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which are therefore the most difficult to reutilise. The R&D director recognises that it is
difficult to give precise details of the competitive effects of the new regulation. In fact, he
is of the opinion that all direct competitors will adapt to the requirements. For this reason
it does not believe that the regulation will result in significant advantages.
The company has implemented various actions to comply with the new regulation’s
stipulations. The most specific are technological changes whose objectives are to avoid
the use of lead in the clutch. The company has also implemented other measures, such
as the distribution of written documents, the implementation of processes to identify the
regulatory requirements, the publication of environmental reports, as well as the
assignment and training of human resources in environmental issues. In terms of
obstacles to the new regulation’s application, the R&D director mentions the complexity
of the technological change needed to adapt the company to its requirements as regards
eliminating prohibited materials. To conclude the evaluation of the new regulation, the
company is almost completely adapted because it had already worked on compliance
with the European directive. In relation to the role of the public authorities, the principal
demand is for them to be stricter in enforcing compliance with the regulation at other
companies.
We then evaluated the importance of the incorporation of the new regulation in the
company’s manufacturing strategy. The environmental protection objective is at a level
similar to other more classic ones, such as quality, costs and delivery time. The
company is in fact currently investing heavily in environmental protection. Examples are
the changes in structural manufacturing decisions being made to adapt to compliance in
this area. Significant technological innovations have been made. Technological change
has also affected the plant layout, which has been modified as new technologies have
been introduced. The natural environment has also influenced relations with suppliers. In
some cases long-range agreements have been made in the purchasing contract.
A greater environmental involvement linked to infrastructural manufacturing decisions
has also been noted. The company is using Design for Environment (DfE) for new
products. Environmental training for employees is considered important too, and, based
on ISO 14001, has been implemented in modules, in cascade, at various levels within
the company. The plant of VALEO in Madrid is certified to ISO 9001 standard but it is not
of the opinion that this certification enables any better adaptation to the new
requirements. The new environmental requirements have not raised further difficulties in
production planning, although processes within the company have become more
formalised. Curiously, the R&D director is not sure whether relationships exist with
environmental groups. Environmental performance systems exist within the company
and significant progress has been made in energy consumption. Containers are used for
old products returned by customers. On the other hand, the environmental demands
have affected the company’s organisation, by the nomination of a person responsible for
the natural environment, reporting directly to the management, which interacts with the
R&D department concerning each innovation.
The trend toward remanufacturing and business opportunities resulting from involvement
in environmental issues is being studied, although it is difficult to apply due to economic,
technological and quality problems. Automotive transmission products, such as clutches,
are subject to technical fatigue, and the level of reutilisation is therefore low.
Remanufacturing requires significant changes in technology in order to obtain, already in
the design stage, less wastage in the materials, and therefore is economically unfeasible.
Additionally, we are assured that greater awareness on the part of the clients would be
needed in order to recycle components. Finally, in some aspects the company could
