The Operations Research / Management Science Blog

On Jan 15, 2008, the annual trade show Macworld Conference & Expo was held in San Francisco, where the CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, introduced a new product called “Macbook Air“, which is an ultra-portable laptop. During his keynote speech, he mentioned that the retail packaging of Macbook Airs is 56% less in volume than Apple’s previously smallest packaging, which was for the Macbooks. This is really good news from an environmental point of view, since that it helps reduce the energy expenditure and pollution associated with the transportation of the packaged products as well as the disposing of the packaging materials (such as paper, plastic and cardboard).

I think Apple has once again set a very good example for all the consumer product manufacturers worldwide. As a consumer, I have always preferred products with packaging that is as minimal as possible while capable of ensuring the safety of the products during transportation. I was quite impressed by the packaging design of the new iPod Nano, which was quite minimal and consequently environmentally friendly. As a person who likes to look at things from an Operations Research (OR) perspective, I think that the minimization of the amount of packaging materials used in consumer products would make a great research topic for many OR researchers, although I believe that someone out there had already started studying it. In my opinion, some of the values this research will bring are:

1. The promotion of more efficient packaging designs as well as “greener” business philosophies that will help reduce environmental pollution, forest depletion, material waste and energy expenditure associated with over-packaging of consumer products.
2. The reduction of financial costs associated with the making of the packages.
3. Happier customers who won’t have to spent several minutes digging in the packages just to find the stuff they paid for.

More and more attention has been paid to the environmental issues associated with the electronics industry over the past a few years. Toxic substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium are commonly found in electronic products, which cause environmental pollution upon disposal. I am particularly interested in the applications of OR in environmental protection. It is a topic that all of us should think about seriously and more OR researchers should start to explore. After all, the earth is where we live, and there is no reason not to protect our own home from pollution. This is about doing good with OR.

References
“Macworld 2008 Keynote Address” by Steve Jobs, Apple, Jan 2008