Productivity

Improvement Through
the Application of
Cleaner Production in
the Environmental
Management System
of MSMEs in the
Furniture Industry
(Thesis Proposal)
Authors: York John R. Lopez
 Introduction in Philippine Furniture Industry
The Philippine furniture manufacturing industry has always
been a major contributor to the country’s economy.

• It is ranked as one of the world’s best producers of fine furniture

• There is an estimated 15,000 furniture makers in the country which
employs an estimated 481,500 direct workers and another 300,000
more employees among the subcontractors. (DTI 2005)
• About 98% of the firms in the furniture industry are in micro, small
and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)

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 According to the research of Chamber of Furniture Industries
of the Philippines or CFIP in 2005:

• The global demand for furniture has amounted to estimated

$200billlion
• In 2005, it has reached gross sales of $250billion
• While in the past few years, the sales were reported to be erratic,
it was in 1999 to 2003 that exports of furniture reached decline of
5% yearly

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 There were concerns that the Philippine
furniture industry has not grown as much
as the neighboring countries because, in
the past years, the Philippine furniture
industry has not performed well in the
global market compared to other countries
in Asia.

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 • The Philippine furniture industry can hardly compete in the global
market because of high cost of materials and manufacturing
operations.
• the global market requires goods and services to be produced in an
environment- friendly manner which other countries in Asia such as
China (Shi et.al, 2008) and Vietnam (Vietnam CPC Annual Report, 2005)
are now practicing

If this will continue, the furniture industry’s economic sustainability will

continue to suffer.

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 Challenges in the Philippine Furniture Industry
• raw materials availability
• environment-related issues
• low productivity, excessive waste, and inappropriate
production processes

Raw materials are known for becoming scarce and therefore

their costs are continuously getting higher. It is therefore
important that furniture manufacturers must have a
sustainable way of manufacturing products for environmental,
social and economic purposes

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 Environmental management has a major role in the
development of the furniture industry:

•Furniture manufacturers are commonly engaged in an

inefficient and non-environmental friendly production
practices
often discharge untreated waste materials

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 (Eastin, 1992 )
Adverse effect on the environment of furniture
manufacturing wastes (Eastin, 1992 ):

• soil infertility
• pollution of ground water supplies
• pollution of streams

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 (Gordic et al ,2014)
Main environmental concerns of the wood-based
furniture manufacturing industry
• air pollution caused by saw dusts, volatile organic compounds or
VOCs
• water pollution from used solvents, finishing materials and
clean-up operations, and
• solid wastes from wood chips, saw dusts, adhesives, resin
particles and general trash

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 Effects on Safety:
• Solid waste occupies a large space in the workshop area and
opens the risk of fire if a source of ignition is presented
• Exposure to dust particles will cause health hazards.
• Emissions from spraying polyester and polyurethane can
cause different sensory organ irritations and dizziness

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 Industries may deal with their generated pollution in
four ways:
(1) by ignoring the pollution,
(2) by dilution
(3) by pollution waste treatment, and
(4) by prevention of generation of waste

Source: UNEP Guidance Manual;

http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications).

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 EMS (Environmental Management System)
• Set of practices and processes that will help an organization in reducing its
environmental impacts.
• Improve its operating efficiency
• a system for organization of environmental affairs and actions, and not the
action itself

Figure 1. Staircase of Concepts in Industrial Environmental Management Hamner (1996)

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 Cleaner Production (CP)
• Cleaner Production is what a good EMS is supposed to
implement (Hamner, 1996)
• Management tool that any industry may use to attain
sustainable development through the “continuous
application of an integrated preventive environmental
management to processes, products, and services in
order to improve overall efficiency and reduce the
negative environmental impacts to both humans and
the environment “(UNIDO, 2014)

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 Cleaner Production (CP)
• a management tool that determines which factor is
causing the pollution or waste generation
• Its goal is to eradicate this source by changing inputs,
altering the process, or application of environment-
friendly technology.
• The CP concept can also be called “cradle-to-cradle”,
the opposite of “cradle-to-grave” or “end-of-pipe”

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 Figure 2. Cleaner Production Techniques as described by El-Hagar (2007)

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 Recognize the Need to do Cleaner Production

Planning and Organizing the Cleaner Production

Cleaner Production Assessment

Feasibility Studies

Implementation of the Action Plans

Monitoring and Evaluation

Figure 3. Process flow in the implementation of Cleaner Production initiative

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 Advantage of Cleaner Production when compared to
ISO 14000: Cervelini and Souza (2009) :

Cleaner Production is a potential economical solution in

reducing material and energy use

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 MSMEs generally do not employ clean technology in
their organizations due to following identified barriers:

Financing
Technical Capacity
Operability of Technology
The Effectiveness of Technology
Lack of Concern for the Environment
Lack of Information Technology

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 Motivations in the implementation of environmental
management programs such as CP

EMS
Continuous improvement: improvement in productivity
Environmental leadership
Corporate Social Responsibility
Increased investor confidence and giving company the competitive
advantage
Customer pressure to protect the environment
Government policies

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 Objectives of the Research
The output of this research can be used as a guide in the
implementation of CP in the environmental management
system of a furniture manufacturing. This will help reduce
the environmental effects of the manufacturing plants and
will improve their productivity in the process. With the
output of this study, not only companies of different
industries will be motivated by the effects of CP, they may
also use the generated system as a manual or a guide that
will help them to successfully implement their own CP
program.

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 Objectives of the Research
1. Identify the barriers to the implementation of Cleaner
Production that the MSMEs of Pampanga’s furniture industry are
currently experiencing. This objective will be met by answering
the questions:
• What are the common technical and information barriers that
inhibit them to adopt the concept of Cleaner Production?
• What are the main financial and economic factors that affect
their ability to fully implement the Cleaner Production Program in
their factories?
• What are the contributions of the managerial and organizational
personnel of the company that prevents them in the application
of Cleaner Production methodologies?

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 Objectives of the Research
2. Identify what will motivate MSMEs in Pampanga’s furniture industry
in adopting and implementing the Cleaner Production. This objective
can be met by answering the questions:
• What are the most attractive benefits for MSMEs in Pampanga’s
furniture industry if Cleaner Production Program is adopted?
• What are the external factors that furniture companies are considering
before they adopt the Cleaner Production Program?

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 Objectives of the Research

3. To determine the priority weight of the known drivers and the barriers
to the implementation of Cleaner Production by MSMEs of
Pampanga’s furniture companies using AHP pairwise comparison.

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 Objectives of the Research

4. To validate the effects of CP by implementing its

methodology on a furniture manufacturing factory by
measuring the efficiency improvement through 1) rate of
production speed, 2) material waste reduction or material
efficiency
5. To establish an Environmental Management Plan based on
CP guidelines

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 Figure 3.Conceptual Framework
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 Company Background: Vivere Lifestyles Co. Inc. (VLCI)

• established in 2008
• Produce the brand: Triboa Bay Living
• Former Vienna Furniture
• a Filipino-owned company which is a manufacturer of furniture and
lightings for both export and local retail
• Have a showroom in Megamall, LRI Design Plaza (Makati), Deco
Central (in Clark)
• Factory in Cutud Ageles
• VLCI’s production process of wooden furniture manufacturing and the
species of woods that are used are mostly similar to other companies in
Pampanga

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 Method
Data gathering will be in two parts.

First will be the survey of the furniture manufacturing

companies using the questionnaire.

Second data gathering is during the case study in the

implementation of Cleaner Production.

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 Method
The participants in the survey study will be the
furniture manufacturing companies located in
Pampanga categorized as MSME by DTI-3. The list of
the companies will be mainly coming from Pampanga
Furniture Industries Foundation or PFIF

The company that will implement Cleaner Production

program is Vivere Lifestyles Co., Inc. (VLCI) since it
represents majority of furniture companies in the
region. The practice in production and process are
similar toother wood furniture companies.

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 Method
This research will use a questionnaire that will base its
questions on the barriers and motivators in the
implementation of Cleaner Production as discussed
earlier in the literature review.
The collection of data from each company will be
conducted thru scheduled factory visitation by
interviewing the key personnel such as owners,
managers, and supervisors directly involved in the
operations of the company

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 Method
The implementation of Cleaner Production to VLCI will
be conducted using the methodology for the Cleaner
Production Audit or Assessment discussed by El Hagar
(2014)

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 Method
To meet the objectives of this research, the following
steps will be followed:

1. To identify the barriers to implementing CP:

From the list of identified barriers in the
implementation of CP stated in the questionnaire, the
firm’s representative will have to rank each factor that
may have an effect on their decision in not
implementing the CP procedures.

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 Method
To meet the objectives of this research, the following
steps will be followed:

2. Identify the Motivating Factors

From the list of identified motivators/drivers in the
implementation of CP stated on the questionnaire, the
firm’s representative will have to rank each factor that
may have affected their decision in implementing the
CP procedures.

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 Method
To meet the objectives of this research, the following
steps will be followed:

3. Weight of barriers and motivators

The AHP technique will be used to determine the
priority weight of each factor from the list of barriers
and motivators obtained from the survey.

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 Method
To meet the objectives of this research, the following
steps will be followed:

4. In the implementation of CP to VLCI, the

representative company in this study, the process flow
for the CP Audit described in figure 2 will be followed.
Worksheets are generated as guides for the
implementation of CP in the VLCI factory. These will be
filled up by the CP team and data will be coming from
the supervisors.

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 Method
To meet the objectives of this research, the following steps
will be followed:

5. The methodology used in this study to improve

productivity and material efficiency will be summarized and
collated. System and guidelines will be generated and may
be used by other companies who will implement CP
Each of the steps or approaches described in the overview
of Cleaner Production methodology will consist of
supporting forms or checklists to be filled up by the
assessor, in this case, is the researcher and team of
supervisors.
These forms will be used as guide all throughout the
Cleaner Production data gathering and implementation
process

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THANK YOU!!!

Presented by: York John R. Lopez