Eco-efficient and eco-effective manufacturing systems

The latest increasing economic crisis, the high growth of uncertainty and competition together with the increase of customers’ demands and consequently material usage makes harder to satisfy their needs and gain competitive advantage among competitors in todays market. In addition to this, increased use of scarce resources, limited number of raw material sand inefficient energy usage motivate companies to look for new ways or methodologies in order to increase their efficiency and effectiveness and become more productive, competitive and within the market. For these reasons companies aim at manufacturing their products in a sustainable way, developing strategies that allow them to use less resources, produce more and be effective in a market. Moreover, not only do they concentrate on being effective but also try to gain social, environmental and economic benefits and manufacture in a right way towards sustainable production. The approach of manufacturing in an eco-effective and eco-efficient way represents the main competitive leverage to achieve these goals. Discovered in the last decades and still being in a process of development these are the management models of many companies, guaranteeing success in their businesses. This Thesis illustrates, through the analysis of different articles, books and publications, the implementation of the eco-efficient and eco-effective principles; the influences and changes occurred after the execution of these principles; consequences, benefits and disadvantages caused. The analysis has been conducted through the literature review and lasted during a six months period. The aim of this work is to define eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness, estimate how to apply either one or both approaches in a company, analyse if one is better than another and if so explain why. Define what the main similarities and differences between eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness are. The analysis of the implementation of some eco-effective and eco-efficient initiatives would be illustrated highlighting the main difficulties and critical factors of success in the example of some companies in the following sections.