Production & Logistics
Henkel operates production sites around the world. We also have administration, research and marketing sites, warehouses, and logistics centers in many countries. As a local employer and contractor, we stimulate the economic development of many regions. Efficient and modern production sites are a prerequisite for the production of high-quality branded products. The continuous improvement of our processes and structures, as well as the reduction of resource consumption and environmental burdens, are an important part of our promise of quality. This includes the worldwide transfer of knowledge and new technologies.
Worldwide Standards
Our safety, health and environment standards (SHE Standards) and our Social Standards apply to all of our sites worldwide. We carry out regular audits to ensure that our standards are properly implemented. The audits are a key instrument for identifying risks and potential improvements, and play a crucial role in the worldwide transfer of knowledge. To gain an integrated view of our regions, we are steadily expanding our audits to cover subcontractors and logistics centers as well.
We have our environmental management systems at the individual sites externally certified, if this yields competitive advantages. At the end of 2009, about 58 percent of the production volume came from sites certified to the international ISO 14001 environmental management standard.
Logistics
Our logistics planning is tailored to the nature of the products to be transported. For relatively bulky products, we reduce the transport mileage and the environmental burden by maintaining regional production sites. This applies especially to our Laundry & Home Care products, a well as to parts of the product portfolio of our Cosmetics and Consumer and Craftsmen Adhesives. More compact products with a low specific weight make fewer demands on transport, so we produce them centrally in large quantities wherever possible. Our instant and super glues, for examples, are produced at just a few production sites worldwide.
Continuous Improvements
Our production sites introduce individual measures and programs to respond to the challenges in the regions and align the company to local needs. The following are a number of exemplary projects implemented at site level through which the respective sites contribute to our focal areas.
Montgomery, Illinois, USA
Heating of office buildings with captured process heat from production. Result: Savings of about 1,750 megawatt-hours of energy per year, corresponding to about 350 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Hayward, California, USA
Detailed screening of the plant’s operations for potential improvements. Result: Changes in production planning and cleaning processes helped to cut wastewater volume by more than 15 percent and gas and electricity consumption by even 40 percent.
Worldwide: Efficiency drive
“Excellence in Site Services” program: Launch of a worldwide effort to boost the efficiency of the infrastructures at our sites. The aim is to achieve the best possible balance between quality, safety and costs. So far we have identified more than 450 individual measures in the areas of energy, maintenance, facility management;, safety, health and environment and plant logistics. Regular workshops and intensive communication ensure the rapid sharing of best practices, thus making knowledge and experience accessible on an international scale.
