Intelligent Manufacturing

MMC has been committed to reducing CO2 emissions throughout its factories, offices and sales bases worldwide for many years.

The last Group Environmental Vision (2010) identified the aim of maintaining a reduction in CO2 emissions of a minimum of 20% compared with 1990, whilst the current Plan (2020) sets a target of a 20% reduction in comparison with 2005. In order to achieve this the company will continue to raise the energy and operating efficiency of all plants and facilities, as well as introducing renewable energy usage though such means as solar power generation.

Thinking outside the box

In North America MMNA has played an active part in the Illinois prairie restoration project - reviving a growing area of natural prairie around the factory.

At our Nedcar factory in Holland (Manufacturing and assembling Colt and Outlander) we employ a shepherd and sheep. The sheep trim the grass around the factors rather than use traditional tractors. In addition people move around the factory courtesy of company bicycles. The factory also recycles the heat from its paint ovens, saving over 50% (1,800 tonnes) of CO2 per annum and even has almost no electric lighting – after all, production line robots work just as well in the dark.

This means that CO2 emissions for every single vehicle produced at this plant have now been reduced by an impressive 27 per cent. NedCar now uses only solvent-free paints, reducing emissions per car by an incredible 61 per cent. It is considered to be one of the best such results across the European car industry.

Even drinking water waste at the plant has been reduced by 44 per cent and pre-treatment and waste-water cleaning has reduced heavy metals in the water by a staggering 76 per cent – so much so that the water can be placed straight into the normal sewerage system.

And it goes back a long way too. NedCar has been meeting ISO 14001 standard EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) since 1995.

At Mitsubishi Motors Australia a tree is planted alongside the test track for every corporate vehicle sold to the South Australian state government - to date well over 50,000 trees have been planted.

At the Shenyang engine plant in China the mass planting of Yoshino cherry trees is open to viewing from locals during blossom time.

In Japan the appropriately named Pajero (Shogun) forest is a three-hectare area where MMC volunteers are working to conserve and cultivate Japan’s declining forest and woodlands.

We call this intelligent Motion.

Reducing hazardous substances

MMC has eliminated the use of environmentally hazardous substances, for example mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium in vehicles and are working on eliminating the use of lead by such means as stopping the use of lead in bearings and bushes and introducing lead-free solder in electronic components.

We call this intelligent Motion.

Reducing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Mitsubishi’s effort to reduce VOC emissions has focused on a major revision of painting methods. Batch painting a base colour saves paint; new painting methods, the use of lower quantities of solvent for cleaning the paint guns and improving recovery rates for washing thinners have made significant contributions. We are continually switching our paint shops to efficient and eco-friendly water-based painting methods.

We call this intelligent Motion.

Recycling

Mitsubishi factories around the world are working towards zero landfill waste (0.1% or less) from production with virtually all metal scrap, waste oil, glass, ceramics, plastic, paper and wood shavings being recycled either within or outside the plants.

All vehicle models on sale in Britain are at least 90% recyclable and Mitsubishi is continuing to build the easy recovery of copper-containing parts into the design of new models - a process fundamental to the recycling of high quality scrap metals.

We call this intelligent Motion.

Automation and efficiency

High-efficiency equipment is more precise, leading to less waste.

For example, new machines used for the panel bonding process in the Nedcar factory are so accurate that they have reduced sealant waste by 30% - this equates to 120 tonnes in a full-production year.

The increased use of automation also has a major effect on energy saving: automated lines have little or no need for artificial lighting so we can turn the lights out in our plants. Automated lines are also more precise when starting up and stopping production lines thereby not wasting energy unnecessarily.

We call this intelligent Motion.