Sustainable Equals Smart
The steel truck is late. Your best operator just went to a competitor down the street for an extra buck an hour. Her replacement “fat-fingered” a tool length offset, pile-driving an expensive cutter into the machine table. The lights flickered for a moment, and the robot is now performing what looks like a modern dance routine—but without the music.
The new machining center won’t boot up, the old one won’t stop leaking and the customer called this morning to tell you the last batch of parts arrived on the receiving dock two days late. “Oh, by the way,” he added, “many of them failed inspection, so the quality auditor will be stopping by later this afternoon. Have a nice day!”
The preceding was but a sampling of all that a shop owner or production lead might have to deal with each day, raising the question, “Who has time to think about sustainability?” Shops are more concerned about reducing a machine’s downtime than its carbon footprint. Energy consumption is irrelevant—whether a shop is installing solar panels or upgrading to more energy-efficient machinery—and employees may soon be out of a job if they can’t get raw-material costs under control.
How a Small Injection Molding Company Scaled with Sustainability and Innovation
Such concerns and questions are far too common, unfortunately, and answering them might take the business in unexpected—and uncomfortable—directions. This wasn’t the case with Accumold LLC, however. The Ankeny, Iowa, micro-molder and its 350 employees are not only proud of being “good stewards of the environment,” but also share a story of the company’s founding that will sound familiar to many small-business owners.
As technical marketing manager and resident storyteller Brett Saddoris explains, the year was 1985, and two toolmakers at a plastic-injection-molding shop in nearby Ames had just learned management was no-quoting “a little teeny-tiny” plastic gear. Sensing an opportunity, they rented a garage, worked nights and weekends, and, over the following year, designed and built a mold to produce the lilliputian gear. And because the machines of that era were not yet capable of molding parts much smaller than a pencil eraser, the toolmakers invented a unique micro-molding press to operate it.
Roger Hargens was there and is now proud to call himself one of the original entrepreneurs in what would soon become a leader in the micro-molding business. Recognizing an untapped market, he went home and gave his wife some surprising news. “Honey, I borrowed $10,000 and gave it to a couple of guys in a garage who are working on a new kind of molding machine.”
It’s easy to laugh about the exchange now, but his instincts were spot on. For the past 35 years, Hargens has been Accumold’s president and CEO. Now on its fifth generation of machine design, the manufacturer has completed more than 7,000 projects for customers in 27 countries. And yes, he and his wife are still happily married.
What does any of this have to do with sustainability? Not much, at least not directly. But it’s clear that Accumold’s ISO 14001 certification—the internationally recognized standard that specifies requirements for environmental-management systems—has opened the door to numerous customers in the medical and electronics industries, not to mention those in Europe, where environmental credentials tend to carry more weight.
“We take it quite seriously, as do our customers,” Saddoris says. “It’s not like in some shops, where everyone runs around and hides stuff when the auditor pulls into the parking lot.” He laughs. “The CEO gives frequent tours to customers and prospects, and he loves to tell them, ‘About the only thing we throw away here is the paper towels from the bathroom, and we’re working on that as well.’”
Nate Evans, chief experience officer and co-founder of global manufacturing and supply chain company Fictiv Inc., discusses a project with team members. (Provided by Fictiv)
Reducing Manufacturing Waste
Whether it’s reducing waste or making processes more efficient, “every day is about how we can be better as a company,” Saddoris says, adding this mindset has pervaded Accumold’s corporate consciousness for more than a decade. After all, how many U.S. manufacturers have even heard of the United Nations’ International Day for Biological Diversity, let alone put out a press release celebrating it, noting that sustainability isn’t just for environmentalists and policymakers, but for the manufacturers whose technologies shape the future of our planet?
Granted, Accumold’s parts are pretty small—a bag containing thousands of widgets might easily fit inside a coffee cup—so they’ve already won first prize for reducing transportation-related waste. And the company has taken countless other steps. For example, it recycled about one ton of used gowns, hair nets, booties and rubber gloves from their Class 7 and 8 clean rooms last year; 22,000 lbs of scrap metal; 5,000 lbs of electronic waste; and nearly 30,000 lbs of oil, coolant and other hazardous liquids.
Rather than discard the admittedly small sprues, runners and other bits of leftover plastic from the molding process, Accumold built an automated grinding system to process this detritus. The company sells the waste to a third party that turns it into usable items, such as wheels for barbecue grills—accounting for a small percentage of the 200,000 lbs of plastic and resin saved from the landfill.
While Accumold’s concern for the environment our grandchildren will soon inherit is admirable, it also comes with clear business advantages. “We know our customers want it, as do potential clients,” Saddoris points out. “We’re often asked about our sustainability practices—what steps we took to earn ISO 14001, what else is on our green roadmap and similar questions, all of which we’re happy to answer. But at the end of the day, if it’s between us and a competitor for a new sales order, sustainability often gets us across the finish line.”
Sustainable Manufacturing Practices That Drive Quality and Efficiency
Fictiv Inc. sources complex mechanical parts, so it might seem that the Oakland, Calif.–based “global manufacturing and supply chain company” has little need for sustainability or the umbrella term: environmental, social and governance (ESG). But as CEO and co-founder Nate Evans explains, how well a manufacturer manages its waste—whether from inefficient processes, outdated machinery or human error—is a strong indicator of its ability to produce quality parts, on time and within budget, all of which Fictiv evaluates closely when deciding which suppliers to admit into its network.
“When my brother Dave and I launched the company 12 years ago, our goal was to fill the gap between the on-demand manufacturers of the world and giants like Foxconn and Flex,” Evans says. “We wanted to create a highly collaborative experience—one where customers have direct access to engineers and design experts who can help make their products more manufacturable, and backed by a network of trusted suppliers that can deliver as promised. That’s exactly what we built.”
Hiring the hundreds of technical experts needed to staff their growing company presented its own distinct challenges, especially given that many of them call China, Mexico or India home. Vetting its “network of trusted suppliers” was in many ways more difficult—seeing AS9100, ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certificates hanging near a facility’s front door helped, as did the potential supplier’s embrace of advanced manufacturing technology. But as with Accumold’s “finish line” comment, sustainability often proved to be the deciding factor, all else being equal.
This last point brings up an interesting perspective from Evans, who suggests the term is often misapplied—especially among smaller manufacturers that aren’t required to make ESG disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or similar regulatory bodies. For them, he argues, sustainability is less about carbon tracking or coolant disposal (though those things matter) and more about running operations that are leaner, cleaner and smarter.
Thanks to Accumold and its employees being “good stewards of the environment,” tungsten-filled liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and other plastic waste will avoid spending millennia in a landfill. (Provided by Accumold)
Why Lean, Clean, and Smart Manufacturing Is the Real Sustainability Conversation
“I was just visiting one of our partners up in the Pacific Northwest, one with only 15 people, maybe less,” Evans recalls. “And that’s typical—roughly three-fourths of U.S. manufacturers are of similar size. These aren’t the Jabils of the world, with millions of square feet and public ESG-reporting requirements because they’re doing $25 billion a year in revenue.
“These are small, independent shops, most often managed by the person who started them,” he continues. “And when I asked this guy about sustainability and carbon footprints, he just gave me this blank look, like, ‘I’m sorry, what was that?’ The minute I told him ‘leaner, cleaner, smarter,’ though? Light bulb: He totally got it. ‘That’s what I’m always talking to my team about.’ So that’s the real conversation. Not ESG filings, but how shops can meet customer demand without wasting time or material.”
The lean practitioners reading this likely are nodding their heads. They know that production-floor efficiency is a natural outcome of the leaner, cleaner, smarter adjectives. For instance, single-minute exchange of die (SMED) delivers shorter setup times on any machine tool, whether it’s a 50-year-old stamping press or a shiny new CNC lathe, and faster setups equate to less energy consumed by human and machine alike. In that same vein, the lowest-hanging of all lean fruit, 5S—short for sort, set, shine, standardize, sustain—makes the production floor safer, more productive and a more pleasant place to spend one’s days.
The Fictiv team recognizes this, which is why, in a recent Forbes interview discussing the company’s 2023 Sustainability in Manufacturing Report, Dave Evans stated this: “The bottom line is that integrating sustainability into your management strategy and operational approach will increase operational efficiency, reduce costs and waste, strengthen your brand and reputation, and build long-term business viability and success. Oh, and you’ll be helping save the planet, too.”
Government Programs Helping Small Manufacturers Improve Sustainability
Whether your company is like Accumold and wants to reduce waste “because it’s the right thing to do” or, like those on Fictiv’s supplier shortlist, is interested in reducing waste for efficiency’s sake, there’s help for businesses of all stripes and sizes. One example is the Economy, Energy & Environment (E3) Initiative. This federal technical-assistance framework brings together six agencies—the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Labor and Agriculture, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and Small Business Administration. Their shared goal: to help manufacturers and communities compete in a greener economy by improving energy efficiency, reducing environmental impact and promoting sustainable job growth.
Another is the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership, launched by the Department of Commerce in 2013 to align regional stakeholders and federal resources around manufacturing-led economic development. In both programs, and many others like them, the local delivery often falls to the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Funded through the U.S. Department of Commerce and operating in all 50 states, MEP centers serve as the boots-on-the-ground connection between federal initiatives and the small manufacturers they support. Each can help even the smallest of shops make progress on sustainability, lean rollouts and other efficiency-boosting initiatives without hiring a consultant or submitting a federal grant proposal.
One of these is the Genedge Alliance of Virginia, where Senior Manufacturing Advisor and Program Manager Jeff Shook spends his time helping small manufacturers solve real-world problems, such as leaky compressors, underutilized machine tools and mounting scrap. What he’s not doing is giving lectures on ESG.
“In my career, I’ve never actually worked in sustainability per se,” he confides. “I’m a lean guy. My first job out of college was with a Japanese company, Pioneer Electronics, and when times were tough, they took steps many U.S. manufacturers would probably never think of—things like restricting the water fountains to reduce usage, or using the back side of printed reports for note pads. Looking back, much of it was just common-sense efficiency.”
For manufacturers too small to hire dedicated process engineers, he adds, MEPs often fill the gap. They can offer hands-on help writing specs, sourcing consultants, evaluating data and creating simple but effective fixes.
When owners don’t know how many parts their team made during a day, Shook’s team can show them how to install basic sensors and create real-time dashboards to gather that information, demonstrating smart manufacturing and energy savings in a way that doesn’t require an IT guy or a six-month deployment.
“Too often, we walk in the door and it’s 1995 again,” Shook says. “Paper job travelers, handwritten logs, no clue what people worked on that day—if I can show them something simple that saves time and money, that’s the hook.”
Cutting Utility Costs in Manufacturing with Compressed Air Audits and Energy Efficiency
Compressed air is often the entry point. Genedge regularly conducts energy assessments for small and midsize manufacturers, many of whom are unaware of how much money they’re wasting by not fixing air leaks or forgetting to turn off the compressor at night. One way to accomplish this is to leave data loggers in the facility for a week or two and show them how, without changing anything in their operations, shops can make a significant dent in their utility bills.
To qualify for DOE matching grants—up to $300,000 or 50% of a capital project—companies must meet specific size and utility thresholds, however. “We’re not out here selling equipment or services,” Shook stresses. “We just want to make sure they actually do something—fix the air leaks, swap the lighting or upgrade older equipment. But it’s not all about electrical savings—we’re looking to help them reduce excess labor, noncompliant parts, raw-material usage, lost machine time—anything that factors into a shop’s overall efficiency and sustainability.”
Asked whether sustainability is just lean by another name, he pauses. “I don’t know,” Shook says. “They’re tied together, but sustainability also has a cultural component. In Japan, for example, it’s ingrained; here (in the U.S.), we wait for a grant. It’s a cultural gap that shows up on shop floors every day. People go home to their iPhone 16 and their robot vacuum, but then they walk onto the shop floor, it’s like stepping back in time. Would you want to go back to using a flip phone? Of course not. But in manufacturing, we tolerate that level of inefficiency.”
In one shop where the operations manager still had to count welded boxes himself, Shook recalls that the operator didn’t fill out the form correctly, so he’d just walk the floor and tally them up, just to be sure. In the same plant, though, there was a robot grinding parts automatically. “So it’s not that they don’t know about the tech,” Shook says. “It’s that they haven’t fully connected the dots.”
That’s what Genedge is trying to do: connect the dots, one small step at a time. “We can’t ask them to go to Chicago for a trade show,” Shook says. “So we’re bringing the show to them—road shows, sensors, dashboards, real-world examples. And if we can save them $5,000 on compressed air, then maybe they’re ready to talk about lighting. Then maybe about scheduling software.
“Because that’s how we’re measured—not by profit margins, but by the number of companies we help, whether it’s to hire someone, make an investment or become a better manufacturer. That’s what we’re here for.”
Article first published here: https://www.advancedmanufacturing.org/technologies/shop-solutions/why-small-manufacturers-are-embracing-leaner-cleaner-smarter-operations/article_78cca590-ad99-4108-bb54-4d947cd553ea.html
