A very interesting approach to greener manufacturing can be found here. VirTex Assembly Services, an electronic manufacturing services company in Austin, USA, changed from a 5 day week to a 4 day week, increasing the daily worktime from 8 to 10 hours. The benefits have not been quantified yet, however, following gains are expected in terms of the environment:
- less fuel consumption of employees driving to work
- energy saving in the PCB assembly: no powering up of the reflow ovens, savings on airconditioning in the manufacturing area.
In addition, the company has noticed an improvement in productivity and employee morale.
