Using tools like LEAN, Six Sigma and others help facilities of all types find inefficiencies and save significantly in terms of money and time.
By Neal Bolton
The solid waste industry is changing rapidly in terms of innovative technology, changing regulations and diversion. Consider for example, cardboard recycling. This cornerstone of diversion has become a moving target due to what I鈥檒l call the Amazon phenomenon. Instead of being consolidated at box stores, cardboard is now coming directly to consumers. And for many facilities, maintaining steady revenue continues to be a challenge.聽 This financial struggle is real鈥攁nd it affects every part of the industry.
Chances are, you鈥檙e looking for money to fund financial assurance (for landfill closure/post-closure), new machines, capital projects or staffing. You鈥檙e not alone. This situation is shared by many waste facilities today. But before you run to the board for a rate increase, consider the following.
Unless your facility is located in a very isolated market or unless you have some type of flow-control in place, raising rates could be counter-productive. Yep, that鈥檚 right. If you are the first facility in your market area to raise rates, there is a good chance you could push some of your paying customers elsewhere.
There is a better way to improve your overall operation, cut costs and increase efficiency. Say hello to Process Improvement.
Process Improvement
Process Improvement is used by some of the top companies in the world, including Motorola, Toyota and General Electric. Designed to help analyze and ultimately increase efficiency, process improvement uses a wide range of tools, including Six Sigma, Lean, Value Stream Mapping, Customer Experience Management (CEM), and more.聽However, Process Improvement is not limited to the big blue chip companies. Many of your peers鈥攁nd maybe some of your competitors鈥攁re using Process Improvement too.
At the heart of Process Improvement is the ability to evaluate a current process or activity, identify in detail what鈥檚 working and what isn鈥檛, and then come up with ways to improve the system.聽Process Improvement is itself a system 鈥� it is a process. It is a way of looking at your operation from both a tactical and a strategic perspective.
These simple steps鈥攚hen applied to any repetitive process鈥攃an help streamline your operation, increase efficiency and reduce costs.聽Most people assume that these kinds of analyses only work for the repetitive tasks associated with assembly-line manufacturing or document processing, but you might be surprised to learn that those same techniques that make Wall Street Journal news for international mega-corporations are also used to聽increase efficiency and reduce costs in an often-ignored industry鈥攖he waste industry.
Repetitive tasks鈥攃ompacting load after load of waste, hand-picking recyclables at a MRF, picking up trashcans on a residential collection route, or moving waste through a transfer station鈥攃an be analyzed. We鈥檝e been doing it for years and yet are constantly learning new ways to analyze the same old day-to-day tasks.
No Time to Think
If the solution is Process Improvement, what is keeping more facilities from using these improvement techniques? Why do these types of inefficiencies persist? In many cases, it鈥檚 because facility operators accept the status quo and do not take time to think about how to cut costs. I teach a number of classes each year for clients and at conferences and webinars. During these classes, I often ask waste facility managers, 鈥淒o you have eight hours per week to simply sit and think about your operation?鈥� This will get a good laugh. Then I鈥檒l ask again, 鈥淔our hours per week? Three hours? One hour per week?鈥� Occasionally, someone will admit to taking an hour per week to think about his/her operation, but not very often. My next question is not nearly as funny, 鈥淪o, if you鈥檙e the manager and you aren鈥檛 taking time to think about your operation, who鈥檚 thinking about it?鈥� Of course the answer is 鈥渘obody.鈥�
What鈥檚 the Solution?
Ever wonder why your transfer station has to work on the weekend because it falls behind during the week? Well, it鈥檚 because some portion of your system鈥檚 flow rate is creating one or more bottlenecks. Every system has at least one bottleneck, or constraint, as it is referred to by the Process Improvement crowd.
Think of the overall system as a pipeline, with the daily waste tonnage flowing through it. Each step in the process has a certain production (flow) rate (i.e., the pipe gets smaller or larger). When viewed as an entire system, this type of model can pinpoint the constraints and help identify solutions for increasing production 鈥� or changing the system to work around the constraint (see Figure 1).
At the heart of Process Improvement is the ability to model a current process or activity, identify鈥攊n detail鈥攚hat鈥檚 working and what is not, and then come up with ways to improve the system.
If you think there are opportunities for improvement in your current system, chances are you are right. After conducting these types of assessments at waste facilities across North America and abroad, we have found that every operation has room for improvement鈥攅very single one.
The bad news: Many waste facilities are not tapping into the benefits offered by Process Improvement.
The good news: Any waste facility can begin applying these tools. Start by tracking various performance benchmarks such聽 as聽 dozer聽 hours,聽 compactor聽 hours聽 and聽 the quantity of soil used for cover. Monitor lifts per day for various routes and drivers. Measure diversion鈥攑er commodity鈥攐n a daily, hourly or per ton basis. Perhaps even more revealing is pickline diversion per labor hour.聽 Look for variation from day to day 鈥� or between different crews, routes or operators. Variation almost always indicates an operational problem, inefficiency and pinpoints a great place to start making small improvements.
It is not unusual to see a landfill, transfer station, MRF or other waste facility reduce their operating cost by 5, 10 sometimes 20 percent or more by simply analyzing individual activities, following the money, looking for alternative ways to do things (see Figure 2). And in the process, you will have a much leaner, more competitive operation.
Neal Bolton is president of Blue Ridge Services (Mariposa, CA) and has pioneered the use of process improvement tools in the solid waste industry for decades. He is the author of the Handbook of Landfill Operations, and has consulted at waste facilities throughout the U.S, Canada and abroad. Neal can be reached at [email protected].
聽Learn more about Process Improvement for the solid waste industry at Neal Bolton鈥檚 ISWA World Congress & WASTECON庐 2017 presentation in Baltimore, MD on Tuesday, September 26 from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in the Convention Center.