Theoretical Analysis Research Paper Examples

Executive Summary

This report examines the concept of sustainable manufacturing and its related product design and processes. It is discovered that sustainable manufacturing is about using measures that ensures responsible manufacturing in three areas – environmental, social and economic. Therefore, care is taken to guide the environment footprints of a given manufacturing activity. The paper examines that sustainable manufacturing is about designing products that achieve the end of controlling environmental footprints. Sustainable manufacturing encompasses a production model that promotes sensitivity to materials, efficient energy usage as well as proper waste management.
In the second part of the report, is a case study which was conducted through a critical and factual review of activities of Monsanto Ireland, an agricultural engineering manufacturer that is touted as a globally sustainable entity. The study identified that the firm uses proactive systems albeit in a centralised fashion. This leads to the loss of local sustainability opportunities. However, it is recommended that the company can try to centralise some aspects of operations to be more responsive to local needs.

Introduction

Sustainable manufacturing is an essential and important part of organisations that are concerned with achieving sustainability in their corporate strategy. Sustainable manufacturing comes with some difficulties and challenges which include careful monitoring of the process as well as the design of new products. The purpose of this report is to examine the concept of sustainable manufacturing and sustainable product design. It will critique important aspects and information about sustainable systems and processes in a global agricultural entity that operates in Ireland

“Sustainable manufacturing is defined as the creation of manufactured products that use processes that minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve energy and natural resources, are safe for employees, communities and consumers and are economically sound”. This means that sustainability is about the processes and systems through which products are manufactured in order to integrate the needs and desires of all stakeholders and the wider environment as a whole.
Sustainable manufacturing is done in such a way that waste and excesses that are harmful to the natural environment are identified and eliminated . This includes the control and moderation of various aspects of the production including over-production, defects, inventory, waiting time, transportation, energy usage and natural resources. Instead, these processes are replaced by more energy efficient methods and processes that enable production to improve and also support the production of sustainable and more responsible products for consumers.
The main model through which sustainable manufacturing occurs is through the Material, Energy and Waste (MEW) model which involves the creation of a process flow map that promotes the best and most appropriate sustainability regulations. This implies that a firm will have to be careful in procuring materials for the manufacture of its products. This will include setting up a set of targets and standards that will be observed each time new stocks are acquired. Also, there is the need to be specific about the energy usage and how much the energy utilised affects the wider society. This will lead to the choice of high quality energy sources that are efficient. Finally, there is the need to monitor and stay on the lookout for waste. This will culminate in the presentation of major monitoring systems and processes that will ensure the efficient use of materials.
The operations management process of an organisation changes significantly when sustainable manufacturing is introduced. This is because the traditional idea of maximising profits at the expense of other variables like environmental footprints and others are discouraged. This implies that there are some important things that relates to the environment and to other stakeholders including the impact of the activities and the actual results of the products that are offered to consumers who utilise the final end products.
This is summed up in a set of three concepts and ideas that guide the activities of members of the operation management team of an organisation that offers its services to consumers:

Quality of production process

Delivery efficiency and
Flexibility of process
These three pointers guide the producers and the operations managers and they tend to adjust their activities and processes in order to meet the demands and expectations of production.
The other implication is also that the production metrics that are used by producers to measure production processes and systems change significantly when a firm moves towards sustainable production. This includes the evolution to the utilisation of metrics that measure and evaluate the abilities and results of a sustainable production process or system meant to promote sustainability. There are process performing metrics that are used to measure productivity of the production system in ways that examines the energy efficiency, and waste in order to identify whether there are production variances or not in relation to the sustainability strategy of the organisation in question.
Figure 1: Sustainable Manufacturing in the Broad Organisational Framework (Chiarini, 2015)
In most cases, the operations manager has the obligation to ensure that there are major standards and processes that enables the production system to reflect and showcase the fundamental concepts and ideas of the sustainability and corporate social responsibility standards of the top management of an organisation. Therefore, the operations manager has to identify the main source of environmental impact of the manufacturing process and ensure that there are metrics and standards for meeting responsible environmental targets.
Sustainable manufacturing also seeks to promote a case for continuous improvement which is about the monitoring of production systems and identifying areas for improvement and enhancement.
Additionally, the impact of the product being manufactured on the environment and society is really important and vital. New technology is always identified and used to design newer and better products that will meet all the needs of consumers. The main variables that affect product design include the following:

The markets and demand of consumers;

Science and technology;
Investment climate;
Aesthetics &
Existing production system
These pointers play a significant role in determining what ought to be done and how it must be done in developing and designing new products. The implication is that it will allow the firm to create a new process and offer innovative solutions within these constraints and processes. Product design for sustainable manufacturing is a process rather than a one-off event. Usually, the product design process takes into account, the market conditions and provides information that guides operations.
On the other hand, some authorities identify that in all situations, firms base their assumptions and choices of product design on customer needs and expectations. This means that firms will have to design with the inputs of consumers in mind because consumers are the final stakeholder class who purchase products. Therefore, product design should be done with the thoughts and ideas of these consumers in mind.
However, one major constraint in producing sustainably designed and sourced products comes at a higher cost because these products require higher quality materials and sometimes more expensive materials. Therefore, most organisations tend to find ways of drawing some kind of trade-off to prevent their products from coming out to be extremely expensive to maintain profit margins. This is often done in the quest to achieve some profitability and revenue earning targets that are imposed on various managers in an organisation. Therefore, this constitutes a kind of problem and issue that leads to major problems in the design of a given sustainable product.
Another feature of sustainability product design is that it is often required to conform with some standards and regulations relating to standardized sustainable products on the market since these rules are such that a product can be used at the same level and standard as what is expected of a more sustainable item. Therefore, there are some standards and regulations that revolve around important pointers including recycling and lower emissions which must be present in most modern products. These are important pointers that influence the perception of the product as a sustainable one.

Field Work

In order to draw an insight into the important pointers and issues, there was a critical review and observation of sustainability in Monsanto Ireland. Monsanto Ireland is part of a multinational entity that aims at providing the highest quality products that face the highest levels of sustainability requirements. The company has a focus of providing services that are relevant to farmers and their quest to achieve higher levels of production and improved results in their operations.
Monsanto provide the fundamental service of creating tools and machines that are used by farmers to produce foods for consumers. Monsanto also produces high quality seeds that are planted to bring the highest volume of harvests. The Irish brand of Monsanto operates according to the requirements and targets presented to the Irish targets and units. Therefore, the interview conducted was to take submissions about how the company achieves sustainable product design and how the company achieves targets in the area of sustainable manufacturing.
The study was done through a critical observation and review of the firm’s activities and processes relating to operations management. The study was documented by the researcher. Details of the pointers of the observation can be found in Appendix 1 below. The following pointers form the summary of the core observation of sustainability and operation management in Monsanto Ireland.

General Framework for Sustainable Manufacturing in Monsanto

The main framework for achieving sustainability in Monsanto is mainly agreed upon in the United States., where the global headquarters of Monsanto is located. The average facility manager will have the obligation of localising the process in order to achieve the best of local opportunities and options.
Sustainability issues are placed at the premium of affairs of the company and it forms part of the philosophy. Therefore, the board of directors have their task force who examine and review circumstances in order to suggest innovative and improved products and services. Therefore, sustainability is a corporate governance issue in Monsanto, rather than an event.
Figure 2: Sustainability in the Overall Strategy of Monsanto
The operations manager is often given instructions and inputs from the top management. The operations manager has the option to represent the production department on the senior managers’ panel and present the realities of the situation in Israel and around the world.

Product Design and Sustainability

Product design remains a centralized process as the American headquarters pools resources from around the world and maintains centrally planned research units that study situations and provide the most convincing argument for the change of products. Therefore, the design of products for Monsanto is done in the US headquarters where thousands of American scientists and scientists from around the world are hired and employed in studying important stakeholder views in order to draw up new processes.
The Irish research unit draws conclusions and insights into some core products that the company focuses in. This includes local conditions that are relevant and need to be changed and modified as and when necessary. Therefore, they contribute directly and indirectly to the improvement of the product in their own capacity.
Figure 3: Product Design in the Microbiology and Seed Development Unit of Monsanto

Sourcing of Materials

Monsanto sources its products from a large array of small raw material producers. These producers are encouraged to apply and from there, they are given the right to distribute products to the company. In order to ensure that materials of the right standards and targets, the suppliers are required by a bond to use nothing but the best and most honest standards for creating the raw materials that the company produces.

Energy Usage and Commitment for Improvement

Monsanto made a complete and relevant turnaround to rely on solar energy and electricity. This is because the company wants to encourage and ensure that all their activities are done in ways and means that ordinary members of the society might be interested in. Therefore, the company turned its back on fuels that have very high emissions. This enables the company to cut down on its emissions because they closely learn and study the trends in emissions and this culminates in a high degree of energy savings.

Waste Process in Monsanto’s Sustainability Manufacturing and Controls

Waste is a major issue that Monsanto deals with and handles at a regular basis. This includes the constant review and examination of the level of waste in its operations system and other related activities. This is because waste is considered a very important and vital part of the company and its operations. However, there is a close examination and review of the level of waste in the process and system as a means of ascertaining whether criminals or negative elements or features of the waste process. This implies that waste management is a process and it can be improved by reducing and cutting down on the various levels and standards of emissions. This is done through a proactive system and a critical evaluation and analysis of information about how much energy is utilised in a given period.

Metrics for examining Sustainability Manufacturing

The main targets and standards for checking and evaluating sustainable manufacturing is through pre-agreed and predetermined standards that the company must meet in its manufacturing process. Again, this is done through the constant and continuous and thorough research and after that, the standards are presented. Each national branch has its own target standards and target levels that form the framework for defining what must be achieved at all levels. Once this is done, the manufacturing staff members everywhere in Monsanto will have to critically and thoroughly follow them. This is because all supervisors are expected to make reasonable demands to their followers.
Once operations continue, the operations supervisors and managers use the traditional graphs, descriptive statistics and other charts to identify whether these metrics are being met or not. Where there are variances, effort is made to streamline operations and affairs.

Product Design and Evaluation

Monsanto has a policy of reviewing and re-examining product designs once each quarter. This allows the top level management and research executives as well as relevant stakeholders to meet, set the targets and identify the issues with existing products and how these products can be enhanced and improved. This leads to a quest for important methods and standards for reducing and meeting targets and processes.

Issues with the current Sustainable Manufacturing in Monsanto

The study identified that the globalisation of the firm causes them to lose out sometimes on the local front because they are not able to penetrate as well as they might prefer on local markets. This is because the managers of the different manufacturing units of companies around the world have different philosophies. It is not everything you might agree upon in one country that will be adopted for all.
The other problem is with communication and coordination. Since everything is centralised in the United States, managers might just feel obliged to report issues and matters only to the top management of the entity. This includes the polarization of the organisation and the possibility of getting workers to operate together and achieve higher results

Recommendations for Monsanto

In the area of sustainable manufacturing, it can be pointed out that where things are too centralized, the strategy of a firm could go wayward and the vision of sustainability might even fail. Therefore, it is advised that the centralised unit of Monsanto moves towards the presentation of a higher degree of autonomy to the different branches and units like Ireland when dealing with sustainability. This is because there are many local trends that might not be identified or incorporation. However, localisation without an appreciable level of control will lead to problems with control.
Secondly, it can be said that waste management and control could be presented in a different way and manner that will proactively monitor wastes and naturally lead managers and floor managers to come up with a solution immediately. This will make these workers and managers feel more connected to the sustainability rules and regulations.

Conclusion

Sustainability manufacturing is about the use of the most responsible tools to ensure that products are manufactured with the most responsible standards and regulations that does not destroy the environment but enhances relationships with all stakeholders at a reasonable cost. Sustainable manufacturing is about selecting the best materials, using efficient energy sources and cutting down on waste. This enhances production and reduces environmental footprints. Product design is an important part of sustainable manufacturing because a good product complements the concept of sustainability.
The study on Monsanto identifies that there is a highly centralised decision making system of the company. This implies that the top level management in the United States provide global solutions that might not be appropriate for the Irish unit. Aside that, Monsanto provides the best of manufacturing services and processes as a means of achieving energy efficiency through the use of the best possible materials and continuously monitor waste. The problem with globalisation can be eliminated through responsible localisation. There is also the recommendation for proper waste management.

Works Cited

Ashby, Michael and Kara Johnson. Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product. London: Butterworth Heinemann, 2013. Print.
Business Wire. Monsanto Rewarded for Sustainable Water Management. 11 March 2015. Web. 24 April 2015. <http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150128006039/en/Monsanto-Rewarded-Sustainable-Water-Management#.VTokrdJViko>.
Chiarini, Andrea. Sustainable Operations Management: Advances in Strategy and Methodology. London: Springer, 2015. Print.
Davim, Paulo. Dynamic Methods and Process Advancements in Mechanical Manufacturing. New York: IGI Publishing, 2014. Print.
Fernandez, P. S. and Y. Yamashita. Grounding Sustainability. 12 February 2013. Web. 24 April 2015. <http://groundingsustainability.com/2013/02/12/saving-seeds-from-big-ag/>.
Garetti, Marco and Marco Taischa. “Production Planning & Control: The Management of Operations.” Sustainable Manufacturing 23(2-3) (2012): 83-104.
Hill, Alex and Terry Hill. Operations Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.
Luchs, Michael and Scott Swan. “Perspective: The Emergence of Product Design as a Field of Marketing Inquiry.” Journal of Product Innovation Management 28(3) (2011): 327-345. Web.
Monsanto Blog. On World Water DAy, Thinking of Ways to Conserve Water. 22 February 2015. Web. 24 April 2015. <http://monsantoblog.eu/tag/water/>.
Monsanto Sustainable Agriculture. Our Commitment. 2 January 2015. Web. 24 April 2015. <http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/pages/our-commitments.aspx>.
Reich, Robert B. “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer.” Jacobs, Lee. A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for College Writers. . New York: Bedford St. Martins, 2011. 513-533. Print.
Sanders, Nada and John Wood. Foundations of Sustainable Business: Theory, Function, and Strategy. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2014. Print.
Scott, Andrew. Inequality, Mobility, And Growth. 199 01 2012. Web. 23 April 2015. <http://www.tutorhunt.com/resource/975/>.
Seliger, Gunther, Marwan Khraisheh and Ismail Jawahir. Advances in Sustainable Manufacturing. London: Springer, 2012. Print.
Sharma, Arun and Gopalkrishnan Iyer. “Resource-constrained product development: Implications for green marketing and green supply chains.” Industrial Marketing Managemetn 41(4) (2012): 599-608. Web.
Sheth, Jagdish, Nirmal Sethia and Shanthi Srinivas. “Mindful Consumption, a Consumer-Centric Approach to Sustainability.” Journal of the Academic Marketing Science 39 (2011): 21-39. Web.
Smith, Leigh and Peter Ball. “Steps Towards Sustainable Manufacturing through Modelling Material, Energy and Waste Flows.” International Journal of Production Economics (2012): 227-238. Print.
Sutherland, Jonathan and Diane Canwell. Key Concepts in Operations Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.
Weis, Lois. The Way Class Works: Readings on School, Family, and the Economy. London: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Wisman, Jon and Aaron Pacitti. “What the Rich Won over the Past 35 Years and What Everyone Lese Lost.” Journal of International Political Economy 8 June 2014: 1-18. Print.
Appendix 1
The details of the pointers of interest in the observation of the fieldwork include the following question:
What is the general framework for sustainable manufacturing in Monsanto?
How do they design your products and how is sustainability ensured?
How do they source for your materials and products?
How dangerous is the waste process and what is the waste management process?
What are the metrics for achieving production targets and how is it monitored?
How do they check the products’ designed by their staff and how do they improve the products?
What problems do they identify with the processes of sustainable marketing in Ireland