Sustainable manufacturing is resilient manufacturing, for it ensures continued access to the resources – materials, knowledge, well-trained workers and a prosperous consumer base – required for manufacturing to thrive.
This link between manufacturing resilience and sustainability highlights why manufacturing leaders place sustainability at or near the top of their agendas. Industry and manufacturing account for 41% of global GDP, so production is at the crossroads of resource use and economic prosperity. To remain resilient and sustainable, manufacturers are naturally focused, therefore, on achieving more with a smaller footprint.
This focus existed prior to the pandemic and even more so now, but the pace of change has quickened, and not just on the environmental front. Action now is balanced across all three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic.
Pre-pandemic, for instance, manufacturers focused heavily on the environmental aspect of sustainability. The benefits of clean water, clean air, responsible waste management and reduced waste and energy consumption are clear. But that singular focus shifted during the pandemic. As employers faced the challenge of enabling employees to engage in safe, home-based work, social responsibility came to the forefront. Investors, meanwhile, increased their focus on rewarding companies that pursue green and social benefits in ways that reduce costs and improve financial performance – recognizing that an unprofitable company will never complete its sustainability journey.
I firmly believe that times of reconstruction always involve periods of accelerated change. It is certainly true now: the pandemic forced companies to reinvent themselves to overcome the crisis; in doing so, it accelerated their sustainability transformations. This period of reconstruction is, in fact, an opportunity for companies to rebuild with sustainability at their cores, rather than trying to bolt it on later.
This past year, 2020, has shown us without a doubt that Dassault Systèmes’ sustainable operations framework – with social, environmental and economic pillars – is the right approach. On the social front, our vision includes engaging employees through virtual experience simulations of workplace possibilities, ready access to knowledge and know-how, and increased empowerment and collaboration among teams. For environmental, we understand the power of virtual experience twins in virtual universes to mirror the real world, empowering you to imagine the best “just-in-time” solutions and products to maximize value and efficiency. On the economic front, we envision the means to enable resilient supply chains and value networks that expand and contribute to your sustainable operations.
It’s a bold, sweeping vision – but one that is available today via our business innovation platform, the key enabler and catalyst of a sustainable transformation. Adopting a platform puts both resilience and sustainability within manufacturing’s reach…today.
Contrary to outdated views, sustainability and industrial excellence are not a contradiction; they are a mutually reinforcing imperative. Lean processes are, in fact, the shortest path to sustainability, for lean always equals green. And a business innovation platform is your roadmap and enabler for the journey.
Discover how to build sustainable operations with virtual experiences
