Managing the environmental performance of production facilities in the electronics industry: more than application of the concept of cleaner production

This paper approaches the production facilities in the supply chain primarily from an Original Equipment Manufacturer’s perspective as the requesting party in the scope of environmental quality and secondarily from a production facility’s perspective. From the perspective of the customer as well as the supplier, aspects such as price, delivery, technology etc. play an ongoing role, while environmental quality is a new aspect. With respect to environmental quality, the paper discusses the existing situation in the facilities, like the use of environmental management systems, the notions of environmental performance, green procurement and environmental quality in relation to cost structures of facilities. The paper also introduces a new method of benchmarking environmental performances of facilities. Environmental performance expresses the total production behaviour of the production facility. A link into a business perspective is shown on the basis of the environmental performance. In this scope the result of a worldwide assessment of 25 printed board production facilities is discussed and a conclusion is drawn.