Is Sustainable Manufacturing Important to Your Customers?

March 5, 2010

Sustainable manufacturing is a convenient word to collect all the energy and material saving initiatives that are applicable to manufacturing. Many initiatives already are routine as part of the mandate to build machines that are more efficient, more productive, and more flexible. But it's unclear what else is being practiced by machine builders. Can recyclable materials replace certain machine components, reclaimable at the end of machine life? Can you replace wire and cable with wireless alternatives? Is there a value proposition for you? If you can, even if you want to, is green manufacturing important to customers? Do you think you have a role to advocate for greener machines?

Sustainable manufacturing is a convenient word to collect all the energy and material saving initiatives that are applicable to manufacturing. Many initiatives already are routine as part of the mandate to build machines that are more efficient, more productive, and more flexible. But it's unclear what else is being practiced by machine builders. Can recyclable materials replace certain machine components, reclaimable at the end of machine life? Can you replace wire and cable with wireless alternatives? Is there a value proposition for you? If you can, even if you want to, is green manufacturing important to customers? Do you think you have a role to advocate for greener machines?