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Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 237 – 242

TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on sustainable, modern and safe transport

Life cycle and supply chain management for sustainable bins


Ingo Gestring*
HTW Dresden, University of Applied Sciences, Friedrich-List-Platz 1, 01069 Dresden, Germany

Abstract

Packaging is essential in logistics processes. All products consumed in a supply chain from fresh berries to large containership-
parts are packed during their transportation and storing processes. Often plastics are used as a basic component for the bins.
These synthetic materials are produced from crude oil. After their use plastic packaging is often burned to receive thermal
energy. To measure and analyse the environmental impact a life cycle assessment can be carried out. In this paper the assessment
is done for a Kanban bin made out of sunflower granulate. A typical supply chain situation is simulation. Different system
boundaries are used. The production and the use/ maintenance phase are analysed with the help of a framework. The highest
impact on the environment is during the use phase. The transportation and the recycling phase can be neglected in terms of the
environmental impact. Using a sunflower-granulate the emissions during the production phase can be reduced. The impact is less
strong considering a life cycle process.
© 2017
© 2017Published
The Authors. Published
by Elsevier by Elsevier
Ltd. This is an openLtd.
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on
Peer-review
sustainable,under responsibility
modern of the scientific committee of TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on sustainable,
and safe transport.
modern and safe transport
Keywords: Life Cycle Management and Assessment ; Kanban-Bins ; Sustainability

1. Introduction to life cycle management

Life cycle management is a holistic management concept. In the industry as well in the service sector life cycle
management is used as a tool to achieve sustainable products and value chains. The aim is to reduce the
environmental impact and maximize the economic and social value. Whereas in the late 90’s life cycle management
was considered as a “linkage between life cycle environmental criteria and an organization’s strategies and plans to
achieve business benefits” [1] it is today “ a systematic integration of life cycle thinking in modern business practice

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-351-462-2543.


E-mail address: ingo.gestring@htw-dresden.de

1877-7058 © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on sustainable, modern and safe transport
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.06.041
238 Ingo Gestring / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 237 – 242

with the aim to provide the societies with more sustainable goods and services and to manage the total lifecycle’s of
an organizations product portfolio towards more sustainable production and consumption” [2]. As a holistic
approach life cycle management is structured in:

x Policy/strategy like the triple bottom line


x Systems/processes like eco-labelling
x Concepts/programs like green procurement
x Tools/techniques like risk assessment
x Date/information/models like standards [3]

In order to quantify the impact of products and supply chains a life cycle assessment can be carried out. It is an
evaluation of the inputs and outputs during a complete life cycle from raw material extraction, production, use,
recycling and a final disposal. This is known as the ‘cradle to grave’ process. The aim of a life cycle assessment is to
identify possibilities for the reduction of the environmental impact at different phases of a products’ lifetime. With
these information decision-makers can set goals and formulate strategies [4].

2. Sustainable Kanban-bins

2.1. Kanban-cycle

Kanban is a specific production control method. It works according to the pull-principle. The ‘Kanban’ is a card,
an empty box or in a digitalized world just a signal to inform a supplying process about material requirements. This
results in low inventory and small cycle times. Especially C-parts like screws are stored and transported in specific
boxes.

2.2. Fiber compounds for bin production

Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer and commonly used for the production of packaging and plastic bins.
After the use phase the polymers are mostly energetically utilized and in smaller proportion recycled. In Germany
61% of the plastic waste is incinerated, 38% is recycled [5]. The recycling process is possible for collected waste
with a single-variety. Crude oil is the basis for the polymer production. To reduce the environmental impact of the
polypropylene production bio-based fibers are used as a compound in plastics production. The bio-based plastics can
consist of 100% bio gradable components or they can have co-polymers from non-renewable resources. Alvarez-
Chavez et al. point out that “it is important to understand the flow of these materials and their adverse impacts in all
parts of their life cycles in order to select a material that is more sustainable” [6].
A recent approach to integrate bio-based fibers in plastics is done by sunflower fibers. By processing sunflower
kernels to various products the waste hulls are used as an additive for plastics compounding. Up to 50% by weight of
the sunflower hulls can be used together with polypropylene. The company Golden Compound [7] introduced in
cooperation with the company Würth [8] a sustainable Kanban-bin, containing 35% of sunflowers hulls and 65%
polypropylene. Although a complete life cycle assessment has not been carried out yet, the energy reduction in the
production process should decrease by 25-30%. Whereas the production of straight polypropylene is quite energy-
intensive. This results in a high emission of greenhouse gases. On the other hand the growing of sunflowers have a
negative emission value due to the consumption of carbon dioxide during the growth phase of the sunflowers.
In terms of a life cycle assessment not only the production phase but also the use and recycling/ disposal phase
have to be taken in consideration. Is there still a positive impact on the environment if a complete life cycle
assessment is done?
Therefor a typical scenario is constructed and a life cycle assessment is carried out. The different scenario are first
analyzed by evaluating the single processes. After that a model based on the software-tool GaBi (Ganzheitliche
Bilanzierung) is used. The scenario modelling is done for a conventional bin made of polypropylene and as well for
the sustainable bin. The results are discussed and the main processes for reducing the environmental impact are
identified.
Ingo Gestring / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 237 – 242 239

3. Model used for the calculation of the environmental impact

3.1. System boundaries

To perform a life cycle assessment the analyzed processes have to be identified. The used model is divided in four
different processes as shown in Fig. 1. The production phase consists of the feedstock production, a compounding
process and injection molding as a forming process. From the production site the bins are transported to the company
where the use phase takes place. The bins are stored in shelfs. Three different scenario are considered:

x The bins are just stored in a shelf without movement.


x The bins are transported inside the company from the assembly side (sink) to the warehouse (source) and back.
x The bins are transported both internally and externally to a distribution center where the bins are filled up with
material again.

The final step in the model is the preparation/conditioning process for a possible re-use of the plastic.

Fig. 1. System boundary of the model.

3.2. Data collection

A Würth Kanban bin type 4115 is used. The weight of the empty bin is 810g and the size is 40x15x15 cm
(length, width, height). All collected data for the life cycle assessment are from different publications, no primary
data were collected.
To simplify the environmental impact only the CO2e emissions are taken into account. It is assumed that all
processes take place in Germany. This is important if electrical energy is converted into the emitted mass of carbon
dioxide.
The production process of propylene emits 2.0 kg CO2e/ kg PP [9]. At the end of the process polyethylene
granulate exists. In the compounding process different substances may add the PP in order to achieve special
material properties.
For sustainable bins sunflower hulls are inserted in the compounding process. For this process step just the
energy consumption is considered. If the energy consumption is known it can be transformed by a conversion factor
to the carbon dioxide emissions. The data for the calculation of this process are given in Table 1.
240 Ingo Gestring / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 237 – 242

Table 1. Data for the compounding process.


Data Value Source
Energy consumption 5.51 MJ/kg PP [10]
Conversion factor MJ->kWh 0.228
Conversion factor kWh->kg CO2 0.535 [11]

For the injection molding the emissions are 1.7 kg CO2e/kg PP [12]. For the transportation it is assumed that the
production site is 500 km away from the factory which uses the bin. Together with the weight of the bin and a
specific emission factor of 0.192 kg CO2/ t km for a 7,5-12t [13] truck the emissions can be calculated.
For the warehousing process it is assumed that for scenario 1 the bin is not moving. Therefore it just uses the
energy of the heating system for the warehouse, not of the operating system. Different values are given for an
energy use per m² for warehouses. They consists of heating and operating. In this case the heating takes place by
natural gas. In Table 2 the data for the warehouse process are given. For all operations in the use phase the lifetime
is set to 6 years. The days of operation are 250 days/year.

Table 2. Data for the warehousing process.


Data Value Source
Energy consumption per area 80 kWh/m² [14]
Conversion factor natural gas->CO2e 0.247kg CO2/kWh [15]

It is assumed that 50% of the total energy use of a warehouse is for heating, if the heating system is natural gas,
the emissions can be calculated. In the shelf up to 6 bins can be batched together. A factor of 2 is used for handling
space. The internal transport takes place by forklifts. They carry the bins from the source to the sink. 167 bins are on
a Euro-pallet. The distance is 1 km, the average speed is 5 km/h and the energy consumption per hour is 4.5 kWh
[16].
Kanban-bins are as well transported to a logistics provider to be filled up with the consumed material. In this case
the warehouse of the logistics provider is 10 km away from the company. The bins are transported daily. Together
with the weight of the bin and the specific emissions factor of the truck the emissions can be calculated. After
lifetime the bins are conditioned fur further use. This process needs energy for sorting, grinding and re-granulating.
The energy use is given by 750 kWh/t [17].

3.3. Results of the life cycle assessment

With these data the life cycle assessment can be carried out. For a conventional PP-bin the emissions are given in
Figure 2. The total emission is 11.9 kg CO2e/bin. 66% are emitted during the 6 years-use phase. The production
process inclusive the forming needs 32%. Transportation and the process to re-granulate the plastics can be
neglected. If the conventional bin is used in the process; transportation, the use-phase and the re-granulate phase will
stay the same. Less polypropylene is used.
So there is a decrease in the emissions during the production process. The decrease in energy of the production of
the polymers is about 25-30% [7]. Because the highest emission is during the use-phase the total savings are just
4%. Other authors report a decrease in the emissions of 50% when using a biodegradable polymer [17]. The life
time emissions of low density polyethylene LDPE is about 4 kg CO2e/kg, the emissions of the biodegradable
polymer starch-bionelle compound is about 2 kg CO2e/kg. This covers the production and recycling phase but not
the use-phase.
Ingo Gestring / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 237 – 242 241

Fig. 2. CO2 emissions over lifetime for a conventional PP-bin.

4. Conclusions

Life time assessment of even simple products are difficult to perform. A lot of assumptions are necessary, a lot of
data have to be collected. Comparing results is difficult if system boundaries change. In the life cycle assessment of
a Kanban-bin the use phase has the highest impact. The emissions can be reduced by using sunflower granulates
during the production phase. An even higher impact has the total recycling of the plastic. The polypropylene-
sunflower-hulls bins can be recycled 5 times without any major changes in the properties. This reduces the
emissions during the production phase.

Acknowledgements

This article was possible due to the students from the 2nd Skoda Auto Uni Summer School “Green Solutions for
Business and Industry” and students of my ‘Sustainable Supply Chain Management’ class at the HTW Dresden.
„Green Solutions for Business and Industry“ was funded with the support of the European Union under the
programme „Erasmus+“, project registration number: 2014-1-CZ01-KA203-002096

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