Ford Reduces Waste by 10% Through Better Recycling
The concept of 'muda' is a common one in the car industry. Originating in Japan, and in particular at Toyota, it sets out a philosophy for reducing waste, both in terms of resources and activities, via 7 distinct forms of waste:
- Transportation
- Inventory
- Motion
- Waiting
- Over-processing
- Over-production
- Defects
So news this week that Ford are reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill by 10% is heartening indeed. This is notable as, due to muda, many automobile factories are already exceptionally good, with many operating zero-waste policies.
Ford however wants more, with a reduction of 10% per vehicle by the end of this year. They say this will eliminate approximately 20lbs of waste material that would previously have been thrown away with the production of each car. Considering the millions of cars Ford make, this all adds up.
"Reducing waste to landfills is one of our top environmental priorities and we continue to challenge our teams to identify and implement innovative solutions," said Andy Hobbs, director of Ford's Environmental Quality Office, in a statement.
As mentioned, this improvement is on top of a strong culture of waste reduction already present at Ford. In the last five years they have already prevented some 100 million pounds of waste from going to landfill. At their North American factories waste per vehicle has dropped by 47% in that time.
They're achieving this by diverting some of their waste for use in generating the power that supports their factories. Other bits of waste are tagged for recycling.
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