When did the word "Environmental" become #2 behind safety ahead of profit and common sense in Manufacturing???

Question

I agree - everyone needs to do their part for the environment and large companies need a hand in finding the importance of being responsible since they tend to not do it on their own.

My question revolves around the fact that I work as a Manufacturing Engineer and am finding it consistantly harder to improve any processes because everything has to be OK'd by Safety and Environmental people who know nothing about Manufacturing and Assembly Processes. Just want to hear peoples viewpoint on how this effects their lives too.

Answer 1

The power to tax is the power to destroy.  This is driven by big government or government by lawsuit.  When you give a dollar to government, they have to spend it somewhere...and that somewhere is likely as not safety inspectors, environmental compliance officers, and a host of other inspectors enforcing regulations that have little to do with manufacturing engineering but still manage to drive people in finance or human resources nuts.

The other extreme is China, which is very competitive but a workplace safety and environmental disaster.  You picks your poison and takes your chances.

Answer 2

It is the business driver of profit that prompts the corporate need for safety and eco-friendly.  Both items, to an extent, affects the cost of goods and services a business provides.  

Safety - although sometimes marginal, the known quantity of prevention is a better position than the unknowns of litigation, even if the company can hire the super-expensive lawyers.

Environmental - sort of the same as safety, but here, there's a bit more market reputation at stake.  The benefits are leaner and meaner processes to reduce overhead costs, but the market perception can improve product standing and therefore pricing and sales.

As for the perceived ineptitude of these oversight groups (I assume it's the internal groups), did you think your real job was to make product?  No, you define the process for others to follow/operate.  Your job is to create, demonstrate and interpret the process to the business side of the company so they can understand the benefits of your work.  You cannot just assume they know or will leave you alone.

You need to look at your job as constantly training new hires into the business (and I'm not just referring to the technical new hires), so that even the administrative people, like accounting and human resources, can know enough to look for the paticular hooks that will make the company MORE profitable, not just profitable.  A better product may come from better accounting (material sourcing, tax breaks, supplier negotiations, etc.) or better personnel (newer skills, different skills, better industry hires, etc.), but those depts cannot serve the company well if they don't know what to look for.  They can muddle through with their general principles, but you can help them find the needles in the haystack by your intimate knowledge of your company's core business.

I say take the time to get things through your red tape, so that if you can get it through their "thick heads", they can actually help get it through their superior's "thicker heads".

Good luck!