 vital but neglected field of waste management

 energy, economics, and environment is

impacted by efficient and effective waste
management
 also called SOS (surplus-obsolete-scrap)
management
 three words – “reduce, reuse, recycle” –
substantially convey he spirit of a well-managed
program on material and equipment waste
 Solid waste in the broadest
 Input=output + waste
 P: Productivity =output/input
 If wastivity = waste/input
 thus, wastivity (W)=(1 – P)=1 – Productivity.

 Past – not considered as a glamerous area for

managers
 Last three decades – Very important area
 sense includes all the discarded materials from
municipal, industrial, and agricultural
as well as service sectors
 Industrial surplus includes all those materials
which are in excess of a firm’s operational
requirements. These may originate from three
primary sources
◦ : scrap and waste;
◦ surplus, obsolete, or damaged stocks;
◦ and surplus, obsolete, or damaged equipments.
 Surplus from scrap or waste
◦ Sheet metal processes
◦ Metal cutting operations –poor process planning,
tech.,………
 Surplus, obsolete, or damaged stocks
◦ no immediate-use value and could be the result of
poor planning, procurement, or demand forecasting
◦ expiry in storage beyond its shelf-life period
◦ damaged during storage or handling and
transportation
◦ may or may not be obsolete
 Reasons of obsolescence may be technological or
design review, product diversification,
 and variety reduction due to standardization.
 Overbuying due to errors in forecasting and bulk
purchasing to avail quantity discounts in purchase
price may be another reason for surplus. Particularly
electronic items, computer hardware,
 chemicals, and perishable items having fixed shelf-
life period are more susceptible
 to generate such waste. In recent times, the e-waste
(electronic waste) has become a very alarming
problem due to shrinking of product life cycle.
 Surplus, obsolete, or damaged equipment
◦ includes machine tools, capital goods, and
equipments which need to be replaced due to
their age, operating inferiority, or required
technological upgradations, generating surplus,
and obsolete or damaged equipment.
◦ constitute huge stock as a result of undertaking
modernization projects. For example, upon
gauge conversion in Indian Railways, a huge
amount of rolling stock and rails became
surplus/obsolete stock necessitating their
optimal disposal
(a) Design stage: Here the material waste may result due to
overspecifications prescribing thicker, costlier, nonstandard material than
required. Prescribing tighter tolerances than functionally required may lead
to cost wastage and increased rejections if process capability is inferior to
the specifications range. Value analysis/engineering applications at the
design stage could be a good way to eliminate or reduce material waste
generated due to decisions taken at the design stage.
(b) Transportation and handling stage: Material damages due to bad
handling and transportation methods and poor packaging resulting in loss
of materials in transit, accidents, pilferage, and piracy may lead to material
wastage during transit.
(c) Procurement stage: Buying from a wrong source not having the
capability to meet specifications can lead to rejections/rework.
(d) Storage and warehousing stage: Due to poor storage methods, material
loss may result through damages, pilferages, shrinkage losses,
obsolescence, evaporation losses, and enhanced consumption due to
stock-dependent consumption rates. Dead stock and nonmoving materials
also contribute to waste.
(e) Manufacturing/consumption stage: Material scraps generated at the
manufacturing stage, rejections, rework, tool wear, and accidents at the
operations level are some sources of waste generation. Waste generated due
to bad workmanship, carelessness on the part of the operator,
compromising with health and safety (in order to produce more and more) is
also an important source of waste. Consuming more material than required
also adds to cost.
(f) Distribution/installation stage: Here the waste may result due to damages
in transit; at the level of installation and packaging, materials left after
installation contribute to accumulation of waste. Return, recall of defective
product, and replacement after economic life also contribute to
accumulation of material and equipment waste. The source of origin may
serve as an efficient and practical way of classifying material waste. These
sources can be agricultural, industrial, municipal, domestic, office,
construction or demolition, etc. Waste may also be grouped as hazardous
and nonhazardous, recoverable or non-recoverable, biodegradable and
nonbiodegradable, etc.
preventive focus and corrective
focus. An ideal way of managing
material waste is not to generate it at
all – we aim toward zero waste.
However, if some waste does get
generated despite preventive focus,
then make best use of it. This makes
3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle – as
the basic mantras of effective waste
management. Thus, functional areas
to be focused are generation,
collection, reuse, recycling, and
disposal aspects of material waste.
Efficient waste management practice
will involve quick identification of
waste generated, economic policies for
waste reduction, efficient collection
including segregation at source, reuse
reprocessing before reuse, recycling,
and cost-effective
disposal without adverse
environmental impact.
Waste management system includes four basic stages or processes:
(a) Minimization of waste generation
(b) Efficient waste collection and classification
(c) Optimal waste recovery through reuse and recycling
(d) Effective waste treatment and disposal
Reverse supply chain can be defined as the
“process of planning, implementing and
controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow of
used products, parts obsolete, surplus and
scrap items to ensure its economically and
environmentally sustainable recovery.”
This is also termed as reverse logistics.
 It mainly deals with five basic questions:
(a) What alternatives are available to recover
products, parts, and materials?
(b) Who should perform the various recovery
activities?
(c) How should the various recovery activities be
performed?
(d) Can the reverse logistics be integrated with
forward supply chains?
(e) What are the economic and ecological benefits
of reverse logistics?
1.What is SOS management?
2. What is waste? Why is it an indicator of materials productivity?
3. What are the reasons of waste of materials and equipments?
4. Identify causes of waste generation at various stages of the
manufacturing
system?
5. Why is the sequence of terms in “reduce, reuse, recycle”
important?
 What is e-waste? Why is it emerging as a critical problem area in
waste
 management?
 What organizational/institutional framework must be created for
efficient and
 effective waste management?
 1What is a reverse supply chain?