陕西艺术职业学院:Can sustainability help mitigate supply chain...

Can sustainability help mitigate supply chain risk?
Posted by Alyssa Sittig on  Aug 9, 2011 in Business Strategy,Cool Products,Sustainability
Tweet1 Comment and 8 Reactions
 
Aaron LeMieux, founder and CEO of Tremont Electric, invented the nPower PEG to convert kinetic energy into useable power.
 
It took ten years for Aaron LeMieux, founder and CEO of Tremont Electric, to turn his product idea into reality. LeMieux’s product—thenPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator)—is a universal charger powered by kinetic energy. The device fits into a backpack or clips onto a belt and uses the energy generated by a person’s movement to charge handheld mobile electronics.
Not surprisingly, once the prototype launched things began moving at an accelerated pace. And as Tremont Electric began to grow, LeMieux decided to make sustainability a central part of the nPower PEG manufacturing process.
While it makes a lot of sense that a manufacturer of sustainable energy would embrace sustainability as a company value, green manufacturing is seen by some as expensive and difficult to implement. However, LeMieux found that incorporating sustainability into Tremont Electric’s strategy was ultimately an important contributor to the organization’s success.
Local sourcing + a sustainable process = a winning combination
Roughly 90% of Tremont Electric components are sourced from local companies, a decision that was made to help maintain a small carbon footprint. Even non-local suppliers were chosen with a required distance in mind to ensure the supply chain was small and manageable.
Additionally, LeMieux’s strategy is made to scale. “From day one, I always viewed nPower as an industry-making technology rather than a company-making technology,” says LeMieux. “By being able to rely on vendors and suppliers that are close to us, we’re helping to build an ecosystem that’s going to be able to allow us to develop new products in the future from our technology.”
LeMieux’s commitment to a local supply chain quickly paid off. Soon after launching the nPower PEG, a glitch with a component on the circuit board forced the company to temporarily halt sales. Although this could have been a disaster, the company’s decision to work with local vendors allowed it to resolve the issue and get back to manufacturing as quickly as possible. “It’s a lot easier to be able to jump in the car, drive over there, and point to where the problem is and what needs to be fixed,” LeMieux says.
As Tremont Electric grows, so will its commitment to local vendors, and its focus on sustainability—future projects for nPower include a wave energy converter, which will upsize the current technology to the size of a car and encapsulate it in a buoy on the water to harvest wave energy, and other applications for the military, consumer and biomedical fields.
Don’t wait to consider sustainability
For startups looking to launch a first product, there is a lot to learn from Tremont Electric—namely, don’t wait until demand is through the roof to consider sustainability.
Although it can be tempting to focus solely on costs in the beginning, working out a sustainable manufacturing strategy upfront can save money and mitigate risk in the long run. By using suppliers across town you can more easily communicate concepts with manufacturers throughout the rapid product development process, and by taking the time to think strategically, you can be better prepared to mitigate problems when they inevitably arise.
For more information
Rethinking renewable energy
US manufacturing—alive, well, and local
A story in every surface – Vetrazzo countertops
Power play

DisqusLogin
About Disqus
Glad you liked it. Would you like to share?
Facebook
Twitter
Share
No thanks
Sharing this page …
Thanks!Close
Showing 1 comment
Sort by Popular nowBest ratingNewest firstOldest first Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS
RoryKingIHS1 week ago
Great article and congrats to LeMieux et al.  Regarding the title/theme, pun not really intended, but Sustainability "by design", is inherently supply chain risk mitigation.  When new generation innovations or materials are introduced (OR when compliance forces existing products and supply chains to be redesigned) the legacy generation products and the subsequent products and services ecosystem which depended upon them become displaced. Therefore supply chain continuity is assured when the sustainable generations of products and their subsequent infrastructure/supply chains follow suit because they are keeping pace with one another.  Generally supply and demand equilibrium will balance.  For example, ROHS-compliant generation products that are often considered to fall within the broad umbrella of "sustainable" products, and brings with it a new generation of components as well.  In contrast, legacy products or products in industries who were out of scope of RoHS initially (Medical, Military...) have to contend with supply risks of a dwindling pool of components and manufacturing capability in the 'old' generation.  Besides the merits of sustainability, most should consider it a risk mitigation strategy to keep pace with today's supply chain / supply base.  Said differently, to not be sustainable poses discontinuity risks by design as well.