Supplement 5 – The OM Blog by Heizer, Render, & Munson

OM in the News: Running a Factory on Recycled EV Batteries

Electric-vehicle startup Rivian has found an unusual power source for its Illinois car factory: old batteries from its own cars. Rivian is reusing EV batteries for energy storage—the largest repurposed-battery energy storage system for an automotive manufacturer in the U.S., says The Wall Street Journal (April 14, 2026).

Rivian’s operation will be the largest repurposed-battery energy storage system for an auto manufacturer in the U.S

Once completed later this year, Rivian’s plant in Normal, Ill., will draw electricity from more than 100 Rivian EV batteries in an area the size of a small parking lot. It will reduce Rivian’s dependence on the power grid during peak demand hours. It saves Rivian money on what it takes to run the plant.

“It reduces the demand on the grid, which is great. These batteries are already built,” said Rivian’s CEO. “We need to integrate them and connect them together, but that can happen quite fast. They don’t have to get imported from some other place.”

This is the latest example of the battery-energy storage industry boom in the U.S., where lithium-ion packs—not dissimilar to those in EVs—are increasingly used to power businesses, industrial facilities, residential zones and artificial-intelligence data centers.

The AI boom is part of what’s driving unprecedented energy demand in the U.S. Electricity prices around the country are rising so quickly that they are outpacing inflation, rising 4.5% between 2024 and 2025.

Many automakers, including Ford and GM, are retooling battery factories once meant for EVs to meet that demand, rather than let those facilities sit idle. Meanwhile, energy storage was the fastest-growing business last year for Tesla, which has long supplied batteries for residential and commercial power. The setup is expected to initially provide 10 megawatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 1,000 home-energy battery storage units linked together.

Classroom discussion questions:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Rivian’s approach?
How do other firms handle the energy demands from the AI boom?

OM Podcast #46: Logistics, Circularity & Vertical Integration at East Penn Manufacturing

In our latest podcast episode Barry Render and Misty Blessley speak with Harry Ziff, VP of Corporate Logistics at East Penn Manufacturing, one of the world’s largest lead‑battery producers. Harry shares highlights from his 37‑year supply chain career and explains how East Penn’s unique structure allows it to excel in reliability, sustainability, and customer service.

Harry discusses East Penn’s deep vertical integration, including in‑house lead refining, plastic molding, and battery case manufacturing. He also describes the company’s closed‑loop recycling system, where nearly 100% of batteries are collected, processed, and reused. The episode also dives into East Penn’s large private fleet, which enables direct‑store delivery, consistent service, and strong customer relationships.

Heizer Render Munson OM Podcast · OM Podcast #46: Logistics, Circularity & Vertical Integration at East Penn Manufacturing

TRANSCRIPT LINK
A Word document of this podcast will download by clicking the transcript link above.

Prof. Misty Blessley

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OM in the News: AI Push Is Costing a Lot More Than the Moon Landing

It’s bigger than the railroad expansion of the 1850s, the Apollo space program that put astronauts on the moon in the 1960s and the decadeslong build-out of the U.S. interstate highway system that ended in the 1970s.

We’re talking about the data centers now being built and financed by some of the world’s biggest companies in the artificial-intelligence boom. Four U.S. tech giants—Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Google—are planning to spend $670 billion to build out AI infrastructure this year alone as they scramble to increase the computing power needed to operate and scale their AI-related endeavors.

And if you compare this spending to some of the biggest capital efforts in U.S. history by percentage of gross domestic product, you can see exactly how staggering the figures are, reports The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 9, 2026). In fact, it’s dwarfed only by the Louisiana Purchase, completed in 1803, which doubled the size of the U.S. and consumed 3% of the GDP. (The AI buildout is projected at 2.1% of GDP, while railroads in the 1850s were 2%, the US highway system was 0.4%, and the Apollo space program was 0.2%).

The four companies’ capital spending has been increasing as a percentage of their annual revenue the past few years. In 2026, Meta’s spending could amount to more than 50% of its sales for the first time ever.

How is this build-out an OM issue? First, as we discuss in Chapter 2, these four companies are betting that they will attain competitive advantage by competing on low-cost and response. Second, our chapter on sustainability (Supp. 5) points out the costs of carbon footprints, which data centers generate heavily. Third, as we note in the chapter on location strategies (Ch. 8), the centers locate where power is cheap and plentiful.

As of late 2025, Northern Virginia has 64 data centers under construction, solidifying its position as the world’s largest data center market. The region hosts over 550 existing facilities. They consume massive amounts of power, comparable to the total usage of large states like Minnesota.

Classroom discussion issues:

Discuss the plusses and minuses of this massive construction trend.
What do the builders hope to obtain?

Guest Post: Rethinking the Solar Energy Value Chain Through Circularity

Dr. Yagmur Arioz recently completed her PhD at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University.

As the world gradually turns away from fossil fuels and shifts its focus toward solar energy, a critical question arises: Is the life cycle of these technologies truly sustainable? What happens to solar panels at the end of their useful life, or can we prevent waste before panels even reach that point?

The traditional “take–make–use–dispose” paradigm is no longer viable. In the context of solar energy, the circular economy must be embraced as an
intelligent system that optimizes energy fluctuations and integrates energy flows across the entire value chain, from production to consumption.

Although solar panels are often portrayed as green heroes in the fight against climate change, they still carry the risk of generating waste throughout manufacturing, installation, and operation. Overcoming this risk requires adopting the “cradle-to-cradle” approach. This vision emphasizes a value chain in which materials are continuously recovered, effectively eliminating the notion of waste and the need for disposal.

Designing components to be reusable, detachable, and upgradable requires questioning actual needs and fundamentally transforming operational models. However, because short-term cost concerns often overshadow these models, they are neglected hidden champions of the circular economy. Despite UN recommendations, uncertainties regarding the
sustainable management and circularity of solar energy continue in many countries. What is required is the establishment of common standards and the alignment of collection and recycling methodologies across countries.

Discussions on circularity in solar energy often overlook the social dimension. Yet this dimension serves as a powerful lever for
sustaining more livable societies and addressing poverty in all its forms. From China to Africa, and from certain regions of Europe to developing economies, inspiring examples of this transformation are already emerging. When circular solar energy strategies are integrated into impoverished regions, they not only provide an energy solution but also meet electricity needs through circular approaches, directly improving quality of life through access to clean water, sanitation, health, and education.

If we stopped viewing solar panels merely as technical devices and instead reimagined them as instruments of social transformation, embedded within circular economy principles, could we not address not only the global energy crisis but also structural inequality, powered by the sun itself? What may appear today as modest steps and incremental decisions may, in fact, carry the spark of a profound transformation.

OM in the News: AI Is Mining Our Trash for Treasure

Here’s a job the computers can take without much complaint: sorting recyclables. For humans, it is a foul, laborious job that entails standing over a conveyor belt, plucking beer cans and detergent bottles from a stream of refuse. The job pays little and is hard to fill.

At one recycling facility near Hartford, machines are taking over the dirtiest jobs, reports The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 8, 2026). A few workers remain on the line, mostly to watch for hazardous items. Otherwise, the system of conveyors, magnets, optical sorters and pneumatic blocks runs largely unmanned. The technology allows them to sort up to 60 tons an hour of curbside recycling into precisely sorted bales of paper, plastic, aluminum cans and other materials. The material is sold to mills, manufacturers and remelt facilities, which pay more for cleaner bales.

AI is used to instantly spot recyclables and send instructions to machinery down the line at to remove them.

Watching over it all are computers that analyze material as it passes by at 7 mph. The devices use AI to identify recyclables, flag food-grade material, gauge items’ mass, assess market value and calculate points at which a robotic claw might best clasp each piece.

The U.S. 50% aluminum tariff has lifted demand for scrap metal, while pulp mill closures have left box makers more reliant than ever on old corrugated containers. And consumer goods companies want to reclaim their bottles as states adopt extended producer responsibility laws aimed at reducing plastic pollution.

Part of the problem: Americans’ poor recycling habits are an obstacle to profit. A lot of beer cans and delivery boxes never even make it to sorting centers. A study in Virginia’s waste stream showed that 28% was recyclable, yet the system was stuck at a recycling rate of about 7% no matter how much it spent trying to teach people how and what to recycle.

The big breakthrough in recycling technology has been combining vision recognition systems with pneumatic blocks. Using puffs of air to separate items has proved much faster and more accurate than robotic pickers, which are limited to about 40 items a minute, compared with thousands for pneumatic system.

Classroom discussion questions:

Why has recycling been so inefficient?
Should job loss through automation be a concern?

Guest Post: Drinking Graywater Beer?

Prof. Misty Blessley, at Temple U., raises an interesting sustainability issue.

Every drop of water on Earth is part of a continuous cycle. The same water brewed into beer eventually travels through wastewater systems before being treated and returned to the environment, ready to be consumed again. Gray water is defined as: wastewater from showers, baths, bathroom sinks, and washing machines, excluding toilet water (blackwater) and water from kitchen sinks/dishwashers.

A San Francisco firm, Epic Cleantec, makes this cycle explicit by brewing beer with recycled graywater from showers and laundry. Buildings globally use 15% of all potable water, yet almost none reuse it. Partnering with nearby Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company, it created two beers—Shower Hour IPA and Laundry Club Kölsch, using water purified through a multi-stage system until it meets or exceeds potable water standards. Their approach demonstrates how scarce resources can be sourced in new and innovative ways.

Reusing waste water can help counteract climate change

The supply chain implications are significant. Brewing is water-intensive, requiring several gallons of water for every gallon of beer produced. As climate volatility and drought increasingly pressure municipal water supplies, integrating recycled water helps mitigate supply risk. Pairing this with drought-tolerant barley and hops further enhances supply chain resilience by mitigating upstream agricultural vulnerabilities.

Epic Cleantec’s model represents circular economy principles in action: closing loops, recapturing resources, and turning waste streams into valuable inputs. Many other food and beverage companies are embracing similar strategies. Rubies in the Rubble (UK) creates condiments from surplus produce that would otherwise be discarded. Upcycled Foods, Inc. (U.S.) produces SuperGrain flour to make bread from spent brewing grain. Planetarians (U.S.) transforms spent yeast and soybeans into a vegan meat product that is competitively priced compared to chicken and below beef.

Epic Cleantec emphasizes the circularity of its inputs to build consumer acceptance, hoping customers celebrate the closed loop. For details on the “circular economy” see Supp. 5 of your Heizer/Render/Munson text.

Classroom Discussion Questions:
1. Forecasting is covered in Ch 4 of the Heizer/Render/Munson textbook. How would you forecast demand for beers made with recycled graywater, given potential consumer hesitation?
2. TQM Tools are covered in Ch 6. Which tools should the two firms use to ensure water quality and process reliability throughout treatment and brewing?

OM in the News: Salvaging Critical Minerals From Old Laptops and Phones Isn’t So Easy

While electronic waste (e-waste) seems almost infinite, from fried computers to dormant BlackBerry phones, securing discarded tech for metals recycling can be quite tricky.

Electronic waste is dropped on to a conveyor belt during a process to harvest rare earth and other metals in France.

Recycled lithium, copper and other critical minerals can find new life in everything from electric vehicles to battery storage. The push to recycle metals in the U.S. comes amid intensifying efforts to compete with China, which dominates the critical minerals market, reports The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 1, 2025).

“It’s like urban mining,” said one industry CEO, explaining the benefits of reusing metals from old electronics and scrap waste instead of procuring it directly from the earth. “Rather than going into the mines, we go into our communities,” he said.

Collecting e-waste can be tricky because there isn’t a strong infrastructure to retrieve devices directly from homes, scrapyards, manufacturers or collection sites, and some consumers have privacy concerns when handing over old hardware that could hold personal information.

Meanwhile, large quantities of e-waste are being shipped abroad. About 2,000 shipping containers of electronic waste are sent each month from the U.S. to countries in Asia, particularly Malaysia. But the need to increase the domestic supply of critical minerals has become more urgent, as is evident in the U.S.’s near-total reliance on Chinese imports for lithium-ion batteries.

Shipping e-waste abroad rather than recycling it in the U.S. is “a tragic lose, lose, lose proposition,” said a second industry expert. “The country misses out on the value from the critical metals going to waste, as well as recycling jobs for local workers.”

Most lithium-ion batteries on the market are likely to be hazardous when they are disposed of because they could catch fire or explode if not handled carefully. The environmental footprint of lithium-ion battery recycling emits less than half the greenhouse gases of conventional mining and refinement of metals, and uses about one-fourth of the water and energy of mining.

The global consumption of lithium was estimated to be 220,000 metric tons in 2024—a 29% jump from 2023. But tech recycling in the U.S. has a long way to go. E-waste recycling collection, from relying on municipal return sites to retailer take-back programs, is irregular and fragmented, so recyclers often cannot rely on steady, predictable volumes.

Classroom discussion questions:

Why doesn’t the U.S. recycle all its e-waste?
Could AI help in recycling? (See Supp. 5 of your Heizer/Render/Munson text).

OM in the News: Methane Emissions and the Fashion Industry

Savvy shoppers looking for luxury often hunt for high-quality materials such as 100% wool or genuine leather. But these two materials are responsible for an outsize share of the fashion industry’s methane footprint, reports The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 15, 2025).

Methane traps far more heat than carbon dioxide; it’s 86 times more potent in contributing to global warming in a 20 year time frame than carbon emissions are. These carbon emissions come mainly from animals such as cows, sheep and goats belching out the gas.

Leather and wool are particularly harmful to the environment. The materials make up only 3.8% of the apparel industry, but producing them accounts for 75% of fashion’s methane footprint.

Buying a high-quality piece of clothing made of a natural fiber such as wool will last longer than a cheaper, less durable version made of fossil-fuel derived polyester. But the fashion industry doesn’t do enough to address the environmental impact of animal-derived materials.

Man-made polyester also has a major impact on the planet, particularly as fast fashion companies pump out cheap pieces to satisfy ever-evolving trends—many of which end up in landfills. Greenhouse gas emissions from clothing are ballooning. The global fashion industry is responsible for emitting about 8.3 million metric tons of methane every year, which means its footprint will amount to nearly 4 times the methane emissions released by France annually. Ultimately, shoppers are better off buying fewer pieces of clothing and shopping secondhand when they can to lower methane and carbon emissions.

Sourcing new materials is especially harmful. Producing textiles, from extracting raw materials to manufacturing, accounts for 92% of the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions overall. There is increasing anxiety about where mountains of clothing end up when they’re discarded. The European Parliament is going to adopt a new law requiring producers to oversee textile waste from clothing to blankets and curtains.

One challenge lies in fabric complexity. Most modern textiles are blends of natural and synthetic fibers—like cotton, polyester, and elastane. Yet most recycling technologies today, which are still primarily mechanical, can only process single-material fabrics.

Classroom discussion questions:

Are your students aware of the emissions from different types of fabrics?
Which is worse for the planet–polyester clothes or wool? Why?

OM in the News: How AI Consumes–and Saves–Energy in Transportation

We all know AI’s dirty secret: It gobbles up a huge amount of electricity—and spits out a large volume of greenhouse gases in the process. But what if using AI can also save energy?

AI has the potential to drastically slash energy demand across a swath of industries and cut down on their carbon emissions. And it may be so effective, writes The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 16, 2025), that it will easily balance out its own power demands and carbon emissions.

In our blog today, we discuss how AI is remaking transportation, planning routes and timetables.

AI-driven route planning has helped major U.S. freight companies cut fuel use in ground vehicles—in some cases by 5% to 10%—by simply lowering the miles they travel. The whole ground-freight industry could cut its emissions by 10% to 15% by using AI-led dynamic route optimization in all vehicles.

Getting stuck in traffic adds up to a lot of pointless emissions. AI-driven route planning has cut fuel use in ground vehicles as much as 10%.

AI can analyze traffic in real time, and is starting to get better at guiding vehicles away from busy areas, reducing the fuel wasted by stop-and-go driving. (Sitting in traffic adds up to a lot of pointless emissions: Americans wasted 3.3 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel in 2022—over 215,000 barrels a day of petroleum).

Also, e-tailers cluster deliveries together to save miles traveled. A crucial form of routing goes on behind the scenes. AI-enabled logistics predicts what goods people will be ordering, and where and when. That way, e-tailers can stock their distribution centers according to probable local demand, which means fewer miles spent on deliveries.

Further, marine freight is using AI to calculate the best times for ships to “slow steam”—lower their speed—which can greatly boost efficiency: A 10% drop in speed cuts fuel use by 20%. Improving traffic at ports can also cut down on wasted fuel. Ships burn as much as 7-10 tons a day of fuel while anchored near ports, waiting for congestion to clear. AI-assisted programs help shippers lower the waiting period by timing their arrivals at port efficiently.

The International Energy Agency says the spread of AI in the transportation sector alone could slash 900 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2035. In comparison, the agency expects emissions from data-center electricity use to rise to 300-500 million metric tons by 2035, up from 180 million metric tons today.

Classroom discussion questions:

How might AI be used in the commercial aviation industry?
How else can AI be of benefit to delivery firms like Amazon?

OM Podcast #39: AI, Sustainability, Cybersecurity, & Blockchain in Operations

We’re back with another exciting episode of the Heizer Render Munson OM Podcast! Today, Barry Render sits down with Dr. Subodha Kumar, Paul Anderson Distinguished Chair Professor at Temple University and Founding Director of the Center for Business Analytics and Disruptive Technologies.

Barry and Subodha dive into the transformative role of artificial intelligence in operations management, exploring how AI is reshaping sustainability practices, enhancing cybersecurity, and driving innovation in blockchain applications. Subodha shares real-world examples from industries like retail, dairy, and luxury goods, and discusses how AI is helping companies tackle greenwashing and improve supply chain visibility.

They also discuss the evolving threat landscape in cybersecurity, especially in logistics and supply chains, and how AI and IoT are both part of the problem—and the solution. Subodha also shares some powerful advice for students preparing for a future where AI will be central to every workplace.

Heizer Render Munson OM Podcast · OM Podcast #39: AI, Sustainability, Cybersecurity & Blockchain in Operations

Transcript
A Word document of this podcast will download by clicking the word Transcript above.

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OM in the News: Europe Tells Textile Producers to Manage Their Own Waste

Producers that sell textiles in the European Union will have to cover the cost of collecting, sorting and recycling those materials, under a new directive to reduce waste in the fashion industry. The EU is adopting a new law whereby producers will have to oversee the management of waste from clothing to blankets to curtains, reports The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 11, 2025). The directive covers the full life cycle of a product and aims to motivate producers to “reduce waste and increase the circularity of textile products,” since they will be bearing the cost of managing that waste.

The EU is looking to reduce the environmental impact of the fast-fashion industry. Some 12.6 million tons of textile waste are generated in the EU each year. It estimates that just 1% of textiles are recycled worldwide.

The law will apply to all producers, including those using e-commerce tools and irrespective of whether they are established in an EU country or outside the bloc. Smaller companies will have an additional year to comply with the requirements.

“This legislation will accelerate the move towards circular business models and more sustainable consumption,” said a recycling consultant. “The requirements will bring added costs and operational pressures for producers at a time when many are already under strain.”

Elsewhere, the EU is to set new targets on food waste. From 2031, member states will be required to reduce food waste generated during processing and manufacturing by 10%, while the target for shops, restaurants and households will be 30%. Every year, almost 60 million tons of food waste, amounting to about 291 pounds per person, is created within the EU.

Classroom discussion questions:

Supplement 5 in your Heizer/Render/Munson text introduces the term “circular economy.” What does that mean and how does it apply in this EU case?
Discuss the OM implications of this new directive? Does it impact U.S. firms?

OM in the News: The Future of Trash Pickup and AI

Americans are among the top producers of trash per capita. Each person in the U.S. disposes of nearly a ton of refuse annually. Simplifying trash day, and diverting the 80% of reusable material that still ends up in landfills, is one key to solving our problems.

Urban planners, the refuse industry and cities across the country are reimagining how we manage and dispose of our waste, reports The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 28, 2025). The New York City and MIT are among those leveraging AI, robotics and electric power to tackle a growing garbage crisis fueled by cheap products and throwaway culture.

Most of Americans don’t recycle regularly, citing the inconvenience and confusion involved in sorting their trash. To help people up their sustainability game, sanitation engineers are promoting a new system: the single-stream model. The operation is simple—residents throw everything into one trash bin. Then, that waste is transported to a remote facility, where AI-powered cameras and robots sort it, diverting items that can be recycled. The goal is to have a system that’s more circular, that can reuse and recycle things more.

AI can also identify items such as electronics that contain hazardous or valuable materials—including copper, silver, gold and rare-earth minerals—and send them on for disassembly and harvesting before they enter the waste stream.

Individual garbage bins or piles of plastic bags aren’t only an all-you-can-eat buffet for rodents—but also malodorous, leaky and inefficient, requiring endless noisy stops from garbage trucks on collection day.

To solve these problems, cities are moving toward containerization: large, centralized bins shared by a street or neighborhood. One NYC neighborhood is already piloting a program of such containers, with plans for citywide expansion in the future.

Smart bins could even ping dispatch offices when they are ready for pickup. Large collection vehicles could be used more sparingly, and with fewer stops—thus decreasing noise, pickup time and pollution. In the future, the parameters that we use could be, ‘Is it full? Or is it smelly?’ Then collection on that bin can take place only if the contents meet those conditions.

AI-optimized routing and trash-loading technologies could also help make pickups shorter, less frequent and less disruptive.

Classroom discussion questions:

How could AI be used to help recycle?
What are the major inefficiencies of most garbage collection and recycling systems?

OM in the News: The Environmental Cost of Quizzing AI

Every time you ask Google’s Gemini a query, it takes the same amount of energy as watching 9 seconds of TV. So says Google’s new report detailing the energy consumption, emissions and water use of its generative AI that users turn to every day for everything from writing tips to fact checking. A single Gemini text query emits 0.03 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent and consumes about 5 drops of water.

Microsoft plans $80B for data centers as power constraints loom

The tech giant appears to be looking to ease brewing anxieties about AI searches: that frequently using generative AI such as Gemini can be detrimental to the environment.

Global demand for AI is ramping up rapidly, writes The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 21, 2025). Electricity demand from data centers worldwide is set to more than double by 2030 to about 945 terawatt-hours, which is more than Japan’s total electricity consumption. A single AI-focused data center can use as much electricity as a small city of 100,000 and as much water as a large neighborhood. But the largest ones, that haven’t been completed yet, could consume 20 times more as much. It’s a particular problem in the U.S., with data centers making up 1/2 of its electricity demand growth over the next 5 years.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, when asked how much energy a ChatGPT query uses, responded “the average query uses about the amount an oven would use in just over one second, and 1/15 of a teaspoon of water.”

The type of query we feed to generative AI also matters, however. Energy demands can be dampened if we can remove some of that back and forth, and make our prompts a little simpler and easier to understand. Shorter, more concise prompts, along with using smaller AI models, can dramatically reduce energy use.

Tech giants are announcing many new clean-energy power agreements to fuel their AI ambitions, including Google, which recently announced new power deals from geothermal to hydropower. It also plans on an advanced nuclear reactor project in Tennessee.

It’s important for tech companies to divulge how frequently their AI is receiving queries. If it’s being used by one person, emissions are lower, but that’s different if it’s billions of people at 30 data centers across the world.

Classroom discussion questions:

Why is the growth of AI searches an OM issue?
How can this growth be contained, or minimized?

OM in the News: Polyester Is Driving Up Fashion’s Emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions from clothing companies are mounting, reports The Wall Street Journal (July 24, 2025). The spike is fueled by supercharged apparel production, as well as a mounting reliance on virgin polyester. Virgin polyester, a material made from fossil fuel-created plastic, is the latest industry trend.

Polyester now makes up 57% of total global fiber production. The market share of recycled polyester used in clothing has recently dropped, pointing out that the material costs more than its virgin counterpart.

Environmental concerns about apparel have proliferated since the arrival of ultrafast fashion companies, which churn out low-cost clothes direct-to-consumer to satiate lightning-quick trend cycles.

Activists hold banners as they gather in front of bags of textile waste delivered in Paris

Recycling clothing can be especially tricky when fibers are woven together, for example cotton and polyester, which are often blended to lower costs and provide stretch in fabric.

But consumers are growing worried about clothing shedding microplastics that could harm human health and the environment. There’s also been concern about “forever chemicals” in textiles used to make workout gear.

New technologies including artificial intelligence are helping brands to get a better handle on their clothing stock, piloting made-to-order methods that significantly reduce waste by producing only what is needed.

Some countries are taking swift action to try and blunt the harms of fast fashion. France recently adopted a bill to tax each fast fashion item €5 ($5.87 ) which will increase to €10 by 2030.

Classroom discussion questions:

Why is fast fashion an OM issue?
How else might AI be used to improve sustainability in the fashion industry?

Guest Post: Mass Timber–A Sustainable Alternative Worth a Closer Look

Temple U. Professor Misty Blessley raises an interesting point in her Guest Post

Mass timber refers to beams, columns, or panels composed of smaller wood pieces bonded together using fasteners, such as nails, or other adhesives. These engineered wood products are increasingly being used in the construction of high-rise buildings, praised for their strength, durability, versatility, and sustainability.

At a time when the U.S. is relying on steel imports to meet demand—and tariffs threaten to drive prices higher, causing delays or cancellations of some construction projects—mass timber presents a compelling alternative that deserves objective evaluation. Mass timber as a building material is gaining traction.

The Benefits:
Mass timber offers a significantly smaller carbon footprint compared to traditional materials like steel. As a renewable resource, wood supports sustainability goals, and “track and trace” technologies now enable end-to-end transparency, from forest to finished product. Notably, mass timber is reported to match steel in strength and is fire resistant. Additionally, clear-cutting practices, which involve harvesting most or all trees in an area simultaneously, allow for high productivity. Once harvested and processed, the prefabricated nature of mass timber allows for faster construction and shorter project timelines.

The Trade-Offs:
Despite its advantages, mass timber comes with concerns. Critics have raised the issue of greenwashing, questioning whether its environmental claims are justified. Also, building codes, historically designed with steel in mind, can lengthen project times because they are still evolving to accommodate this new material. Finally, while competitive, costs have been reported to be marginally higher than conventional options.

Classroom discussion questions:

In Supplement 5 of the Heizer/Render/Munson textbook, sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Consider the trade-offs of clear-cutting through the lens of environmental sustainability.

2. Seven TQM tools are discussed in Chapter 6. As a project manager of a new building using mass timber, create a cause-and-effect diagram and conduct an initial analysis of what should be considered in preparing to embark on the project. Include all of the four M’s – material, method, manpower, and machine.