Manufacturing waste will be generated in every manufacturing plant. It is important that you establish practices to minimize the generation of waste. Some types of commonly observed wastes in manufacturing facilities include waste from overproduction, defects, inventory, unnecessary motion and transportation, waiting times, over-processing, and unused time and creativity of employees.
some ways to reduce manufacturing waste:
1. Efficient Inventory Management
You can reduce manufacturing waste, according to Greenne, by controlling the materials being used in the manufacturing process. Reduce the amount of excess raw materials in stock and quantity of hazardous materials to bring down the amount of waste generated. Order only the needed quantity of any material and only the amount needed for a specific period of time.
2. Reduce Packaging Materials
Redesign the product packaging to ensure it uses the minimum amount of materials. Try to incorporate reusable or recyclable packaging content, such as air packs or corn-based packing peanuts, to provide cushioning. Buy products in bulk as it will have reduced packaging.
3. Volume Reduction
Volume reduction refers to the segregation techniques that remove the hazardous portion of waste from the nonhazardous portion. These methods help in reducing the volume and the cost of waste disposal.
They can be broadly divided into 2 categories — waste concentration and source segregation. The former may increase the likelihood of the material being reused or recycled and the latter consists of different types of materials within the waste being treated separately so that the metal value in the sludge can be recovered.