Far sighted approach to achieving ISO 14001

NSK's European Technology Centre and European Headquarters at Ruddington have taken a far sighted approach to achieving registration to ISO 14001 with a new "Design for the Environment" procedure

NSK's European Technology Centre and European Headquarters at Ruddington have taken a far sighted approach to achieving registration to ISO 14001 with a new "Design for the Environment" procedure which integrates with the company's quality and environmental management systems to provide a common model for new or modified product introductions under the ISO envelope.

"ISO 14001 is closely linked to quality systems so it appeared logical to us to have a common management system for both", said John Eyres, the Principal Engineer for Support Services at NSK's European Technology Centre.

"Our system means that we have operational control common to both quality and environmental issues across all the disciplines involved: communication, training, customer and manufacturing units, monitoring and measurement.

Support for NSK's initiative in integrating its quality and environmental management systems has come from David Robinson, one of the BSI assessors who undertook the audit of the NSK sites.

"It certainly makes sense to integrate existing design procedures within the Quality Management System", he said.

"As 'quality' can be designed into a product it follows that issues such as waste can be designed out and more 'environmentally friendly' materials (etc.) can be designed in.

Great inroads can be made at this stage (the 'get it right, first time' approach) as opposed to back tracking further down the line.

More companies are now realising this".

"A lot of companies struggle with the concept of design in an environmental context but NSK have tackled the issue head-on with a pro-active approach that appears to have identified the key issues relating to their products which they can influence and control through their design process.

Each new design project has to undergo a "Design For The Environment" assessment.

This includes such things as product packaging, and the type of oil / grease used to protect the product during storage/transit".

Design For the Environment is embedded within a new standard procedure, known as Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), which NSK has developed for new/changed product introductions.

APQP is the mechanism for integrating quality and environmental management systems.

It provides documentation that enables the two disciplines to fit together easily and gives a process flow for tackling issues.

APQP is administered by Cross-Functional Teams under the overall control of a Project Leader.

These teams see through the production introduction/change through three key stages.

Design for the Environment, (DFE) procedures are particularly evident in key Stages 1, with Customer / Design input requirements and the DFE Assessment, and at Key Stage 3 with Product Validation Testing and Production Part Approval.

Supporting the Cross Functional Teams, with a particular focus on environmental issues, is a dedicated Design for the Environment team.

This focus group is empowered to drive the overall policy, the product processes and to provide the knowledge base for such things as environmental expertise, legislation and customer requirements that affect the product.

In addition, the team is also responsible for ensuring the on-going communication of Design For the Environment across the scope of NSK's operations in Europe.

The DFE process commences in Stage 1 with an in-depth questionnaire that looks at all aspects of the product design, including the components involved, the materials used and manufacturing processes, the product functionality and recyclability.

The questionnaire concludes with a general design assessment and a score, which if it falls below 60% calls for corrective action.

The value of the questionnaire is that it enables all design issues to be tackled at the design stage.

It can, for example, identify any issues with regard to materials and lubricants and make final user aware of these to enable effective disposal.

One particular area of focus in this respect is Lead-Free greases.

NSK have taken the lead in this area and through the efforts of its DFE team expects to offer customers greases that are totally lead-free by 2001.

Also addressed in the Stage 1 process are packaging issues.

These are prepared based upon customer requirements, environmental and bearing designs.

The focus on this area by the DFE team has already resulted in the integration of all of NSK's European standards into one packaging specification for the company.

The key environmental aspects of the design are continued through Stage 2 of the APQP process - Prototype Build and Verification / Performance Testing - into the crucial Stage 3 phase where complete validation activities are undertaken to confirm that the product meets the intended criteria.

This process may also continue into volume production.

This final stage concludes with the Part Approval Process, which ensures that the design documentation, including all its environmental aspects, is in-line with customer's requirements, followed by the Product Sign-Off by the end customer.

"When we examined our environmental effects as part of the preparation for ISO 14001 we quickly realised that the biggest positive impact we could have on the environment would be to ensure that our future designs were as environmentally friendly as possible, both in terms of their operation and in terms of the material used in construction and packaging.

We believe that Design For The Environment underlines NSK's commitment to environmental best practice in all its operations", commented Neil Budworth, NSK's Group Health, Safety and Environmental Manager.

"It is another element in the many actions that we are undertaking, to meet the twin objectives of continual environmental improvement, and achievement of the aims of our own demanding mission statement".

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