IBM Consulting Offering Helps Clients Make Products "Greener"

Ranging across products as diverse as cars, tractors, televisions, electric shavers, even food and clothing, the IBM Environmental Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) offering assists clients in analyzing every phase of a product's existence and designing it to be environmentally friendly from the beginning. This includes considering the materials used to make and package it, the energy needed to produce it, transport and use it, and designing it to be refurbished or recycled when it's no longer useable.

"Governments, environmental advocacy groups, and most of all consumers are demanding that companies do better, and designing a product from the start to be eco-friendly throughout its lifetime is the most effective way to do that." said Scott Russell country manager, IBM Global Business Services, IBM Thailand.

"As an innovator's innvator, with expertise and extensive experience, IBM offers IBM Environmental Product Lifecycle Management to help our client addressing some of environment's most complex problems with game-changing business and technology innovation".

Increasing government regulations require that companies think about the overall ecological impact of their products or face rising penalties, while more and more customers are expressing a preference for "greener" products. Both expect companies to plan for energy efficiency and proper disposal of products at end of life. In addition, the rising costs of energy and materials associated with making, packaging and selling any product can have a significant impact on a company's bottom line.

Companies that take a comprehensive approach to designing environmentally friendly products can not only avoid penalties and increase efficiency while lowering costs, but also have the opportunity to increase market share and revenue. Oftentimes, such "green" products are extensions of a brand or even support new product innovation.

IBM's Environmental PLM offering is relevant to product and service offerings across all industries, but in particular to clients in sectors such automotive, heavy equipment, electronics, and consumer products ranging from food to apparel.

Through this offering, IBM can help clients develop the following processes:

-- Design for compliance -- ensuring products meet new regulatory requirements for energy usage, material safety, etc.;

-- Design for end-of-life management - designing a product so that it is easy to refurbish and reuse or disassemble and recycle;

-- Lifecycle assessment and carbon footprint reduction - reducing the environmental impact of producing the product, shipping it, use by the consumer, and reclamation and recycling, by evaluating carbon trade-offs through the manufacturing, distribution and transportation processes.

-- Material selection -- choosing materials that are renewable, recyclable and non-toxic;

-- Packaging design -- designing packaging to minimize waste and make it lighter and easier to recycle;

-- Project delivery acceleration -- reducing the time it takes to get eco-friendly

products from the drawing board to market.

Environmental PLM joins a growing list of consulting offerings from IBM designed to help clients address CSR issues throughout their operations, including the Carbon Trade-off Modeler, the CSR Assessment and Benchmarking offerings, and Green SigmaTM.

To learn more about IBM's PLM consulting offerings, go to: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/plm/services/