Motor vehicles are an essential component of the modern human life. Without vehicles, it would be very difficult to travel from one place to another or over long distances. Therefore, motor vehicles have made human life more comfortable by enabling fast and convenient mode of travelling. Also, transportation of humans and other goods from one place to another have enhanced economic growth as many man hours that could otherwise have been wasted on the road are invested in productive activities. However, motor vehicles have one major drawback; they emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and pollute the atmosphere. This paper focuses on the application of principles of operational excellence as a way of reducing pollution and global warming caused by motor vehicles.
Motor vehicles burn fossil fuels in their engines for propulsion. Fuels such as diesel and petrol are basically hydrocarbons with large amounts of carbon. When the fuels are burnt, the carbon is released to the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. Also, other trace elements in fuels such as methane and sulfur are released. These toxic gases accumulate on the upper levels of the atmosphere and trap reflected radiation from the earth’s surface leading to the rise of global temperature. Also, their presence in the atmosphere poses health risk to humans, animals, plants, and other living matter.
Therefore, vehicle manufacturers have the social responsibility of ensuring that their products produce as little emissions as possible. This can be achieved through two major ways, by designing energy efficient vehicles that consume less fuel and hence lower amounts of emission, or equipping vehicles with systems that can convert toxic emissions to harmless products such as water. Principles of operational excellence can be used as a guiding tool in the design and execution of environmentally friendly vehicles. Operational excellence is based on three major classes of operational principles, six sigma, scientific management, and lean manufacturing (Duggan par.3). For the purpose of this paper, lean manufacturing and six sigma principles will be discussed
The six sigma strategy is more applicable in the reduction of motor vehicle emissions as compared to the lean manufacturing philosophy. Lean manufacturing advocates for the reduction of wastes “muda” in an industrial production process. Under this philosophy, waste reduction is achieved through two approaches, reducing overburden “muri” and reducing unevenness in the workload “mura”. Also, lean manufacturing considers value as anything that a client would pay for (Key Lean Manufacturing Principles par.2). On the other hand, the six sigma approach assumes strategies such as reduction of errors and defects, continuous improvement of quality, understanding and exceeding customer expectations, and reduction of costs, cycle time, and time to market (What is Six Sigma par.4). Also, the six sigma philosophy encourages the continuous development of skills and knowledge (What is Operational Excellence? Par.9).
Comparing the structure of the two philosophies as a guide to operational excellence, it is clear that lean manufacturing is geared at ensuring the financial wellbeing of the manufacturer without considering the end user or the environmental ramifications. Lean manufacturing minimizes operational costs and advocates for the creation of anything that a customer would pay for, which it terms as “value”. On the other hand, the six sigma approach can be used to not only increase the financial gains of the motor vehicle manufacturers, but to also prime the vehicle designs for emission reduction. This is because the six sigma philosophy can be used to promote research in emission reduction as it advocates for continuous increase in knowledge. Also, the philosophy can enable the rectification of errors in previous vehicle models in line with stipulated emission standards.
Works Cited
Duggan, Kevin. “ Operational Excellence Principles to Grow your Business.” Institute for Operational Excellence. Process Excellence Network, 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
“What is Six Sigma.” General Electric. The General Electric Company, 2016. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
“What is Operational Excellence?” Institute for Operational Excellence. n.p., 5 Jan 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
“Key Lean Manufacturing Principles” Lean Manufacturing Junction. SBI, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
