Manufacturing cost reductions and ecoefficiency: a relationship based on a case study
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Abstract
In the search for higher profits or competitiveness, firms have frequently used structured procedures to reduce their costs and expenses. However, the environmental consequences associated to those processes have hardly been considered. Hence, the central purpose of this paper is to show that it is possible to obtain relevant environmental gains even not considering the environmental issues as part of the operational cost reduction efforts. This particular point was verified through a single case study where value analysis was used to obtain manufacturing cost reductions in a company belonging to the Brazilian textile sector. Even not considering environmental aspects as part of the value analysis procedures, when the cost reduction actions were implemented it was possible to confirm that they also brought significant improvements to the environmental conditions, which were measured by the firm ecoefficiency levels before and after the cost reduction implementations.
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