StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Sustainable Supply Chains - Research Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper 'Sustainable Supply Chains' states that sustainability is defined as the ability to survive or sustain. Sustainable or green supply chain management can be roughly defined as the management of all activities right from the purchase from suppliers to taking back the disposed product from the customers…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.5% of users find it useful
Sustainable Supply Chains
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Sustainable Supply Chains"

?Sustainability is defined as the ability to survive or sustain. Sustainable or green supply chain management can be roughly defined as the management of all activities right from the purchase from suppliers to taking back the disposed product from the customers with a special focus on improving the social and environmental impacts of those activities (New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development). This can be contrasted with the conventional supply chain management focused only on the activities until delivery of manufactured products or services to the customers. Therefore, the environmental responsibility has drifted away from the consumer to the manufacturer and retailer (New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development). A more comprehensive definition of sustainability encompasses all three foundations of sustainability, including the people, economy and the environment. If only the social and environmental development is taking place that is referred to as “bearable” (Chick and Micklethwaite). If only the social and economic development is taking place, that is referred to as “equitable”, whereas, if only the environmental and economic development takes places, that is referred to as “viable” (Chick and Micklethwaite). Sustainability occurs only when all three dimensions develop simultaneously; that is, it is bearable, equitable and viable. A significant driver of this initiative is the government. The government can come up with measures such as environmental labels, licenses and product design guidelines (New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development). There are already a number of regulations in place for sustainability. These include U.S. Farm security and rural investment act (2002), European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), China ROHS, E.U. Cosmetics directive, E.U. Packaging Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and REACH. In addition there are International Standards such as WRAP, FLA, ICTI CARE, ISO 14000 and ISO 26000 for addressing environmental causes (Business for Social Responsibility). For successfully realizing a sustainable supply chain, an organization needs to go through five major steps. The first if Business Case Development which requires looking at the external environment and study case studies of companies which have done so successfully in the past. An analysis should be done of the differences before and after this implementation (United Nations Global Impact). These initiatives have to be driven by the top management. After this study a commitment has to be made by the board members to work on the same. The second is “Risk, Gap and Scope assessment” which appreciates the fact that the sustainable supply chain initiative has a number of risks which could have a short term impact on finances or new operational bottlenecks. These risks have to be listed and mitigation plans have to be developed. A gap analysis between the current state and future state is required so that efforts could be made to bridge the gap. It is also essential to decide the scope of the initiative at this stage in line with organizational strategies and priorities (United Nations Global Impact). The third step is Supply chain identification which requires an internal assessment of the firm’s supply chain. The position that the company’s supply chain holds relative to other supply chains needs to be assessed (New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development). The next step is Implementation. In this step, the expectations of the organization are communicated to suppliers, distributors and all other partners in the upstream and downstream supply chains. Internal operations are realigned to adjust to the new priorities. The organizations try to build strategic partnerships if required to realize its goals. These may include partnerships with third party logistic providers, IT outsourcing firms, consultants and so on (Nunes, Junior and Ramos). Next, Measurement is done whereby new metrics have to be introduced to track performance on sustainability. Therefore, traditional scorecards need to be replaced by balanced scorecards and new versions of SCOR Model. Absolute transparency is required in tracking performance against goals. The final step is communication of sustainable development as a part of business strategy. After the new order has been established, it is very important to communicate the same to all business partners especially employees and customers. This would ensure seriousness on the issue as well as help in efficient change management. Training and counseling sessions need to be arranged for the same. It is important to note that several successful companies have already adopted this initiative; Sony Electronics and L’Oreal to name a few. Sony Electronics has partnered with Waste Management Inc. which is one of the world’s largest solid waste handlers. WMI has opened about 75 recycling centers in the U.S. to date. WMI believes that there is a significant economic value in e-waste especially in electronics industry due to the high value of metals being used. Therefore, it is looking forward to build strategic partnerships with electronics manufacturers. Sony was one of the first partners of WMI. Generally, WMI charges fee to the customers who drop their e-wastes at WMI’s facilities for disposal. However, with partners such as Sony the payment is based on weight/volume. This fee turns out to be very small for Sony in comparison with the profits due to positive responses from the customers (PriceWaterHouseCoopers). As far as L’Oreal’s case is concerned, it has a condition for the suppliers to be audited by signing an Ethical Commitment Letter (L'oreal). All subcontractors, suppliers of raw materials, packaging, security, cafeterias etc. are audited by L’Oreal according to SA8000 standard (L'oreal). The audits are done by third parties without notice. However, the sustainable supply chain initiative is not devoid of challenges. One of these if the lack of supplier information, in which case either the information is limited to functional silos or there are just not enough efficient information systems to get real time information. The situation has improved with the emergence of ERP and SCM systems. However, there is a lack of central compliance and CSR repository which can capture information on social and environmental performance of the suppliers (Business for Social Responsibility). Also a communication gap exists whereby the organizations and suppliers do not have a proper understanding of what information needs to be shared. Many times the suppliers are very small to invest in IT infrastructure and communication. Also third parties for logistics, data cleansing and audits are generally not well integrated into organizational systems (Business for Social Responsibility). Another major issue is the non alignment of training programs and monitoring. Training programs are arranged generally by independent departments and are carried out by external trainers who are unaware of organizational objectives. Similarly monitoring and compliance activities are carried out independently in many companies (Business for Social Responsibility). With the advent of globalization, consumerism, boundary-less exchanges and pounding pressures on companies to incorporate sustainability into their supply chains it has become imperative for corporations to embrace the significance of the ‘cradle-to-grave’ standard pertaining to the product life cycle (Kaplan and Norton). Companies must come to terms with the fact that sustainability is not a short term fad. Sooner or later companies will have to come to terms with it. This, however, would not come without substantial investment; hence, companies must decide which path to engage in- that of higher initial investments and positive long term profits or that of high short term profits and higher investments in long term. References Business for Social Responsibility. "Perspectives on Information Management in Sustainable Supply Chains." 2007. Chick, A. and P. Micklethwaite. Design for Sustainable Change: How Design and Designers Can Drive the sustainability agenda. London: AVA Publishing, 2011. Kaplan and Norton. "Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System." Harvard Business Review (2007): 150-161. L'oreal. "2009 Sustainable Development Report." 2009. New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development. Business Guide to a Sustainable Supply Chain: A Practical Guide. Auckland: New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development, 2003. Nunes, Breno Torres Santiago, Sergio Marques Junior and Rubens Eugenio Barreto Ramos. "A Theoretical Approach for Green Supply Chain." Working Paper. 2004. PriceWaterHouseCoopers. "Going green: sustainable growth strategies." 2008. United Nations Global Impact. "Supply Chain Sustainability: A Practical Guide for Continuous Improvement." 2010. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Sustainable Supply Chains Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Sustainable Supply Chains Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/management/1448086-sustainable-supply-chains
(Sustainable Supply Chains Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
Sustainable Supply Chains Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words. https://studentshare.org/management/1448086-sustainable-supply-chains.
“Sustainable Supply Chains Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/management/1448086-sustainable-supply-chains.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Sustainable Supply Chains

What is Ford companys alignment and bargaining power of buyers

Apparently, the alignment certifies accountable behavior throughout the ‘Automotive Supply Chain' establishing interlinked and interdependent sustainability goals, through the three phase expansion process of “macro-managing”, “encouraging” and “expecting” (Business for Social Responsibility, “Internal Alignment: An Essential Step to Establishing Sustainable Supply Chains”).... The alignment also increases the innovation and reduces operational risks by way of improving the working conditions to a profitable extent (Corporate Ford, Creating a sustainable supply Chain: Strong Relationships, Shared Commitment, and Capacity Building”)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

White Paper: Ethics and Profits

Sustainable Supply Chains: why placing ethics over profits pays off.... om/sustainable-business/sustainable-supply-chains-ethics-profitsSmith, J.... However, some corporations have found themselves attempting to contravene the law in an effort to avoid taking the required responsibility....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Logistics, Operations, and the Environment from an Environmental Perspective

hellip; The conclusion from this study states that the uncertain environmental conditions have led to the development of supply chains and operational processes, which use the environment compliant and sustainable strategies.... This has brought about the increasing concern of the manufacturing organizations about the sustainability of their operations and supply chain through the adoption of the “green factor” in the supply chains and taking effective steps to conduct their operations and manage their logistics in an environmentally sustainable manner....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Paper

SUPPLY CHAIN GLOBAL TREND - Supply and logistics management CLASS

Researchers and scholars believe that for an organization and the entire global market to become sustainable the process must start with individual supply chains (Faisal 517).... As a result, related bodies have come up with strategies to help individual organizations and industries to establish sustainability in their supply chains.... In addition, sustainable supply chain aims at mitigating the negative impacts on the environment and society that occur in the supply chain....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Sustainability in Supply Chains

94); supply chains begin with suppliers and extend all the… Normally, supply chains transcend the manufacturing process to include other functions such as demand forecasting, purchasing or sourcing, as well as customer relations management and logistics, which entails the Supply chain management has been defined in many terms but it refers to the coordination of business functions within the company and its component partners to produce goods and services to satisfy market demand in a responsive, efficient as well as sustainable manner (Storey et al 2006, p....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Sustainable of Walmarts Supply Chain

At this stage it is deduced that Walmart is the biggest chain of retailer stores globally stores in 27… the literature review part, information from, literature materials regarding supply chain sustainability is reviewed with the aim of deducing its importance and ways through which business organisations such as retailers can enhance their supply chain sustainability.... The case analysis part looks at the things that Walmart has done to make sure that their supply chain is sustainable....
19 Pages (4750 words) Essay

Introduction to operations and supply chain management

According to Partridge (2010), building Sustainable Supply Chains differs from good business practices because the former is more comprehensive.... Sustainable Supply Chains involves incorporating ecologically and financially worthwhile practices in the core of supply chain processes, from R&D stages, to raw material selection, to production, packaging, haulage, storage, delivery, consumption and disposal.... sustainable supply chain controls and practices will enable organizations to not just limit their overall expenditure and carbon footprint in the fight against global warming, but also in optimizing their distribution and consumption practices so as to realize sustainable profitability....
2 Pages (500 words) Case Study

Concept and Significance of SSCM

nbsp;Linton, Klassen, and Jarman in the article, 'Sustainable Supply Chains: An Introduction' authored during 2007 in the Journal of Operations Management indicate the significance of integrating the concept of sustainability with supply chain activities.... The paper “Concept and Significance of SSCM” aims to conduct a review of a journal related to the concept and application of sustainable supply chain management.... In the article, 'Why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future' published in Journal of Supply Chain Management during 2014, Pagell and Shevchenko relate that the concept of sustainable supply Chain Management (SSCM) is constituted by several parameters pertaining to the economic, social and environmental aspects....
10 Pages (2500 words) Book Report/Review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us