Efforts for reducing packaging materials used in production
 (Ricoh Group/Global)
Packaging materials used for transportation among production bases both inside and outside Japan tend to increase, reflecting the global expansion of the production network, which is imposing increased environmental and cost impacts. Packaging materials used in production refer to those used for the procurement of parts or transportation of half-finished goods, instead of those used for the delivery of products to our customers.
The Ricoh Group aims to reduce packaging materials used in production of imaging products in Japan by production volume by 30% from the fiscal 2006 level by fiscal 2010, and is making efforts for the achievement of this target. The shipper packs the items but it is the business site that accepts the items that disposes of the packaging materials.
This makes it necessary for business sites to co-operate in order to effectively reduce packaging material waste. To do so, first of all, it is necessary to visualize the volume and details of packaging materials used for transportation among bases and come up with ideas to reduce them.
Then, numerical targets should be set after considering to what level they can be reduced, which should be followed by the implementation of related measures. In fiscal 2008, meetings for exchanging information for reducing packaging materials used in production were held with the participation of the related sections at three bases.
At the meetings, the current volume of such materials was visualized and plans for reduction were mapped out.
|
Steps to reduce packaging materials used in production
 |
Reducing packaging waste in transportation between global production sites
 (Ricoh Asia Industry (Shenzhen) Ltd./China)
 (Ricoh Elemex Corporation (Shenzhen)/Ricoh Gotemba Plant/Japan)
|
 |
|
| Transportation by returnable rack |
|
All the parts and half-finished goods transported from Ricoh Asia Industry (Shenzhen) Ltd. (RAI) to manufacturing subsidiaries and production sites throughout the world used to be placed in corrugated cardboard boxes, which were then carried in containers.
Waste materials are recycled by the business sites accepting the goods as corrugated cardboard, but recycling does cause some environmental impact and wastage of resources, which ultimately made it necessary to reduce used packaging materials.
In light of this, returnable racks that can be used repetitively were introduced in fiscal 2007 for the transportation of some parts including scanner units from RAI to the Ricoh Gotemba Plant. In fiscal 2008, such racks were introduced for the transportation of ADF units from Ricoh Elemex Corporation (Shenzhen) to the Ricoh Gotemba Plant. At the same time, efforts were also made to improve the load-carrying efficiency,
which led to the simultaneous realization of an annual reduction of packaging material waste by an annual amount of about 105 tons and a ¥13.7-million cost decrease.
|
Reducing packaging materials in cooperation with suppliers
(Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd./Japan)
Packaging materials used in production tended to increase at Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd. Corrugated cardboard boxes from suppliers comprised a large percentage of these materials.
In light of this, the weights of packaging materials used in production and disposed of by Tohoku Ricoh, and the amounts of respective types of packaging material waste were clarified.
Hundreds of types of parts are used for each product. The weights of corrugated cardboard boxes used for respective types of parts were clarified by product, and efforts for their collection/recycling as well as a shift to polyethylene containers, which can be reused or recirculated, were promoted in cooperation with suppliers.
Analyses of packaging materials used for the procurement of parts of broad printers showed that more corrugated cardboard is used for their transportation from other countries to Japan compared with their transportation within Japan, where it is easier to introduce returnable racks and boxes.
The analyses also revealed that packaging tended to be excessive in transportation outside Japan. We thus requested two suppliers outside Japan to cooperate with us in minimizing space in corrugated cardboard boxes so that each box could contain more parts and products, or they could be reduced in size, and we introduced measures accordingly.
|
Box designed to contain more parts in a smaller space, with each compartment made large enough to contain four units and the amount of corrugated cardboard used halved |
Activities to reduce packaging materials used in production
(Ricoh Elemex Corporation/Japan)
Ricoh Elemex Corporation selects parts for which improvement measures should be taken after surveying delivery dates and weights of parts, and at the same time applies its accumulated know-how about the transportation of peripheral equipment.
In January 2009, it introduced a trial system to reuse packaging materials for parts imported from China—materials that were previously disposed of—for transportation between Ricoh Elemex and a Japan-based supplier, in the same group as the Chinese supplier.
In the future, efforts will be made to improve the bulk rate of boxes for imported parts and to introduce returnable containers.
|
|
|
|
To Top
