Avon Gear Company commenced operations in 1974. The company started as a gear manufacturer in a 10,000 square-foot facility in Rochester, Michigan. Today, under the leadership of company President Aaron Remsing, Avon Gear is located in a 60,000 square-foot facility, also in Rochester. Its product line includes high-precision gears, AGMA Class-10--sun, spur, helical, and high-contact ratio gears--shafts, splines, housings, pulleys, covers, and other powertrain components.
In 1998, Avon Gear became ISO 9002 certified, with QS 9000 registered, and maintains this accreditation today. Avon Gear credits its current and continued growth to its skilled workforce, experienced management team, and state of the art equipment, with its primary emphasis on total customer satisfaction. The company has the support of its parent company, Okubo Gear, in maintaining its reputation as a world-class, quality supplier to major original equipment manufacturers.
Earlier this year, Avon Gear's management team recognized the need to become ISO 14001 compliant. As a result, a cross-functional core team sat down and outlined its concerns, asking themselves the question "Could we implement ISO 14001 and, if so, what are some of the constraints?" Their concerns included:
- A tight schedule, with limited human resources
- Discovery and understanding of all applicable environmental laws
- Educating and training of employees
- Cost benefit analysis
- Whether or not to hire a consultant
- Verification and documentation
- How to format the system and include internal and external communications as a key component
Based upon this list of questions, Avon Gear determined that it needed an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Model. This model had to evolve around continuous improvement, and include management's commitment, an environmental policy, planning, implementation, operational issues, auditing, corrective and preventive actions, training and awareness, and management review. The company also determined that the system could be developed and implemented without hiring a consultant, provided that the program administrator had a comprehensive understanding of how to conduct research, disseminate information, develop and communicate a plan, and write workable policies, procedures, and work instructions that could be integrated into the company's current operating system. In essence, the company decided that it needed a documented environmental system to ensure that it did not contribute to or violate laws that protect against the loss of species, habitat destruction, global warming, and groundwater, land, air, or noise pollution. Having established a foundation, the company then used the following outline in its "plan, implement, check and act" cycle: - Establish your company policy: Every company policy should include the continuous improvement objective as the fundamental core of its environmental policy. It is recommended that you include your commitment to meet all applicable laws in the prevention of pollution. In addition, establishing key objectives, based upon the nature of the business, will assist you in determining the aspects or features of an environmental system and how it is impacted.
- Conduct benchmarking: This is one of the most critical and important aspects of an environmental management system. Avon Gear developed a relationship with a company of comparable size and standard industrial code and freely exchanges information on successes as well as failures.
- Conduct a Gap Analysis: We made the mistake of using a gap analysis as an environmental review and a means of tracking and quantifying our progress. Avoid this pitfall by using a gap analysis as a comparison of your current system and controls and comparing them with the requirements of ISO 14001. If your company has the elements of a quality system such as ISO or QS 9000, then most of the elements are in place and understood, thus they should only require slight modification. It is highly recommended that the ISO 14001 and ISO 19011 standards be compared to ISO 9000 and QS 9000 and, when applicable, the similarities be denoted.
- Define legal requirements and aspects, while identifying internal and external resources. Environmental aspects, features, or characteristics are defined as "any element, activity, project or operation that may result in an impact upon the environment." There are many free publications and Internet resources that will assist any company in determining those laws that pertain to them.
- Visit your local city or township offices and request maps that outline the stormwater system, as well as hydrology within a half to one-mile radius of your facility. Oftentimes these files may be available in PDF format, so don't forget to ask. This will assist you in determining how you could potentially impact the environment.
- Conduct an in-depth, in-house environmental assessment. Look for the obvious, such as cutting fluids, oils, acids, and cleaning fluids. Evaluate solid waste, metal chips, scrap, and sludge, as well as your safety and housekeeping programs. Also look for the not so obvious, such as noise pollution, wastewater discharge, air emissions, and floor drain locations. Brainstorm ways to reduce or control energy usage. Bear in mind that if your company employs 5S, lean manufacturing, or six-sigma methods, then ISO 14001 lends itself well to the process.
- Determine your key indices: Every system needs key indicators, some with an economic as well as an operational impact. This list could include the cost and/or consumption of items such as packaging materials, cutting fluids, electricity, water, natural gas, propane, and scrap, just to name a few.
- Communication: Internal and external communication are vital aspects of training and awareness. Medias such as newsletters, e-mail, bulletin boards, and training syllabuses are all part of a company's communication methods and should be controlled through a policy and procedure. In addition, these are excellent venues for communicating your continuous improvement efforts.
- Root Cause Analysis: Determine the root causes of any actual or potential environmental effects by using the Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram method. Include items such as use of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide releases, electricity, heating systems, new buildings or developments, toxic releases, landfills, discharge, fertilizer and inherited historical activities as potential root causes of pollution.
Having completed this list, you should be prepared to establish your environmental policies, procedures, and work instructions. Areas in your quality system that may be affected include: - 4.6 purchasing, whereas you may require all subcontractors to be ISO 14001 compliant, or to be aware of your environmental requirements
- 4.11 inspection and test equipment, whereas any measuring or test device that is used for environmental evaluations should be included in your gage control and calibration programs
If your company has a recognized quality system, then you should be able to integrate ISO 14001 smoothly into your programs. We recommend that you establish a matrix, with the elements of your quality system in the "Y" axes, and the elements of ISO 14001 along the "X" axes, and then determine where the similarities exist. Once this is completed, your management representative or quality personnel who are familiar with "think, plan, do" methods probably have the capabilities necessary to make ISO 14001 work for your company.
We hope that you have found this article to be educational and informative, and we welcome any feedback you'd care to provide. For contact information, visit our Web site at [www.agcoga.com].
