The Problem with Plastics

$$Lucy$,$ I thought that you told me and the planning committee that this move to recycle storage plastics was going to save us money. But, look here. I just got the bill for last month$$s disposal of our plastic. We wound up paying $$3,000,$ rather than being paid for the value of the recycled material. This is the third month in a row that this has happened. I want to know what is going on and I want to know by Friday. If you can$$t solve the problem, we are going to simply throw out the plastic with the garbage, the way we used to do$.$ It was less hassle for us and we would recover the space now being used for the recycling bins. Again, I want recommendations by Friday.$$

With those words, Fred Morgenstern, plant manager for the Novi plant of Voiture Automotive Supplies, turned around and walked out the door. Lucy Po$,$ the environmental, health, and safety $($EHS$)$ manager for this facility, sat in her office considering what had just happened. What a way to start the week. It was Monday and she knew that she had five days to get to the heart of the problem. It was her initial analysis that had led to the decision to sell the various plastics to a recycler. It should have been a winner, but she must have missed something. In her mind, she reviewed the chain of events leading up to the meeting with Fred this morning.

The Novi plant, located in a suburb of Detroit, used over $40,000$ square meters of $40$ different plastics for storage. These various plastics were used to cover the parts during storage and in transportation. Once used, they were collected and thrown out. With landfills in Michigan becoming scarcer $($especially in the Detroit area$),$ landfill costs were increasing. Lucy could have recommended that the Novi plant truck the plastics out to Mount Pleasant, where landfill space was still available. But that seemed to attack the symptom of the problem, rather than the root cause.

As she looked around for options, she was approached by R$-$CYCL$,$ a new start$-$up recently founded by a husband and wife team. The purpose of the start$-$up was to provide employment for chronically unemployed people in Detroit. Their proposal was simple but attractive. R$-$CYCL would pick up the plastic and pay the Novi plant a recovery price, provided that the plastics were properly sorted. If the plastics were not properly sorted, then the personnel at R$-$CYCL would sort the plastic and charge the plant for the labor required. This charge would be deducted from any recovery prices.

There was the problem. The Novi plant used $40$ different types of plastic. It seemed that every time a new part was designed, the engineers would specify a new storage plastic. Whenever a new plastic covering was introduced, a number of things happened: A new item master had to be developed and entered into the system; inventory storage locations had to be identified $($the Novi facility generally used a fixed inventory location system$)$; and operators had to be trained on the material. Because of the high usage of plastic, the purchasing department had been aggressive in looking for the lowest$-$priced suppliers. They were currently buying much of the required materials from low$-$cost Chinese suppliers. Lucy was told that purchasing was generally happy with these suppliers, though on$-$time delivery was an issue $($causing an increase in safety stock$).$

When it came time to recycle the plastic, the processes in place clearly described what was supposed to happen. The operator was to take the plastic to the recycling storage area, where $40$ large bins were located next to the operation and parts storage areas. The operator was to review the code and then put the plastic into the appropriate bin. Once a week, R$-$CYCL would empty the bins and recycle the material. Lucy remembered how plant management had almost rejected the recycling plan because of the space requirements to locate $40$ storage bins. Facility management had argued that this space would be better used for production.

That was the theory. The practice was different. Though each plastic item was stamped with a code, the material differences between the plastics were slight. Sometimes the codes got covered by grease or paint. Because the operators often could not read the codes $($or they did not care$),$ they often stuffed the plastic into the first bin available. Operators could be $$written up$$ if they persistently failed to put plastics in the correct bin, but it was difficult to know when, or how often, this happened. When bins were nearly full, items often fell out onto the floor. This created problems for housekeeping, and plastic on the floor had contributed to several workplace injuries $($thus increasing workers$$ compensation charges$).$ In two cases the injuries resulted in fines being assessed against the plant. Lucy could see why Fred wanted to return to the old system. She had to recommend a better, more sustainable, approach. She also knew that the Novi plant was R$-$CYC