Sustainable Solutions

Overview

Providing sustainable solutions to our customers is a key part of our Better World strategy. Our focus on innovation for new products and continuous improvement of our existing portfolio enables us to deliver high-quality solutions, to solve our customers’ problems.

Key priorities

1. Product innovation including piloting our PSA framework
2. Measuring the lifecycle emissions of our products
3. Delivering quality products with optimal performance to our customers

Measuring performance

We work closely with customers early in their design phase to better understand the overall environmental impact of our new products when they become part of customers’ processes and equipment. We are assessing the baseline carbon footprint of our products and developing strategies to cut down on emissions before they even reach production.

Throughout 2023, these strategies included increasing the use of recycled content in our products. We also collaborated with customers to ensure performance remained optimal, while carbon footprints were reduced. These actions help the environment by reducing waste and also significantly lowering the greenhouse gas emissions linked to producing new materials. We also evaluate new product designs to improve the end of use recycling methods which contribute to the circular economy.

We also developed a PSA framework in 2023 to help us understand and assess the sustainability performance of our existing portfolio and new products. In developing this framework, we used the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) PSA framework as a guide, to help us achieve a best practice approach to our assessment criteria. Our new framework provides the starting point for an evidence-based process, to screen emerging product regulations, embed circular and life cycle thinking, and capture stakeholder expectations that can turn into business opportunities to drive our portfolio transformation and strengthen our product stewardship.

In our Process Automation sector, we work closely with EPC companies (Engineering, Procurement and Construction), licensors and end-user customers to ensure IMI products and system designs meet their exacting process conditions, requirements and standards.

Operational excellence

In all our operations, our core objective is to consistently deliver products on time, with industry-leading quality. We have also extended this commitment to our supply chain, emphasising the importance of minimising environmental impact. In our sourcing decisions for new products, we now factor in the carbon emissions associated with component logistics.

Underpinning our commitment to product quality, 48 (94%) of our 51 manufacturing locations are certified to ISO9001 Quality Management and we are looking to increase this further.

Within our factories, we regularly review the industry acknowledged ‘7 wastes’ in lean manufacturing processes, to enhance operational efficiency. The 7 wastes approach enables us to maintain high standards for timely and quality product delivery and also prioritise efficiency and sustainability throughout our supply chain.

Our focus on operational excellence also ensures that our products are manufactured to very high standards and tolerances.

We continue to engage our people to drive continuous improvement through the identification and realisation of opportunities in several areas of our internal operations such as quality improvement, lead time reduction, raw materials, production overheads, inventory reduction, and equipment use. Lean is the methodology we use for this purpose, alongside a continuous improvement financial tracker tool to assess and monitor the financial impact of operational improvements.

Reducing machine downtime increases utilisation and lessens the need for replacement equipment. Internal excellence remains a key focus area, enabling us to reduce the resources we use and improve the overall efficiency of our plants. We aim for exceptional performance of our equipment and we can achieve this through regular checks, preventative and predictive measurements and recording follow up actions to help reduce equipment breakdowns and downtime.

Product stewardship

In our Transport sector, we follow established automotive procedures, such as Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), so we can launch robust products on time and meet customer expectations. We are now enhancing these procedures by incorporating sustainability tools, checklists and stage gates into the process. This integration is driving our teams to consider the environmental impact of our products and processes daily. Embedding sustainability into our routines helps us to meet industry standards for product quality and launch timelines, while also meet their sustainability own targets.

We primarily have to design our products to exacting standards required by design codes and customer specifications. To achieve this our engineers review and ensure the best selection of material. Whilst this often requires very specialist material (Process Automation) it is done with the purpose to enable the design life of products – often 50 years plus. This selection of materials ensures products are not removed and replaced unnecessarily (e.g. valve bodies) and discarded, rather can be used for life of the asset. By designing to high specifications, we ensure the lifecycle of the product has the lowest impact on the environment.

Supply chain

At IMI, supply chain sustainability involves the entire footprint of operations – end-toend. In the new product design phase, our engineering process now includes ESG and product compliance criteria, resulting in products made with sustainability in mind. Our new supplier selection process also continues to ensure suppliers are selected with the same ethical values that are key to IMI. Selection criteria has been strengthened this year as we demand more supply chain visibility from our suppliers.

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