Coating technology process redesign: a systems approach to capturing environmental benefits

In 1993, Xerox Manufacturing Technology Center began development on a new coating technology. It was apparent from the beginning that benefits of redesigning the existing process were two-fold: the resulting environmental improvement would support Xerox's Waste-Free Factory initiative and significant reduction in unit manufacturing cost would be realized. While redesign would prove to be a significant accomplishment in itself, commitment to environmental improvement drove efforts toward further optimizing the environmental aspects of the future manufacturing process. To accomplish this optimization, manufacturing process design engineering joined forces with the environmental organization to conduct a systematic premanufacturing pollution prevention assessment on the proposed manufacturing process. Key technological issues of process redesign, the systematic approach to process optimization, and anticipated results are described.