An Innovative Approach to Organizational Changes for Sustainable Processes: A Case Study on Waste Minimization

Eva Krhač Andrašec, Tomaž Kern () and Benjamin Urh
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Eva Krhač Andrašec: Laboratory of Enterprise Engineering, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Kidričeva Cesta 55a, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia
Tomaž Kern: Laboratory of Enterprise Engineering, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Kidričeva Cesta 55a, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia
Benjamin Urh: Laboratory of Enterprise Engineering, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Kidričeva Cesta 55a, 4000 Kranj, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-22

Abstract: It is necessary to adapt constantly to the business environment with its changing demands. Understanding the objectives, scope, and limitations of actual process changes is crucial, and can be achieved with numerous measures, methods, and techniques. This research demonstrates an innovative approach to organizational changes to enable sustainable processes. In the first part of this research, relevant measures, methods, and techniques are selected through an in-depth literature review. Then, an international online questionnaire is executed among 213 enterprises from four countries. In the last part of this research, the developed approach is tested for the example of waste minimization in the process of developing coatings. Based on the analysis of the survey questionnaire, the usability and benefits of various measures are demonstrated, namely from the point of view of their positive impact on structural and operational efficiency indicators. At the end of the article, a case study presents the success of the innovative approach in terms of 88% waste minimization and up to 48% time and cost reductions in the process of developing coatings. The proposed approach enables better choices to be made and the more efficient use of various measures, which can lead to more sustainable processes and improve the efficiency of enterprises.

Keywords: organizational changes; key performance indicators; measures, methods, and techniques; sustainable processes; waste minimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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