Posted by:
meikah | 18 February 2010 | 6:52 pm
IBM has been very vocal about their green initiatives and using Lean Six Sigma for most, if not all, of their processes.
An article on Environmental Leader discusses how IBM goes green by using Lean Six Sigma. IBM initially:
- Formed a team of about 40 volunteers from around the world and from various groups across the organization to examine areas where improvements could be made – primarily in energy, packaging, solid waste and supplier environmental initiatives. The team members participated in this project in addition to their regular duties. Nearly all the ideas for improvements came from within the group – not from management – and over time we expanded the team to 100 and then 200 employees.
- The first-year results were impressive. Switching to lightweight, recyclable plastic packing material reduced packaging by 290 metric tons, incidentally lowering GHG emissions for outbound transportation. A variety of energy conservation initiatives in plant and office locations reduced power consumption by 6,300 megawatt-hours.
- for the second project, a Lean Six Sigma specialist at our Dublin, Ireland, facility learned about a concept developed at IBM Research to apply those principles to energy, water, waste and emissions. With the encouragement of his managers, he worked with the plant’s environmental, operations and process improvement teams to start a pilot project at the plant, using this methodology developed to collect and analyze energy data throughout the plant.
Read more…
Source: iSixSigma News
