The economic and environmental impacts of packaging: the case of a new automated system at Würth Logistic Center

The first time I had the opportunity to get in touch with the multinational Würth was during my Erasmus+ experience in Germany. The "Change Management" course held by Professor Susanne Wilpers of the Hochuschule Heilbronn, University where I spent 6 months and where I subsequently obtained the Double Degree, was divided into 2 phases: the first was dedicated to frontal but interactive lessons to explore the theme of change and its management within the company and team processes, while the second was concentrated in resolving the case study directly provided by Würth to us, students of the course. After the illustration of case studies, made directly by the company management in the Künzelsau headquarters, works were assigned based on the groups’ composition and the skills of each respective member. My team had the responsibility of investigating the start-up market and suggesting, based on the business model and future opportunities, some alternatives to invest in that would have been an added value for the Würth business. After months of working with a very cohesive international team and with the help of Professor Wilpers, we presented our solutions together with the other participants. The top management Würth was very satisfied with our work, also finding they had already started to get in contact with some start-ups that we had suggested, underlining that our research was perfectly in line with their intentions. Given the positive mutual impressions, I kept positively in contact with the company. Not being able to extend my stay in Germany, I returned to Italy and Würth with great availability gave me the opportunity to carry out the thesis on a very interesting business case, which then became the subject of this thesis. As the title suggests, the theme is the economic and environmental assessment of the investment in an apparatus for automatic packaging machinery in the Capena logistics center, before they were placed. I spent 3 months within the company (from July to September 2019) studying the operation of the logistics center and, with the help of my supervisor and head of logistics Dr. Harders Patrick, I was able to fully understand the dynamics of the whole system. It was strongly useful to frame what the impact of the new machinery might have been. So, the goal of the thesis is to determine what the advantages or disadvantages of the investment were from both an economic and environmental point of view, before the machines were installed. I decided to proceed immediately with the economic analysis, move on to the environmental one and then integrate them together. The work is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to the description about the logistics center, of the two automatic packaging systems adopted over time and of the system with the new machinery. Then, there will be a hint to the reasons led the company to invest in those machines and what the expected results are. The second chapter illustrates the economic analysis of the investment. There will be a review of the literature regarding the Net Present Value technique, some considerations on each critical factor studied, the analysis of the actual Net Present Value and the discussion of the results. The third chapter begins with the definition of the methodology of the environmental analysis and it continues with the application of the same to each factor. The fourth and final chapter instead includes the study of the monetization methods of the environmental variables obtained in the third chapter. It continues with the monetization of the variables and the consequent integration of results in the NPV analysis together with the results of the economic evaluation carried out in the second chapter. Finally, general impressions about the investment will be presented taking into account the techniques used for the evaluation.

Come suggerisce il titolo, il tema è la valutazione economica ed ambientale dell’investimento in un apparato di macchinari per l’imballaggio automatico nel centro logistico di Capena, prima che questi venissero installati concretamente. Ho passato 3 mesi in azienda (da Luglio a Settembre 2019) a studiare il funzionamento del centro logistico e, con l’aiuto del mio supervisore e responsabile della logistica Dott. Harders Patrick, ho potuto capire a fondo le dinamiche di tutto il sistema che poi mi è stato utile per inquadrare quello che poteva essere l’impatto dei nuovi macchinari. Quindi, l’obbiettivo del lavoro è quello di determinare quali fossero i vantaggi o gli svantaggi dell’investimento sotto un’ottica sia economica che ambientale, prima che i macchinari venissero installati. Ho deciso di procedere subito con l’analisi economica, passare a quella ambientale in un secondo momento per poi integrarle assieme. Il lavoro è articolato in quattro capitoli. Il primo capitolo è dedicato alla descrizione del centro logistico in generale, dei due sistemi di imballaggio automatico adottati nel corso del tempo e la descrizione del sistema con i nuovi macchinari. Poi ci sarà un accenno alle motivazioni che hanno portato l’azienda ad investire in quei macchinari e quali sono i risultati attesi. Il secondo capitolo illustra l’analisi economica dell’investimento. Sarà presente la rivisitazione della letteratura riguardo la tecnica del Valore Attuale Netto, le considerazioni su ogni fattore critico studiato, l’analisi del Valore Attuale Netto vera e propria e la discussione dei risultati. Il terzo capitolo inizia con la definizione della metodologia per l’analisi ambientale e continua con l’applicazione della stessa ad ogni fattore. Il quarto ed ultimo capitolo invece comprende lo studio dei metodi di monetizzazione delle variabili ambientali ottenute nel terzo capitolo. Prosegue con la monetizzazione delle variabili e la conseguente integrazione dei risultati nell’analisi del Valore Attuale Netto insieme ai risultati della valutazione economica effettuata nel secondo capitolo. Per concludere verranno presentate le impressioni generali riguardo l’investimento tenendo conto delle tecniche utilizzate per la valutazione.