Competitiveness by integrating the green perspective in production : A review presenting challenges for research and industry

• Environmental concern has risen as an important topic in management research as well as within the manufacturing industry. The realization that environmental sustainability should be viewed from a value-adding perspective and not only from a regulatory or cost perspective has implied a dramatic change of focus when creating competitive strategies. In production system research, some argue that green is the next great leap after lean, and many publications on the synergies and contradictions of lean and green have been published. This paper aims at high-lighting relevant topics related to environmental sustainability within a production system from the view of academia as well as industry. A review of related research has been performed together with an orienting empirical study of three companies in Sweden. The result reveals that the holistic view is often lost due to trade-offs and uncertainty, implying that incorporating environmental sustainability in an organization becomes difficult. This indicates that there is a growing need for methodology and decision support tools for integrating the green perspective at all levels of the production system. The concepts of continuous improvements and “lean and green” are identified as favorable options to succeed with this integration, implying important areas for future research.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Innovation and Design

innovation och design

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)