The integration of environmental issues into manufacturing

摘要: Higher levels of public awareness and more stringent environmental regulation indicate that research is urgently needed into the linkage between environmental management and operations management. An open-system framework for integrating environmental issues into manufacturing is proposed and explored. The open-systems model recognizes the bi-directional interaction between the marketplace, government agencies, and manufacturing. Opportunities exist for manufacturers who recognize and capitalize on these linkages to profit from the development of management systems, technology, and process improvement. Within the firm, the manufacturing group must foster environmental improvement in an integrated fashion with senior management, environmental specialists, and other functional areas. In addition, an environmental improvement system needs to explicitly develop both reactive and …