Sustainable Manufacturing in China

Siegfried (Sustainable Technologies), Kuan, and I (both Engineering) took the bus  early in the morning to Shanghai (ca. 2.5h, surprisingly much leg room) to attend the  international trade fair IFAT CHINA 2008 (http://www.ifat-china.com). Arriving at Shanghai South Bus Station, we found a taxi which offered a reasonable price. At this point Siegfried and I were very happy that Kuan speaks Mandarin otherwise we might have been lost already. However, after a 40 minutes taxi ride through Shanghai (very impressive) we finally arrived at the exhibition centre.

A range of sustainable solutions, latest technologies and a wide range of services in diverse fields of environmental protection were presented at the exhibition. Moreover, the adjacent scientific programme was of high quality, in particular the Sino-German Business Day, with high-caliber speakers:

Global environmental solutions were presented and discussed at IFAT China

“From Corporate Responsibility to Green Business Leadership – The Role of Eco-Efficiency in a Competitive Global Market”, Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Former Federal Minster for Environment in Germany

“The Current Situation, Challenges and Strategy of Cleaner Production in China, NDRC”, Zhao Penggao, Director, Environmental Protection Division, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)

Full programme available at: http://www.ifat-china.com/en/Accompanyingprogram2008

Ningbo, 20 September, Theme 1: “Development of Industrial Design and Enterprises.”  The event was opened by a representative of the municipal government, emphasising that Ningbo needs to move from a purely manufacturing-based to a knowledge- and design-based economy. For that reason the municipal government supports several industrial design parks in Ningbo, whilst learning from countries world-wide.

Zhu Tao, the director of China Industrial Design Association, outlined the importance of combining academic studies, research and industrial production to strengthen China’s innovative power. In that context he highlighted the risk of inefficiency and mentioned that it is hard to find good examples for such collaboration. He highlighted the importance of cross-border cooperation with universities to provide better training for Chinese students and with industry to gain from foreign experience.

Next was an interesting presentation of Toshiyuki Kita, former chair of the judging committee of the Good Design Award, Japan, which unfortunately was only translated from Japanese into Mandarin… admittedly neither of mine is good enough yet to give any details.

Finally Francois Lenfent, the global design manager of America GE medical treatment, provided an overview on the global approach to design and innovation within GE. He stressed the importance of learning within innovation, touching the lead-user concept, and using and utilising existing developments in novel ways. Like the famous Peter Drucker he stressed that innovation is not realised by individuals but through organisations and their cultures. Finally Leufent mentioned that GE nowadays not only focuses on quality but also on green aspects of their products and that the company has launched various eco-friendly initiatives.

After the formal presentations I managed to have a very interesting chat with Francois Lenfent (we seemed to be the only European attendees on that day) about the wide field of sustainable manufacturing in general, but more interestingly within certain parts of GE.

Professor Chris Rudd, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham visited the Nottingham Ningbo Campus from 19 to 23 September 2008. Personally carrying out research in the area of composite materials manufacture, he recognises the importance of sustainability within the manufacturing domain.

I was very happy to join Professor Rudd visiting a range of research institutions and industrial companies in and around Ningbo on Monday 22/09/2008 (see below for a programme overview). I was very impressed by the existing facilities, even more so by the envisioned developments.  During the meetings with the Chinese partners it became clear that they consider sustainability as an important aspect of their progress.

In the early evening I had the chance to discuss our research activities within sustainable manufacturing with Professor Rudd, giving me some very constructive feedback and good ideas.

Programme for Monday, 22/09/2008:

CSET - A beautyful lady

The official opening of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET)was held on 20 September – CSET is designed to serve as an exemplar building, demonstrating state-of-the-art techniques for environmentally responsible, sustainable construction and energy-efficient internal environmental control.

http://communications.nottingham.ac.uk/News/Article/Towards-a-sustainable-future-in-China-the-UK-and-beyond.html

http://www.nottingham.edu.cn/news.php?n=221

Dr Kuan Yoong Chan, a colleague from the Engineering division, and I have visited the Ningbo Institute of Technology (NIT) located in the Zhejiang University (http://www.nit.net.cn/index.jsf).  Zhejiang University opened in 2001 and is located in walking distance to the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China.

After a warm welcome by the foreign affairs officer we were introduced to the dean of mechanical engineering and her team. A brief introduction of both UNNC and NIT followed, before discussing specific research areas in more detail.

Architecture on NIT campus

This was followed by a lab tour, which showed that some of the machines are used for commercial production. It was agreed that we will invite the NIT engineers to pay us a return visit and that we exchange ideas with regard to energy efficiency in production exploring the possibility of a common research project.

Welcome to the „Sustainable Manufacturing in China” blog! The blog aims at giving insight into the work of the Division of Engineering at The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China (UNNC). We would like to introduce you to our activities related to the area of green production. We will try to present ongoing research projects, industrial collaborations and so on. This blog will feature interviews, podcasts, videos, and other relevant postings. Moreover, we hope it can serve as a place for exciting topical discussions. We are looking forward to your comments, feedback, or other contributions.