Drink to this

Development in society depends on the commitment and contribution from all sectors. So it is for an enterprise, which needs widespread support in its own community.

Jinan Pepsi-Cola Beverage Co Ltd, a four-year-old facility built by the global drink giant, understands the notion, practices it, and has seen tangible results.

Its encouragement and support to workers' efforts in individual innovation has helped the company reduce costs and become more efficient, as well as contribute to environmental protection.

This June, the bottling plant was given a sustainable development award by PepsiCo China, top among its 20 company peers, for efforts in energy conservation and environmental protection.

"It should be an award for every employee of Jinan Pepsi-Cola, because all of them regard themselves members of our family and have made efforts to contribute to the factory," says Andy Lu, general manager of Jinan Pepsi-Cola.

"To inspire staff enthusiasm, we have different innovation strategies," he says.

"We installed achievement bulletin boards to publicize energy consumption targets and help staff members understand the importance of conservation and emission control," Lu says.

In the 50,000-sq-m bottling plant in the capital of East China's Shandong Province there are also numerous motivational banners and an innovation hall of fame.

"Staff opinions and suggestions about energy and the environment are vital to executives, even those from new employees. We discuss them and if the suggestions are useful, the employee will receive awards of both a bonus and recognition," says Lu.

"Workers at our factory are finding ways to improve their efficiency as well as reduce costs," he adds.

Employees carry notebooks to record the problems they find and the solutions they think of during production. Their improvements and innovations are widespread in the plant.

"Many factories can purchase the most advanced facilities just by spending money. But not all factories pay attention to economy in saving to achieve energy conservation and environmental protection at the lowest cost," says Lu.

Innovation

Li Zhiyong, a worker in the engineering department of Jinan Pepsi-Cola, developed software during his spare time that collects information on all energy use, then calculates and analyses changing consumption.

"Using his program, we can quickly find out the accurate locations of problems," says Lu. "For example, using previous software, we only knew the electricity consumption of a certain workshop was much too high. His software can tell us whether the offender is the lighting or refrigeration."

In the repair shop simple yellow or red cards are displayed by workers at any moment to signal the exact place of problems and call in servicing in time.

"We have a very successful management using working teams from different departments that can tie in together freely for a certain project. With encouragement, support and due credit, every employee has the opportunity to show their potential," says Lu.

He tells China Business Weekly that the energy utilization team has been the star in PepsiCo China. "By putting energy saving tips from daily work into production, the team has saved a lot of costs for our company."

"My team members and I noticed that in the packaging product line, suspended production at lunch time led to a temperature decline of the machine. When we started the production in the afternoon, it needed a lot electricity to warm up," says Dong Haoqing, leader of the team.

"Thinking of a peddler's technique of maintaining the temperature of ice cream by covering it with quilts, we spent a week to make a heat conservation box with our own hands. After a month's testing, the simple invention helped the product line save 5 percent of energy consumption," says Dong.

In two months time, Dong and his team also customized equipment to produce both polyethylene terephthalate bottles and soft drink cans.

"Their invention helped our company save almost 4.2 million yuan because we didn't have to buy new equipment," says Lu.

Energy achievements

PepsiCo China has water saving as a key target during production. "Our experience is to reduce consumption first, then recycle," says Tai Xiangmei, vice-president in charge of public affairs of PepsiCo China.

"On average water consumption per production unit has been reduced by half compared with three years ago and the total energy used has been cut by 40 percent," says Tai.

"Jinan Pepsi-Cola has invested in total 90 million yuan to introduce the most advanced energy-saving production equipment in the world. Last year, we decreased energy use by 24 percent from 2005 and reduced water consumption by more than 100,000 tons," says Lu.

"In 2005, we won sixth place in energy conservation for PepsiCo International. In 2007, we promise a another decrease of at least 6 percent in water and 8 percent in electricity use," he says.

According to Lu, Jinan Pepsi-Cola recycles 100 percent of bottle-washing water.

"To save water most drink bottling plants sanitize bottles using non-water technologies ," he says. "But if we can recycle 100 percent of the water, why should we choose a technology that takes a great deal of electricity and produces carbon dioxide?"

When the factory was built, Jinan Pepsi-Cola invested 5 million yuan in an underground waste water disposal facility.

The Jinan government inspected the industrial drain system in 2006 and said Pepsi-Cola was a model for waste treatment in the city.

"Walking around the plant, one doesn't realize he is at a production facility judging from the fresh air and clean water with gold fish in it," says Tai, vice-president of Pepsi-Cola China.

(China Daily 09/10/2007 page6)