Abstract:
Sustainability has become an important part of the culture of most organisations, with
shareholders and customers demanding that companies operate in an environmentally
responsible way. This research focuses specifically on one aspect of industrial sustainability:
energy reduction in manufacturing.
This research explores the management and organisational barriers within a manufacturing
organisation, which prevent it from either implementing reductions in energy usage, or from
realising the full benefit from them. The existence of these barriers is tested by collecting data
on the perceptions of individuals within a UK facility belonging to a large aerospace
manufacturing organisation, and by observing the progress of energy reduction projects in this
facility. Data is collected through interview, questionnaire and by direct observation of the
actors within this facility who are engaged in energy reduction activities.
Three case studies are presented focusing on projects to reduce the energy consumed by the
surface treatment and machining of aluminium aircraft parts. Building from the literature, a list of
twenty barriers to energy reduction is developed and illustrated through these case studies.
By analysing the narrative of these case studies it can be seen that these barriers are linked
causally. This causality implies that a smaller number of key barriers will act as root causes of the
larger list of barriers and is a main contribution of this work. The key barriers are found to be a
lack of accountability and a lack of ownership.
The causality is exploited by proposing that interventions to overcome these key barriers will
remove or diminish the effect of the other barriers. The first intervention proposed is that
objectives be set for Manufacturing Operations to ensure that it is functionally accountable for
its energy consumption. The second intervention is that a focal point be nominated to own the
resulting activities and be given appropriate resources to meet the objectives.
