CLEOPHAS MOYO.

R056558H MECHANICAL ENG IV ME 410 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT: MALAWI BEEFCO CLEANER PRODUCTION Cleaner Production (CP) is defined as the continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products and services to increase overall efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment. CP involves the conservation of raw materials and energy, the elimination of toxic raw materials, and the reduction in the quantities and toxicity of wastes and emissions. For product development and design, Cleaner Production involves the reduction of negative impacts throughout the life cycle of the product: from raw material extraction to ultimate disposal. For service industries, Cleaner Production involves the incorporation of environmental considerations into the design and delivery of services. The biggest challenge facing industry today is the need to conform to societys and environmental expectations yet remain profitable and possibly continue to expand into other markets in which there already exists even tougher legislation on waste production and disposal. Businesses are encouraged to ensure good environmental practice, participate in voluntary code of practice or embark on certification to standards such as ISO 14000. These eco-labels create good business opportunities local, regional, and international and give the company an enhanced business profile. This strategy was adopted by a company based in Malawi namely BeefCo and the following passage relates how well they managed to apply it to their processes and products so that they increased production efficiency whilst conforming to local council standards. The General Manager of BeefCo interest and total commitment to the project of doing Cleaner Production helps the SANTREN consultants to do the CP method efficiently and effectively. This would ensure that the project would have sufficient funds if necessary and his subordinates would comply with the given assignment. This paved way for the establishment of the project team comprising members of SANTREN Consultants and employees from BeefCo. This was a good mix indeed since SANTREN Consultants were already CP experts and the employees from BeefCo would provide vital information on how the company really operates. The short training session was necessary although it was not enough ensures that there will be good management support and the objectives and targets would be clarified and how it could be applied within the company. This session would boast the BeefCo workers morale since they will fill included in the project. The pre-assessment was done true to CP methodology ,a flow diagram of the company was produced which I felt gave a lot of information on the company and its associated operations such a diagram was necessary for proper CP application ,a walkthrough inspection gave birth to the identification of a good number of problems affecting

operations and the group could have not come up with the problems if it was not of the asking of relevant questions to operators in the particular areas under investigation. These flow charts help to provide an overview of the companys production and environmental aspects. Much of the quantitative data for these flow charts were not available, because of lack of in-process monitoring which is very crucial in applying CP assessment methodology. There were no resources and time available to carry out the direct recording, neither were there any specific records available which hinder the CP progress and result in having estimates rather than actual values. Unitary based problem identification was really necessary so as not to preclude certain small but vital processes thus eliminating the risk of dealing with symptoms and not root causes. Individual unit process flow diagrams were then established and this marked a return to the previous requirement by the CP methodology of the need to do a unit by unit analysis to the relevant inputs and the respective outputs. Most of the data was not represented based on the scale of production: for example: water consumption per tonne of live carcass weight (LCW) processed or mass of organic matter (COD) generated per tonne of live carcass weight (LCW) processed. On doing the CP evaluation satisfactory number of waste reduction options was generated. These options were screened and priotised on the basis of availability, suitability, environmental effect and economic feasibility using the checklists for availability, suitability, environmental effect and economic feasibility. This shows that a proper evaluation was done which conforms to the CP methodology and as well as in the companys capacity. A proper feasibility study was done on how well we should improve on the outlined problems basing on the cost-benefit analysis. The objective of the last phase of the assessment is to ensure that the selected options are implemented, and that the resulting reductions in resource consumption and waste generation are monitored continuously. This crucial role was not mentioned after the evaluation. The company lastly should implement the viable solutions so that a proper Cp conformance is done.