Life cycle management at 3M: A practical approach

The scope of a manufacturer’s environmental responsibility increasingly extends beyond the factory gate to include customer use and disposal of products. 3M is implementing a life cycle management (LCM) process to help its more than 40 operating units meet or exceed such present and future requirements by achieving two objectives: to identify environmental, health and safety (EHS) opportunities and competitive market advantages arising from superior performance in these areas; and to characterize and manage EHS risks as well as resource and energy use throughout a product’s life cycle. The process consists of six steps leading to a life cycle matrix that organizes environmental, health and safety information at all phases, from raw‐material selection, development (laboratory) and manufacturing to customer use and disposal of the company’s products. Although a similar LCM process is used for 3M laboratories, the focus of this paper is on business‐unit implementation.