Viva Magnetics Product Due Diligence

Business Challenge:

Viva Magnetics Ltd. (Viva) manufactures DVD and Blu-ray (BD) cases. In the past, Viva provided multiple studio customers with manufacturing data to enable them to respond to the 2007 Walmart pilot supply chain study. Seven products were picked for the original Walmart pilot supply chain study; DVD’s were one of the product types chosen. After responding to multiple data requests, Viva decided to conduct its own product due diligence. Viva was already working to decrease the weight of its DVD and BD cases through development of products such as the ECO-BoxTM; the next step was to calculate emissions and compare the cases. Viva chose four DVD and BD cases to analyze.

 

 

Our Approach:

• ClearCarbon had worked with Viva on many of the original studio product analyses and was already familiar with data contacts and energy data. This allowed ClearCarbon to focus on improvements in the methodology and data quality.
• Boundary conditions were consistent for all four products, beginning with production and transportation of raw materials and ending with transport to customer. The cases are as follows:

  Single DVD case (2007/2008)

  ECO-BoxTM DVD case (2008)

  Single BD case (2007/2008)

  ECO-BoxTM BD case (2008)

• Viva decreased the weight of the original DVD and Blu-ray cases by using molds to create stencil-like cases, reducing the amount of polypropylene plastic needed to create the “ECO-BoxTM” (see picture). All cases were carefully weighed to ensure the correct amount of material was represented in calculations.
• Although the paper “wrap” (cover and back of DVD) is not manufactured by Viva, it was included in this due diligence to create a meaningful comparison of finished products.
• All emissions calculations are normalized in one of two ways: per-pound of material or per-component. These relationships simplified the calculation process and allowed ClearCarbon to create a model to calculate emissions for future product developments based on weights.

 

Value Created:

Through this analysis, ClearCarbon helped Viva discover that it has saved over 30,000 tons of CO2e emissions due to the improvements in box design since 2007. Eighty-six percent of the avoided emissions were from DVD case savings including light-weighting and the rest were from BD case efficiencies. Now that Viva has completed a carbon-focused due diligence of its products Viva can share the results and the specific details as needed with its customers and can also estimate emissions for a new product before it is manufactured.

 

 

 

Project Staff

• J. Renee Morin
• Katie Smith