes, you have the technology, but cases results in “unactionable we still need people committed information systems”, but can to making it work, even if it is include excessive machines for just changing simple habits, like simple processes. not leaving the water running However, all of these consume from the faucet while brushing more than what may actually be our teeth. required to perform the required task. It becomes extremely imTransport: Take a closer portant to right-size the resource look at your material convey- to a particular application. ance methodology. If you have Ultimately, the beauty of being a bunch of lift trucks roaming able to utilize a cleantech appliaround or you use a taxi cab cation will only be enhanced if to get around, it may seem you embrace it with the philosoconvenient but it is expensive. phy of lean. Switching to Uber or Lyft may be cheaper to your wallet, but Richard Kunst is an author, speaker does not really change the mode and seasoned lean practitioner based in even if you decide to select ride Toronto, who leads a holistic practice to sharing. However, if you can give coach, mentor and provide management a bit more time and use public solutions to help companies implement transit, it is dramatically more or accelerate their excellence journeys. cost-effective and can handle a You can reach him at larger group. www.kunstsolutions.com. PLANT.CA
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