This work was carried out in the Graphic Company of Villa Clara, constituting a small contribution to the recovery process of paper and cardboard waste as an efficient measure to achieve considerable levels of economic savings and at the same time contribute to the environmental sanitation program. For this, a characterization of the company and the system in which it is framed was carried out, as well as an analysis of the national and foreign bibliography related to the topics to be discussed. Finally, it is possible to form a diagnosis that allowed identifying the waste generated in the entity, thus improving the management of its logistics.
Introduction
The Cuban economy, despite its difficult situation, has been able to find ways to get ahead and increasingly meet customer expectations, in such a way; that products and / or services are offered that offer greater opportunities at lower costs, as well as the elimination of waste, providing quality to the processes.
The Graphic Company of Villa Clara did not constitute an exception to the previous statement, this work being one of many that are carried out daily to contribute to its efficiency and effectiveness, from the perspective of the use of waste. In correspondence with what has been raised, the present investigation pursues the objective: to make a preliminary diagnosis of its reverse logistics, as a first attempt to carry out a more complete investigation later.
Development
1- Theoretical Foundations of the work
Environmental care is closely related to all the production processes that generate waste in a company anywhere in the world. In Cuba no effort is spared to lessen the negative effect produced by dumping business waste both in rivers, in places selected for being close to the company, in the sea or in the so-called landfills.
Unlike the concept of “Logistics” that has changed and evolved over time since its establishment approximately 50 years ago, the term “Reverse Logistics” has been developing for 10 years.
Some Reverse Logistics concepts developed by different authors are described below.
• Executive Council of Reverse Logistics of the United States, the PILOT group and the REVLOG group of Europe: “Reverse logistics is the process of planning, implementation and efficient control of the effective flow of costs and storage of materials, inventories in progress and finished products, as well as related information, from the point of consumption to the point of origin, in order to recover value or ensure its correct elimination ». (Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1998).
• Pilot, 2004: “Reverse logistics is in charge of the recovery and recycling of containers, packaging and hazardous waste; as well as the return processes, excess inventory, customer returns, obsolete products and seasonal inventories, it is even advanced to the end of the product's life in order to give it exit in markets with higher turnover ”.
• Revlog, 2004: “Reverse logistics includes all operations related to the reuse of products and materials. including all logistical activities of collection, disassembly and processing of materials, used products, and / or their parts, to ensure a sustained ecological recovery. "
Waste from paper and cardboard printing is not the exception to the rule, with the company finding itself in an unfavorable situation by not applying logistics decisions that allow it to rationally coordinate the material flows of the reverse logistics processes.
That is why the economic prospects of waste are analyzed from two points of view:
a) Demand: the recovery of the waste and its reintroduction into the supply chain can become a commercial instrument for the manufacturer that enhances its image in the market, presenting itself to consumers as an environmentally aware company that manufactures products respectful with the environment, reducing waste generation and pollution levels.
b) Offer: the recovery of materials and waste involves substituting raw materials and original components for these recovered items, which generates a decrease in manufacturing costs and in the sale price of these products. The economic recovery of the waste takes advantage of the value that the discarded products still incorporate, obtaining economic profitability and competitive advantages of a sustainable nature.
1.1 Classification of waste
When the product's life cycle ends, what is known as waste appears and it is any type of material that is generated by human activity and is destined to be discarded.
Waste is defined (by Law 42/1975) as any material resulting from a manufacturing, transformation, use, consumption or cleaning process, when its owner or producer destines it for abandonment. Also residue is defined as the solid, liquid and gaseous waste product generated in production and consumption activities.
There are many types of waste obtained in different ways, which are classified according to different criteria based on their characteristics, on the materials that compose them, on the treatments to which they can be subjected or considering their origin, the latter being the classification more used (Table 1.1)
Table 1.1: Classification of Waste Types
Some objects or materials constitute waste in certain situations, while others are used. In developed countries, a large amount of waste is discarded daily, which in developing countries would be reused or remain valuable assets. Furthermore, many wastes can be recycled if the appropriate technologies are available and the process is economically profitable. Good waste management aims precisely not to lose the economic value and utility that many of them can have and to use them as useful materials.
1.2 Waste management:
The traditional treatment of waste, did not take into account or did not care about the incidence of pollutants. At present there is great concern for the environment, with which this traditional treatment has moved to a "clean" productive and social model, in which the production of waste is minimized, either by reducing its amount at source or by means of the application of treatment and recovery systems. All this can be summed up in the coefficiency principle " Producing cleaner is more profitable than cleaning." Waste management should also consider disposal techniques, treatment and storage of special waste in appropriate and safe places.
Thierry et al. (1995, 114) define the concept of Management of Recovered Products as "the management of all products, components and materials used and discarded by consumers, for which the manufacturer has any type of responsibility and whose objective is to recover so much economic value (and ecological) as possible, thus reducing the final amount of waste. ” These authors point out five options that the company can use to obtain an economic value from the waste:
a) Repair: its objective is to return the used product to operating conditions although, in general, the quality of these repaired products is usually lower than that of new products, as in the case of household appliances, electrical products and electronic.
b) Restoration: involves returning to the used product specific levels of quality (generally lower than those of the original products) and thus extending its useful life. Examples of this recovery option can be found in the civil and military aviation industry.
c) Remanufacturing: this option provides the used product with quality standards as rigorous as those of the original products, achieving lower manufacturing costs. Examples of this option are found in photocopiers, appliances, or disposable cameras.
d) Cannibalism: only a small part of the reusable components are recovered, which will be used for repair, restoration and remanufacturing options, for example: electronic components, integrated circuits, precious metals, etc.
e) Recycling: consists of recovering the material with which the out-of-use product is manufactured, to be used in the manufacture of new products. It is the best known and most widely applied option, for example: glass, paper, cardboard, cans, etc.
For their part, Fleischmann et al. (1997, 3) perform a classification according to the degree of decomposition that the product undergoes in the recovery process, considering as management options for economic recovery the reuse of the products, repair, remanufacturing and recycling.
The existing options for waste management must have as their main objective their economic recovery, so these options must satisfy certain premises:
a) That it is really a product out of use, that is, that it no longer satisfies the needs of the consumer and he discards it.
b) That they incorporate an added value that can be recovered through the supply chain.
c) That a new life cycle is obtained for the product or for any of its components.
According to these premises, perhaps it would be more appropriate not to include the repair of products as an option in waste management, in the first place, because the recovery of the waste is based on the idea of taking advantage of the value that these products incorporate and the repair activity does not recover but replaces.
Secondly, repair does not constitute a new life cycle for the returned product or for any of its components, but simply an extension thereof.
Activities that make up a logistics system
About the activities that make up a logistics system, there are several approaches; Among these, the following stand out: the approach based on the level of importance (key and support activities) enunciated by Ballou and IEFP-ISQ, and the approach based on the conjugation of activities - flows (activities associated with material flow, activities associated with flow informative and support activities) contributed by Gómez Acosta & Acevedo Suárez.
Given the need for integration imposed by logistics, systems theory becomes a valuable conception of work, since it is not possible to speak of logistics as a work element, but as a system of activities.
2. Brief characterization of the company
The Graphic Company of Villa Clara Enrique Núñez Rodríguez is located in the Central Highway Km., 295, Banda Esperanza, SC, VC. It is an entity specialized in graphic productions, inserted eight years ago in the Business Improvement.
The entity has two UEBs that are directly linked to the production process:
• UEB Flat Printing Plant.
• UEB Rotary Printing Plant.
The business object of the entity is defined as follows:
• Produce and wholesale the production and printing of graphic activity in general, in both currencies.
• Produce and wholesale national and provincial newspapers in Cuban pesos, as well as tabloids, magazines, commercial forms, books, brochures, labels, folding pages and other productions of the printing industry in any medium in Cuban pesos and convertible pesos.
• Provide service in both binding, printing and other currencies of the graphic entity, to the companies of the Ministry of Light Industry (MINIL) system and to third parties.
• Provide printing services for birthday cards, business cards and folders, to Cuban and foreign natural persons, in both currencies.
• Provide automotive transportation service, in both currencies, to the entities of the MINIL system and to third parties. In the latter case, to take advantage of the available capacities without making investments and complying with the established regulations.
• Provide e-mail service, in both currencies, to companies and entities of the Ministry of Light, using public Internet access providers, approved by the Ministry of Information Technology and the communities.
• Provide design service for productions that are printed in the company or outside of it, to MINIL entities and third parties in both currencies.
• Wholesale waste and idle material in both currencies.
• To wholesale and sell graphic articles produced by other entities of the Polygraphic Unit in both currencies.
• Wholesale graphic productions made from the cuttings of the production process according to the nomenclature approved by the Ministry of Internal Trade.
The company is immersed in providing solutions to its customers' growing problems today, both for state-owned companies and in the wholesale trade, where the entire population has access and can buy some products and / or items they need and cannot find them on the market today. or they are at high prices, since it is the self-employed who offer them.
Most graphic companies are aware of this situation, but many do not have a real diagnosis for the management of their waste in such a way that it allows them to increase the economic value of them. MINIL recently authorized the recovery of the waste; including it within the corporate purpose.
3. Diagnosis of the reverse logistics of the company
At the Graphic Company of Villa Clara, today the possibility of recovering all that scrap (paper, cardboard) that can be used and turning it into a new product to satisfy the needs of customers is being studied.
According to the aforementioned waste classification, the company's waste is found in an origin or tertiary activity sector, services, where the type of waste is urban solid.
A part of the waste that the production process contributes by the company is sold to the Raw Materials Recovery Company at very low prices, which is approximately 15 pesos per ton of paper and cardboard, in addition to not taking into account or not separating the types of waste and in this way this paper and cardboard is recycled, to turn it back into useful material.
Next, a brief description of the supply chain will be made.
There is a warehouse for raw materials (MP) and materials which receives the products (paper, cardboard, plates, inks, etc). A part of these come from the warehouses that Integración Poligráfica has in Havana, in order to carry out all the self-financed productions of the state commission, such as newspapers, books, tabloids, brochures, etc., which are contracted by the different publishers, such as: People and Education, Félix Varela, Medical Sciences, etc. The other part of the materials that the company buys are to make distinctive impressions for the rest of the organizations and companies in the center of the country, such as models, folding cards, cards, etc.
Once the PM is in the Central warehouse, the base business units (UEB) open their production orders and request the raw materials they need to make a certain product through a request.
Rotating UEB: Its process is represented in Annex 1.
Make the circulation of the Newspapers and Printing of the guts of the books. Here there is waste of paper, because when placing the reels in the printing machines, the so-called paper blankets are always discarded, which through a discount of 5% to 20% are given entry into the raw materials warehouse. Later, the UEB Flat Printing plant recovers them by passing it to the guillotine and later it is sold to the customer as converted paper.
On the other hand, those newspapers that do not meet the quality parameters required according to the standards, which have the name of (maculae), are sold to the Raw Materials Recovery Company for subsequent recycling. The newspaper distribution part is carried out by the Cuban Post Office, which is hired by the different publishers.
In other words, in this UEB there is a part of the waste that is used and becomes a new product (paper blankets, while the other is recycled (macules). UEB Flat Printing Plant: It has two workshops and the process is sample in Annex 2.
- One of the State Commission (book production).
- Other Distinctive Impressions (other commercial forms)
El taller que se encarga de las producciones de libros, Al cortar la cartulina según el formato que tiene la máquina, se originan recorrerías o residuos de este material, de un tamaño significativo, que muy bien podría ser utilizado en confeccionar otros productos, como son diferentes tipos de tarjetas, entre ellas figuras geométricas, abecedarios para los niños de educación primaria, que tienen gran aceptación y no se encuentran en los mercados. A la vez se pueden hacer otros tipos de tarjetas para fechas significativas como día de las madres, 8 de marzo, etc.
When printing a book, different sizes of paper rolls can be used, (26,28,30,33) in., Etc., but many times there is not an ideal roll size for a certain production, because the books They have different formats and many times it is the case of throwing a book that measures 14 × 21 in a 33-inch reel or, on the other hand, the books of the Cuban Book Institute and the Book Fair, are small in size and are printed in 28 '' spools When this happens and once the book is bound with all its components, when cutting on the guillotine and giving the three cuts to the book and taking it to its original design, a waste remains at the foot of the book that can very well be used in a new product, by means of a selection, since it is already gummed, and it would look like a notepad,a cookbook, or other product.
Once the books are finished they go to the finished production warehouse
and later the transportation services are provided by the Centro Trucking Companies and Serví Cargo among other transport companies which have a signed contract with the entity. This book distribution is carried out according to guidelines for the entire country.
In the distinctive printing workshop, also throughout the entire process of other commercial print productions in which there are models of all types, stowage cards, personnel cards, work agendas, labels, folding, file, etc., There are other types of scraps or smaller waste that have a greater diversity of types of paper, among which are, chrome paper, carbonless paper, bond paper that can be used for phone books, invitation cards, birthday decorations, almanacs, etc. In these productions the transportation is provided by the client.
All these new productions recovered in the production process would come out at a minimum cost, in national currency and would be available to all consumers in the different markets of the city.
The company has a customer service department, in charge of carrying out Marketing and market research work; promoting all the products and services that the entity can provide. To comply with this, strategies are applied in conjunction with the administration, preparing commercial rounds, and it is disseminated in different television and radio spaces.
In addition to carrying out this activity, the department receives and serves the client, providing offer services for what he requests and once he agrees, the contract is signed. From here, the sales manager or specialist is in charge of treating the order throughout the manufacturing process, ensuring that all the parameters of quality, storage, etc. are met, as stipulated in the contract and informing by email or phone the customer about his order.
These analyzes on the treatment of waste have already been analyzed but have not yet been materialized and put into practice. This is an option for the company to obtain economic value through recycling and a new manufacture of products based on the waste discarded in the production process.
Conclusions
- There is no procedure in the company studied that allows maximum use of waste and thus increase its economic value The use of waste paper and cardboard in products of great demand in the market, constitutes a great reduction in production costs graphics, a contribution to sales and a contribution to environmental sanitation. Bringing this entire range of recoverable products to the market would bring with it a greater offer and customer satisfaction.
recommendations
As part of the continuity of this work it is recommended:
- Implement a procedure for the logistics system, which allows developing the supply chain for waste paper and cardboard in the VC Graphic Company. Create the necessary conditions in the company to achieve the study and subsequent implementation of the procedure for the logistics system. Extend to other graphic companies the need for a study of reverse logistics for the recovery of waste.
Bibliography and key sources of information
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