6
Global Scale
Resources
Holidays are over, we all can’t believe that IBC 2014 is just days away and from all corners of the world, thousands will descend on the “The Venice of the North”. On a plethora of illuminated and creatively constructed stands, we wait with anticipation to ponder new ideas, attend new product launches, learn about new markets and meet old friends. Hosting Broadcast Beat’s daily web-TV show from 5-6pm will give me an opportunity to meet industry leaders and share with you some of their exciting innovations and look at how this industry is evolving.
However we can’t forget that new technologies and products are putting an ever increasing demand on the planet’s energy and resources. Stop this industry’s constant creative explosion, definitely not. But it’s perhaps time for manufacturers to rethink future offerings and take stock from the findings of the “Next Manufacturing Revolution ” spearheaded by Cambridge University and consider resource and energy efficiency for future generations of products. Why? Because it’s not just for the environment there are substantial savings to be had.
In the UK, manufacturing accounts for about 10% of the UK GDP and employs about 2.5m of the labour force. Many companies have made human resource efficiencies which accounts for a reduction of 1million jobs yet the cost of goods
materials and services has been constantly rising even taking into account inflation and increased production volumes. If companies want consumers to buy products then people have to earn salaries to pay for products, so future efficiencies need to come from the non-labour sector.
Some efficiencies have been gained by recycling but other issues such as transport, recycling rather than hoarding need to be seriously addressed.
If we take the tools we use to live and work in this connected world, millions of phones, PDA’s, televisions, laptops, desktops, VCR players, Walkman’s etc are stored in back offices, garages and attics around the world. This industry has products with short life-cycles and a philosophy to drive product redundancy in order to sell more.
Remanufacturing for most non-perishable/non-consumable products is below 2%. Getting products from the factory to the end user via a network of distributors involves a complex logistics operation but 27% of freight truck journeys are running empty. Despite the logical benefits of supply chain optimisation, few manufacturers have been engaging in collaborative discussions with their suppliers. Many companies have achieved 10 to 15% efficiency gains in the last ten yeasr, however leading companies have achieved over 50% improvements in the same timeframe.
By Janet Anne West
Resource Efficiency :
Helping the planet can help the bottom line
Knowing is half the battle - and we're in quite the war to use our resources wisely!
Broadcast Beat Magazine / Sep-Dec, 2014