Design for the Environment at XEROX
The objective of the Xerox Corporation can be explained as developing a competitive advantage by increasing its environmental awareness in its operations and eventually maintaining a zero disposal level. The competition in the industry Xerox is operating in is extremely fierce that necessitates the company to differentiate. The company has considerable experience in environmental management, plus environmental protection is an increasing concern in public therefore these factors might have caused the company to reach this objective. One of the results of the increasing environmental concern is that increasingly more and more people are choosing environment friendly products and they also prefer products of companies that pay attention to environmental issues. Moreover Xerox also recognized significant cost reductions associated with this new objective. Considering these factors it seems like that the company has an appropriate goal. The strategy of the company can be classified as a differentiation strategy through responding proactively to the trends in environmentalism. However significant cost reductions are achieved with the application of this strategy and some of the attention might have focused on cost reduction also.
In order to achieve the desired objective Xerox should fully integrate the product delivery system. First of all design and manufacturing functions should be in interaction in order to develop designs and integrate remanufacturing and recycling into manufacturing They should have close relationships with their suppliers and cooperate for the design of more efficient products. One of the important aspects of the remanufactured products is that parts sh ...