1.0 Introduction
Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) is a highly innovative and reputable automobile producer in the world. The company is very specialized in developing and manufacturing innovative vehicles with futuristic design. It aims in shaping the future of automotive industry. BMW is very successful in incorporating its advanced technologies and engineering solutions to overcome sustainability challenges(Toffel, Hill&McElhaney, 2003). Its light-weight materials allows BMW cars to be more energy-efficient. In addition, it is also very ambitious in developing more electric vehicles to replace its standard gas-power cars. Electricity is a much cleaner energy as compared with gasoline, diesel and other traditional fossil fuels. Fossil fuels will generate more toxic air pollutants and greenhouse gases. The latter is a dominant factor that leads to global warming and extreme weather condition. So far, by the end of 2020, BMW’s mission is to “become the world’s leading provider of premium products, services for individual mobility (BMW group, 2012). it shows that BMW is more targeting at the high-end market in which customers are less price-sensitive and care more about the quality of the products. Meanwhile, BMW is also concerned about environmental sustainability and social responsibility very much. In 2014, BMW becomes the most sustainable “premium manufacturer in the automotive industry” (BMW Group, 2014). In this report, both direct and indirect sustainable challenges will be clearly identified. Besides, how BMW manages to overcome these challenges through engineering solutions and principles will be explained in details. In addition, environmental costs as compared with the total revenues will be discussed and evaluated in this report.
1.0 Direct Sustainable Challenges
BMW faces sustainable challenges within the organization itself. Employees are the most important intern stakeholders of BMW. However, due to the rapid process of globalization, employees from different cultural or national background often have to work together in production activities. Very often, employees in the workplace are not developed with sufficient inter-cultural sensitivity. According to Bennett’s cultural model, people may have the problem of cultural denial, defense or superiority(Bennett, 2017).. In the long run, when people are becoming ethno-centric, it would be difficult for them to have effective cross-cultural communication with those from different cultural groups. If employees cannot accept and respect cultural differences, BMW will suffer from low productivity(BMW, 2018). Even worse, workplace stress may increase among employees. Workplace stress can be defined as conflict between job demands on the employee and the amount of control which the employee has over meeting those demands (Greenberg, 2004). In other words, high demands and low control at work will result in stress. Stress can have negative impact on a company or an organization. It will lead to high turn-over rate, low job satisfaction, bad reputation, bad employer-employee relationship. It creates direct challenges in BMW’s future sustainability.
2.0 Indirect Sustainable Challenges
Moreover, BMW also faces indirect sustainable challenges mostly occurring in protecting environment. For instance, Bush fires in Australia this year shock the world. Approximately 27 million acres of land and forest are suffering from the uncontrollable wildfires. So far it has destroyed 2,500 homes and killed nearly 1.25 billion of animals(Resnick, Irfan and Samuel, 2020). Many environmental scientists point out that the widespread fire is attributed to global warming. In fact, as early as in 2015, United Nations Development Programme states that all UN member states and private sectors should take prompt actions to end poverty and protect environment through attaining 17 sustainable development goals(UNDP, 2015). The 13th goal stipulates that all countries should take climate action to prevent global warming. The release of Greenhouse gases especially CO2 is the root cause in leading to global warming and extreme weather condition. Therefore, the potential indirect sustainable change is to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission.
3.0 BMW’s corporate social responsibility practices and engineering solutions
BMW attempts to overcome its direct sustainable challenges through being a large supporter of accepting cultural difference and diversity in the company. According to BMW’s sustainability Value report 2018, BMW aims to strictly oppose any forms of racial discrimination and incorporate cultural diversities within the company(BMW, 2019). It so far participates over “100 international cultural events or projects” in the past 40 years(BMW, 2019).. BMW also trains its employees to develop intercultural sensitivity. Employees from different cultural background are often mixed together within a work group. They have to learn about cultural taboos, habits, important festivals, dinning courtesies, etc, from one another. Through developing cultural awareness, BMW’s employees can adapt to different cultures very easily. It is not difficult for employees to communicate and work with people from different cultural background.
In addition, in order to overcome indirect sustainable challenges, BMW is also effectively in fulfilling the social responsibilities through engineering solutions. One engineering solution is to reduce waste, energy consumption, carbon emission, etc, in all manufacturing activities. For instance, in order to reduce waste and carbon footprint, BMW insists in using recyclable materials in its production process. According to BMW’s sustainability report, BMW has a green manufacturing process. For example, originally, the BMW plant in South Africa, has a production capacity of 300 cars per day (BMW, 2017). However, the production is mostly powered by fossil fuels which is non-renewable. The consumption of traditional energy types will also generate toxic air pollutants. Only 2% of the energy consumption is from renewable energy sources. In order to make the manufacturing process greener, BMW decides to use solar energy, winder energy and together with the biomass of neighboring farms to supply energy and replace coal-burning power(BMW, 2017). As such, the amount of air pollutants and GHGs are reduced very significantly.
Furthermore, BMW also produces eco-friendly cars in order to attain the environmental conservation and sustainability goals. For instant, recently, BMW has unveiled its brand new i3 electric car series. The new products are designed to provide a Zero emission solution. Like the aforementioned, standard gas-powered cars will generate heavily air pollution and lead to the potential environmental problem of global warming. As part of BMW’s CSR practices, the company believes that electric cars would be a good alternative to traditional vehicles and promote environmental sustainability in the long run.
4.0 Sustainable Engineering Principle
One major sustainable engineering principle in BMW’s green manufacturing process is lean operation. Lean is an engineering principle that emphasizes on reducing wastes in the production(Cusumano, Nobeoka&Kentaro, 1998). . In some sense, lean operations can be understood as preserving the value of products without less work. Generally speaking, lean operation is about increasing production capacity and efficiency with less time, inventory, space, labor and other critical resources. In order to conduct lean operations, BMW has a Just-in-time or JIT process. A part of the intermediate product is processed immediately and then transferred to the next operation. Through eliminating waste procedures in the manufacturing, BMW can reduce production time, energy consumption and improve productivity in the whole process. Another example is that . BMW engineers in Tiexi Plant in the Chinese city of Shenyang are able to remarkably reduce the plant’s energy consumption, despite the fact that temperatures in Shenyang range from +35 °C in the summer to -35 °C in the winter(BMW, 2017). The plant installs thermal wheels, a heating facility, to deliver sustainable heat in winter months. Besides, all components of vehicle bodies are assembled on site. In this way, no additional CO2 will be released to the environment.
5.0 Environmental Costs V.S total revenue
Fig 1: Table of Pollution abatement expenditures
As shown in the fig 1 above, the pollution control expenditure in the transportation category is about 0.33. In other words, the environmental costs should be more than one third in the total sales revenue of a company in order to be above average.
In the five-year overview of BMW’s sustainability indicators, the total revenue in 2018 is registered as 97,480 million Euros. However, the environment expenditure is about 37.242 million Euros(BMW Group, 2019). In other words, the environmental sustainability expenditure as part of total sales revenue is calculated to be 0.382 above industrial average. It shows that the environmental sustainability approach and CSR strategies employed by BMW is highly effective. However, some costs are certainly overlooked in the table below. Sustainability is not just about environmental sustainability. Like the aforementioned, BMW is also investing heavily in reducing cultural diversity and gender discrimination. For example, BMW spends about 10 million euros each year in promoting corporate citizenship within the company. The above-mentioned costs should also be contributed to the total sustainability costs in BMW’s business operations.
6.0 Conclusion
In general, BMW has achieved extraordinary performances in promoting sustainability in its production and business operations. It manages to overcome both direct and indirect sustainable challenges. Through implementing lean operations, green manufacturing processes and other engineering solutions, BMW is able to reduce waste in production, reduce energy consumption and eventually reduce the emission of air pollutants and GHGs. BMW”s social responsibilities and sustainable practices can certainly be linked to real world sustainability challenges. In fact, all companies in the automotive industry should learn a precious less from BMW in promoting social and environmental sustainability.
Reference
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