Blog post 07/2020: Environmental management at Greif-Velox

More efficient, more powerful, more sustainable: environmental management that stands out from the crowd

We made it in record time: it took us as little as three months to become certified in accordance with international quality management standard ISO 9001, as well as environmental management standard 14001. And it's our customers who can reap the benefits above all: they can rest assured that our processes and technical developments have also been optimised in terms of environmental standards. In this way, we can provide long-lasting, sustainable and highly-efficient machines, achieving improved economic sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. What's more, our systems are guaranteed to meet legal requirements thanks to our professional procedures and optimised workflows. For us, it's about continuous improvement - becoming more energy-efficient, conserving more resources and generating less emissions. The linchpin: a sharp focus on our processes, an approach centred around our six-stage project management process, which makes our projects more streamlined, more sustainable and more transparent from design to installation. The result: improved customer satisfaction - worldwide.

Identifying and utilising room for improvement

The professional process starts with making a structured compilation of requirements, which continues when managing production on the shop floor. Shop floor management is based around visualising the challenges which could be encountered on a daily basis in terms of capacities, materials and technical problems. These all come together from different channels and we then deal with them in a structured process based on priority. We have set up a Non-Conformity Management process (NCM) which helps us to immediately respond to any deviations and establish the sustainable action to take, among other things. What's more, every single one of our employees has the opportunity to contribute their ideas and during our board meetings, we decide which ideas should be turned into a reality as a team. "We discuss challenges on a daily basis and openly deal with any errors, the kinds of which arise in every production process across the world. In doing so, we have unearthed huge potential for improvement," explains Operations Director Bastian Bauer.

Our systems and the environment

This room for improvement also undoubtedly involves the environmental aspects of our systems. Mainly, the energy efficiency of our machines, which is affected at several different stages. As such, we ensure that the components to be designed and installed, motors for example, are environmentally friendly and energy efficient as early as in the development stage. The materials and auxiliaries are selected so that they can be used throughout the entire life cycle of a system and, where possible, do not have to be replaced. We implement our approach from the very beginning, as early as in the design stage, taking all areas into consideration, from construction to production and through to servicing. In doing so, systematically fewer resources are required and more environmentally friendly components are used. In addition, we make sure that only standard materials and series products are built into our systems, as fewer special materials result in a more sustainable production process. We have also decided to take the important step of using paper bags rather than form-fill-seal bags (FFS) made from plastic.

No waste product

We have also devised additional systems which make sure that no product goes to waste during the bagging process. The dosing nozzles on standard packing machines are mechanically fixed and result in dosing inaccuracies, whilst our systems are equipped with VALVO CONTROL. The patented system ensures optimal dosing accuracy so that no product goes to waste.

System servicing that saves time and resources

Our systems are sustainable even when it comes to maintenance: 95% of the error messages that appear can be resolved remotely thanks to our optimised system servicing. This saves time, bother and travel costs - and protects the environment. Our experts only have to work on site in five percent of cases.

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