HP Says Quality Management is Both Green and Gold

In an interesting document from 2010, Hewlett Packard (HP) touches on quality management in a larger discussion about chemical monitoring in a supply chain -- towards compliance with custom Restricted Substances Lists (meaning, specific to a single company) and broader lists such as those restricted under REACH, RoHS and WEEE. Quality management for this discussion is an initiative for manufacturing product management with four primary elements: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement.

HP addresses the quality piece by saying that quality management solutions are essential to compliance. "A manufacturer must ensure its suppliers have control processes in place that DO NOT allow non-compliant material to enter the manufacturing process," says the company.

Here's the company's restricted substance historical timeline:

Image courtesy of DTSC.gov

Designing for the environment is apparently a greener approach for the company in more ways than one.  While everyone secretly hopes that someday environmentally-nurturing business will be the most economically sensible, HP seems to think they've got it.

"Environmental responsibility is good business," said former HP CEO Mark Hurd. "We've reached the tipping point where the price and performance of IT are no longer compromised by being green, but are now enhanced by it."

Interbrand is a leading global brand consultancy recently introduced a listing of the 50 Best Global Green Brands, and HP placed fifth overall after Toyota, 3M, Siemens and Johnson&Johnson. Businesses were ranked based on consumer perceptions of environmentally sustainable activities in the ten largest global markets and actual environment performance secured through publicly available information and data, says the press release.

(An aside to our gentle readers: Interbrand is essentially a marketing agency; we haven't researched the relationship between Interbrand and HP; nor do we know how the marketing company conducted their research.  Although it would not be a huge surprise to see HP in the top 50, say, of a "listing of best global green brands," it's important to mention that many consultancies will do anything to get the attention of the large brands with deep pockets.  Top n lists are one of the easiest ways to get attention, right out of Marketing 101.  Nothing wrong with it, in fact we've done a few Top 10 lists ourselves -- for example here and here and here -- however, in the case of buddying up with a Fortune 500 company, a Top 50 list should be seen for what it is: a marketing document, and not the strain of scientific research you'd want to launch a rocket on.)

(Frankly, when I think of HP I don't think of a green brand at all, as I might with Timberland and Whole Foods.  With HP I think of a powerful laptop that I own, which is riddled with bells and whistles designed to upsell at every possible opportunity.  In short, I think of good technology, excellent value, and annoying partnerships.)

Steps to green:  Restricted Substance recovery program  The short version of HP's notable supply chain steps & progress program are seven key points.  The steps involve:

1. Risk-based country, site & partnership assessment
2. Partnership-oriented engagement & auditing
3. Hundreds of audits surface root causes
4. Supplier, worker & gov’t capability building
5. Coalitions & multi-stakeholder initiatives
6. Local solutions with NGOs
7. Transparency

Here's how the company articulates keys to minimizing environmental impact through materials innovation:

1. Reducing materials use (dematerialization)
2. Materials substitution
3. Eliminating materials of concern
4. Innovative and recycled materials

The quality management package for restricted substance management and green product development is what HP calls the "Hewlett-Packard Approach."  It can be distilled to four keys:

1. Cross-functional team with senior sponsorship
2. Worldwide product transition
3. Engage with suppliers early
4. Drive industry standardization

As for success factors going forward, HP suggests that government should balance public policy goals with harmonization and clarity -- which would likely allow for effective global compliance programs. Following that, pragmatic and effective enforcement can likely follow, and is recommended.

TSCA right ahead?  The benefits of certainty, consistency, quality and testing  For manufacturers and their suppliers, HP suggests creating certainty around a long-term roadmap, consistent requirements, interpretations and testing -- and pushing compliance management upstream.  The creating certainty around a long-term roadmap point is particularly interesting.  Image how much more likely all companies would be -- including suppliers -- if we had some idea what would be expected of us 5 years from now?

For all its foibles, REACH regulation at least does that: provide a road map and some certainty around expectations.  RoHS and WEEE also.  We'll see about TSCA, so far the state-level Propositions, bills, laws, initiatives, proposals, standards and restrictions have not been altogether inspiring, clear, or effective.  HP's vision, however, is getting closer to those things year by year.  Kudos.

More, here and in color, from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.