Assessment of sustainable production practices. The case of company from metal industry

Abstract

Production activities of companies significantly impact society and environment. It is high time to re-think many of industry’s practices and to change manufacturing processes in a way that allow the company to increase its competitiveness, while at the same time help to achieve sustainable growth. The sustainable production is a concept that is able to strengthen such transformation. The aim of this paper is to present empirical evidence of implementation of the sustainable production practices in the selected company from metal industry. The principles of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (LCSP) are used as a model to assess the main aspects of sustainable production in practices of the company. Empirical evidence shows that in each of the analysed issue some practices have been implemented, however there were identified some deficit areas. Therefore, at the end of the paper the improvements actions were proposed that could be implemented in the analysed company as part of the sustainable management programme.