Global Supply Chain Development – Workshop 10 (Greener Global Supply Chains)
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Global Supply Chain Development is provided by Mr. Buck BS Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 12 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
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Learning Provider Profile
Mr Buck is an approved Senior Consultant at Appleton Greene and he has experience in management, production and globalization. He has achieved a Bachelor of Applied Science IET/MET in Concentration in Operations Management. He has industry experience within the following sectors: Biotechnology; Manufacturing; Aerospace; Logistics and Technology. He has had commercial experience within the following countries: China; United Kingdom; Ireland and United States of America, or more specifically within the following cities: Shanghai; London; Cork; Minneapolis MN and Chicago IL. His personal achievements include: founded a corporation in 1991 and sold it in 2018 for $400m; entrepreneur of the year Ernst & Young 1998; entrepreneur of the year Ernst & Young 2004; built global manufacturing infrastructure and lead acquisition of 16 companies. His service skills incorporate: strategic planning; leadership development; supply chain; executive mentoring and merger & acquisition.
MOST Analysis
Mission Statement
Integrating green practices into supply chains is critical in minimizing the environmental impact of the industry and promoting business integrity. The acceleration in online shopping has impacted the dynamics and sustainability of many businesses’ supply chains, particularly as customers are increasingly focusing on environmental factors such as waste, resource use and embedded carbon. Between plastic packaging, carbon emissions and returns headed straight for landfill, the environmental implications of this new way of consuming is a major problem. The pressure is therefore mounting for businesses to implement greener supply chains and address these environmental concerns. If the increased consumer focus on eCommerce continues, there will be ever-greater scrutiny placed upon the carbon footprint of businesses that sell online. Given that the majority of emissions are generated through the supply chain, businesses would be well-served by placing a greater focus in this area. As well as the obvious reputational boost for greener businesses in the eyes of today’s increasingly environmentally-conscious consumer, investing in greener practices can indeed have a tangible impact on an organization’s bottom line.
Objectives
01. Reverse Logistics: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Ethical Sourcing; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Green Logistics; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Packaging and Waste; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Eco-design of Products; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Renewable Energy: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Coordinate with Partners: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Consolidate Shipments: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Empty Miles: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Just-in-Time: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Start Now: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
Strategies
01. Reverse Logistics: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Ethical Sourcing: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Green Logistics: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Packaging and Waste: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Eco-design of Products: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Renewable Energy: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Coordinate with Partners: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Consolidate Shipments: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Empty Miles: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Just-inTime: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Start Now: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
Tasks
01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Reverse Logistics.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Ethical Sourcing.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Green Logistics.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Packaging and Waste.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Eco-design of Products.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Renewable Energy.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Coordinate with Partners.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Consolidate Sipments.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Empty Miles.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Just-in-Time.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Start Now.
Introduction
Environmental issues have been expanding and spreading quicker than forest fires from country to region, region to global level territory in recent decades, which is a major contributor to climate change and global warming. Furthermore, natural resource scarcity and air and water pollution have a negative impact on fauna and flora, as well as human health, resulting in diseases such as ischaemic heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, Dracunculiasis, Cholera, Hepatitis, Typhoid fever, and Norovirus. The green supply chain idea is used to reduce environmental deterioration and pollution of air, water, and waste by incorporating green practises into company operations.
Although the underlying premise of the green concept is undeniably to improve environmental sustainability, businesses often use the green concept to “kill two adversaries with one bullet.” Because a green supply chain can reduce pollution and production costs while also spurring economic growth, creating a competitive advantage in terms of higher customer satisfaction, a positive image and reputation, and allowing companies to export their products to countries that are environmentally friendly. Corporate social responsibility, green manufacturing, waste reduction, recycling, and remanufacturing sustainable/environmental friendly supply chain, green supply chain, and so on are all examples of green ideas that are expanding with new innovations and techniques to protect environmental sustainability.
The idea of incorporating sustainable environmental processes within the traditional supply chain is referred to as a sustainable or green supply chain. Processes like as supplier selection and material procurement, product design, product production and assembly, distribution, and end-of-life management are all examples of this. Rather than reducing the negative impact of business and supply chain activities, a green supply chain adds value and/or creates value throughout the entire chain. Green supply chains undeniably reduce air, water, and waste pollution, but green operations also improve enterprises’ performance in terms of less waste manufacturing, reuse and recycling of products, cost savings, asset efficiency, positive image development, and increased customer satisfaction. As an example, Figure 1 depicts a green supply chain for a child’s crib manufacturer.
Green practices in supply chain management
Companies increase their productivity and environmental growth by using several green practises in their company and supply chain activities. The following are some well-known green practises:
3.1 Green material sourcing
Green sourcing refers to the acquisition of materials and components that have enviable ecofriendly properties such as reusability, recyclability, and the absence of toxic or dangerous compounds. Procurement experts have been driven to evaluate their existing sourcing, purchasing strategy, and impact on environmental sustainability as environmental concerns have grown. Recycling and remanufacturing play a role in environmentally conscious shopping. Green sourcing, according to Min and Galle, promotes waste reduction by enhancing recycling, remanufacturing, and other supply chain activities. Carter and Rogers conducted a study to see how green sourcing affects a company’s environmental and financial success.
They came to the conclusion that by successfully implementing a green purchasing strategy, product costs are reduced, and firms’ environmental and financial performance improves, as well as their market reputation. According to Zailani et al., environmentally conscious purchasing has a positive impact on a company’s operational and environmental performance. Design operation management, supply chain management, environmental authentication, ecology, and external environmental management were the five primary features of green purchasing identified by Yang et al. They confirmed that green purchasing boosted the overall performance of the companies. Green purchasing in the supply chain and corporate operations is a proven method for reducing waste, air pollution, and water pollution.
3.2 Green marketing
Green marketing, a broad range of marketing activities (e.g., planning, production, process, price, promotion, and after-sale service) aimed to highlight the goal of an organisation to lessen the detrimental consequences of their products, is directed towards all corporations and consumers. Green marketing encourages people to buy things that are good for the environment. It includes activities that can satisfy human aspirations while having the least amount of harmful impact on the environment’s beauty. Green marketing also improves a company’s competitiveness, financial and environmental performance, as well as its reputation and image.
3.3 Green management
Green management practises (GMP) provide a company with additional sources of data that can help them achieve their economic and environmental goals. Adoption of green management methods benefits a company’s image, efficiency, environmental compliance, cost savings, societal commitment, and carbon emissions reduction, among other things.
3.4 Green distribution and warehousing
Green distribution and warehousing may decrease waste and play a major part in energy conservation. The value addition of green products in warehousing can considerably improve overall performance and improve company image. Green distribution aids businesses in achieving greater financial and environmental results.
3.5 Green manufacturing
Green manufacturing techniques aim to implement socially and ecologically responsible practises in order to reduce the negative consequences of manufacturing while also increasing business profitability. Production processes are more efficient when green techniques are used. This approach entails the use of green resources, which can help businesses gain a competitive advantage by lowering product costs and improving product quality. Both the lean and green manufacturing industries strive to reduce waste and increase the efficiency of manufacturing operations. The advantages of green manufacturing, according to Baines et al., are that green practises in production processes mitigate the negative effects of manufacturing processes on environmental sustainability, and green manufacturing improves a company’s operational, environmental, and financial performance.
3.6 Ecological design
According to Luthra et al., the use of ecological design in supply chain management can control 80 percent of environmental consequences from product and process related issues. Many ideas, such as using cleaner technology processes, green raw materials, and components, are incorporated into ecological design. Green product design decreases a product’s environmental impact over its lifetime. Furthermore, green product design encourages reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing, which not only helps businesses improve their environmental performance but also allows them to save money.
3.7 Green transportation and reverse logistics
Green transportation and reverse logistics practises give businesses the chance to improve their image while lowering costs. Logistics costs can be reduced by improving the efficiency of transportation systems, and customer relationships can be improved to increase profitability. The activity of reverse logistics (reusing, recycling, and remanufacturing), which can produce products that can be used again for clients, is one of the logistics activities combined with rehabilitation. Green logistics enables businesses to reduce their environmental impact while improving quality and lowering costs.
3.8 Renewable energy and biofuels
Without a doubt, global logistical and supply chain operations rely heavily on energy and fossil fuels, which are the primary contributors to climate change, global warming, and pollution due to increased carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve sustainable environmental and economic growth, supply chain operations must use renewable energy and biofuels. Logistics-related activities, according to Anable et al., use more energy to complete their tasks. Renewable energy and biofuels boost business performance while also lowering carbon emissions. Furthermore, fossil fuels are more costly than biofuels and renewable energy sources. Government regulations, together with customer knowledge, put pressure on businesses to adopt biofuels and environmentally friendly energy in their supply chains. Bioenergy reduces carbon emissions while simultaneously improving the profitability of businesses through improved image and reputation.
The most significant aspect for enterprises to integrate green practises in their supply chain operations is cost minimization. The utilisation of reused, recycled, and remanufactured items would help to reduce the prices of packaging, components, and materials if green supply chain activities were implemented. Green practises, according to Khan et al., provide opportunities to capture new markets and export to environmentally friendly countries, whereas polluted firms are unable to export their products to environmentally friendly countries such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland. Green supply chain management strategies have undeniably been a tool for businesses to reduce product costs, increase profitability, and expand market share. Firms, on the other hand, use green techniques in their corporate activities to improve social performance. Improvement in people’s quality of life without sacrificing environmental beauty is referred to as social performance. Furthermore, social performance encompasses the promotion of a company’s image as well as the enhancement of environmental sustainability and the reduction of environmental dangers.
Firms can improve their operational performance by implementing GSCM methods, such as enhancing product quality and improving delivery service. Green supply chain management initiatives also assist organisations in improving their environmental performance by reducing carbon emissions, eliminating waste from the end-to-end supply chain, and promoting reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing through effective and strong collaboration with suppliers. Integrating an environmental management system (EMS) into a company’s production plan will help the company improve its environmental performance.
Supply chains are turning to green solutions for the future
Carriers are investing in greener delivery solutions as a result of growing environmental concerns and pressure from the public and regulators…
Climate change has become such a persistent threat to our society and economy that corporations are scrambling to find ways to assist in the greening effort. As shippers set sustainability objectives, Scope 3 emissions, which are the result of indirect emissions that occur throughout a company’s value chain, have gotten a lot of attention. The extended supply chain is frequently the largest source of emissions while also being the most difficult to address.
A recent 2020 report from CPD explored the state of environmental risks in supply chains and what approaches businesses are taking to mitigate them. It found that just “37 per cent of suppliers are taking action and engaging with their own suppliers, down from 39 per cent in 2019.”
More than 1,000 companies are now trying to cut scope 3 emissions, according to CDP, and 94% of organisations with science-based objectives give specifics on how they plan to do so.
FedEx declared that by 2040, it would have converted its entire parcel pickup and delivery operation to “zero-emission electric vehicles.” FedEx CEO Fred Smith attributed the decision to the growing economic viability of sustainable solutions as well as concerns about carbon pollution.
“Our customers are increasingly focused on this issue. They want to do business with transportation providers that are environmentally responsible,” Smith said. “But we also — as a commercial enterprise — have to produce for our shareowners.”
DPD group has announced its intention to provide zero- and low-emission delivery options to 225 of Europe’s major cities. By 2025, DPD group will have reduced its last-mile carbon footprint in the cities targeted by 89 percent and pollutants by 80 percent, compared to 2020. CO2 emissions per parcel have decreased by -14 percent since 2013, and by 2025, they will have decreased by -30 percent.
Carriers across the supply chain are investing in green technologies and numerous approaches to help cut emissions and promote sustainability, from the ocean to the air, the road, and the rail.
Ocean travel
The International Maritime Organization’s sulphur restrictions, known as IMO 2020, went into effect last year, limiting sulphur emissions from ships to 0.5 percent mass by mass, down from 3.5 percent previously.
Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, a global leader in shipping and logistics, announced earlier this year that six LNG (liquefied natural gas) powered containerships would be dedicated to the US market as part of the Group’s ongoing efforts to improve air quality and accelerate the shipping industry’s energy transition.
The carrier’s statistics on LNG are positive: 99 percent less sulphur dioxide, 91 percent less particulate matter, 92 percent less nitrogen oxide, and 20 percent less CO2 than traditional fuels, according to the carrier.
Aviation emissions
Aviation emissions are a substantial contributor to climate change, and using sustainable aviation fuels is one approach to reduce them.
The owner of British Airways has become the first European airline group to pledge to using sustainable jet fuel on 10% of its flights by 2030. IAG said that it will purchase a million tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel every year, allowing it to reduce yearly carbon emissions by two million tonnes by the end of the decade.
In addition, the firm declared that it is the first airline group in the world to extend its net-zero commitment to its supply chain.
Route optimization
The process of establishing the most cost-effective route is known as route optimization, and it may be extremely advantageous to trucking and delivery companies. It can assist in giving accurate ETAs and increasing customer satisfaction. Drivers spend less time travelling on well-planned routes, which saves fuel costs and wear and strain on cars while also increasing time on-site and the number of stops a driver may make in a day. Route optimization can also assist reduce operational costs.
The trucking sector recognises that the supply chain is shifting toward a more sustainable future, which means diesel vehicle alternatives will become available. The most talked-about alternatives are battery-electric vehicles, fuel-cell electric vehicles, and vehicles that run on renewable fuels.
Battery-powered rail
For the first time in the UK, long-distance trains might run on battery power, according to Hitachi Rail. Great Western Railway services between London Paddington and Penzance, Cornwall, might be powered by a mix of batteries, electricity, and fuel, according to the firm. Using battery power at the route’s non-electrified stations will save more than 20% on fuel, improve air quality, and lower noise levels.
Testing is planned to begin in 2022, with Hitachi Rail hoping to build a fully electric intercity train by the late 2040s.
Green supply chains are key to a more sustainable planet
Green practises must be integrated into supply chains to reduce the industry’s environmental effect and promote corporate integrity…
Customers are increasingly concerned about environmental aspects such as waste, resource use, and embedded carbon, therefore the acceleration of online shopping over lockdown has had an impact on the dynamics and sustainability of many organisations’ supply chains.
The environmental consequences of this new style of consuming are a huge problem, thanks to plastic packaging, carbon emissions, and returns that end up in landfills. As a result, corporations are under increasing pressure to build more sustainable supply chains and address these environmental issues.
The environmental cost of online purchasing
According to data from the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, UK online sales increased by 36.6 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, the biggest increase since 2007. However, the enforced rise of eCommerce has had a severe influence on the environment.
Due to an increase in delivery vans last year, the number of vehicles on UK roads surpassed 40 million for the first time, resulting in an increase in carbon emissions. Not to mention the growing use of cardboard and other packing materials, much of which is non-recyclable and destined for the landfill.
Surprisingly, despite the easing of limitations, the eCommerce boom appears to be here to stay, at least according to first public perception. According to research, buyers have received an average of two extra deliveries per month since March 2020, and more than half of the public now expects to order online at the same volume even until the high street reopens in earnest.
The benefits of a greener supply chain
If the rising consumer focus on eCommerce continues, the carbon footprint of enterprises that sell online will be scrutinised much more. Given that the supply chain generates the bulk of emissions, firms might benefit from a stronger emphasis on this area.
Investing in greener practises can have a concrete influence on an organization’s bottom line, in addition to the obvious reputational boost for greener enterprises in the eyes of today’s increasingly environmentally sensitive consumer. Investing in zero-emission vehicles, for example, is likely to save businesses money in the long term because electric vehicles have lower whole-life expenses. Furthermore, data shows that 85 percent of people prefer to buy from businesses that have a good reputation for sustainability.
Building a supply chain that is efficient and environmentally sustainable
Greener corporate practises will only become more important as the UK moves closer to its 2050 goal of net zero emissions. As a result, it is critical that firms examine their supply chains now in order to avert potentially major financial and reputational harm in the future. But what are the first actions that firms may take to create a more environmentally friendly supply chain?
Build internal support
Having the necessary foundations in place, which entails first developing the business case for action, is critical to ensuring that greener supply chain initiatives are adopted long-term. This aids in the development of internal support for greener business practises, the assessment of any potential hazards, and the identification of the places where the supply chain has to be made more environmentally friendly.
Be accountable for all emissions throughout the supply chain
Businesses must be more mindful of all pollutants generated across their supply chain. While reporting on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions is required by law, there is currently no legal duty to report on all indirect emissions created across the supply chain, known as Scope 3 emissions.
When you consider that Scope 3 emissions can account for the bulk of a company’s carbon footprint, it’s evident that any company aiming for net-zero emissions can’t possibly fulfil their goals without them.
Organizations that pay more attention to their overall carbon footprint, including Scope 3 emissions, can only be viewed as beneficial, resulting in societal environmental advantages.
Establish a supplier code of conduct
Businesses aiming to implement truly sustainable operations should, whenever possible, engage with suppliers who share their values and ambitions. One of the most successful methods for organisations to involve suppliers in their sustainability initiatives is to establish and communicate expectations through a supplier code of conduct.
Identify inefficiencies in your logistics network
Businesses should also examine their logistics network to see if there are any inefficiencies that may be addressed. Companies should assess their present fleet size, vehicle makeup, and geographic spread, as well as the locations of their distribution centres, to identify any inefficiencies or squandered resources.
Supporting businesses in their sustainability journey
Supply chain sustainability is becoming more widely recognised as an important aspect of overall organisational sustainability. According to HSBC, 31% of firms throughout the world plan to make sustainability-related improvements to their supply chains, and seven of the top ten global FMCG companies have carbon emission reduction goals that include assisting suppliers in becoming “green.” The decisions that corporations make in the coming months may have a significant impact on the lives of millions of people in the years ahead.
SCALA has committed to assisting businesses in their sustainability efforts by requiring that all projects completed in 2021 contain a full assessment of how all activity across the supply chain will influence the environment. This keeps environmentally friendly habits front of mind at all times, and we can all work together to make the world a greener place.
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Reverse Logistics
What Is Reverse Logistics?
Reverse logistics is a form of supply chain management in which goods are returned from customers to vendors or producers. Reverse logistics is required for activities such as returns and recycling after a client receives a product.
Reverse logistics begins with the end user and works its way backwards through the supply chain to the distributor or from the distributor to the manufacturer. Reverse logistics can also refer to operations in which the end user is responsible for the product’s final disposal, such as recycling, refurbishment, or resale.
When Is Reverse Logistics Used?
When items travel from their final destination back through the supply chain to the seller and maybe back to the suppliers, organisations use reverse logistics. The purpose is to either recover or dispose of the product’s value. Returns are worth about a trillion dollars worldwide each year, and they’ve become more common as ecommerce has grown.
Reverse logistics aims to recoup value while also ensuring repeat business. In-store purchases are returned less than 10% of the time, whereas internet purchases are returned at least 30% of the time. Reverse logistics is used by smart businesses to increase client loyalty and repeat business while reducing return losses.
Reverse Logistics vs. Traditional Logistics
Product flow in the traditional sense begins with suppliers and ends with a manufacturer or distributor. The goods are then distributed to retailers and customers. Reverse logistics management begins with the consumer and moves backwards through the supply chain, returning products to any point along the way.
Supply networks that are well-designed are adaptable to changes and can handle certain reverse logistics. This reverse procedure might return products to the original supplier or one step back in the chain. They can even resell or discount returned items through their usual sales or discount channels (like liquidators).
How Reverse Logistics Works
Reverse logistics involves moving items at least one step backward from the supply chain’s typical terminus. Various plans and controls may be used in this procedure. Some businesses would rather outsource this work.
Reverse Logistics Process
Managing returns and purchasing surplus goods and materials are all part of the reverse logistics process. The procedure is also in charge of dealing with any leases or renovations. Reverse logistics differs by industry, and there are several financial incentives for bettering reverse logistics management.
In the beverage business, for example, the reverse logistics process makes use of empty tap containers. Companies that make beverages seek to reclaim the value of their containers by reusing them. This necessitates transportation planning, shipping load management, and container cleaning.
Reverse logistics is used in the building sector to transport and recycle salvaged materials to new locations. As the building industry embraces more sustainable waste-reduction measures, reverse logistics offers a cost-cutting opportunity.
Reverse logistics is in charge of returning packing materials and pallets in the food business. Rejected food shipments must also be dealt with by businesses. Rejections can cause logistical problems owing to delays, which can lead to food spoilage and tampering concerns. To overcome these logistical issues, the Reverse Logistics Association is implementing secure, quick, and reliable login (SQRL) codes on packaging.
5 Steps to Good Reverse Logistics
1. Process the Return
When a customer indicates that they want to return a product, the return process begins. This stage should entail obtaining return authorisation and determining the condition of the merchandise. Return shipments are scheduled, reimbursements are approved, and faulty goods are replaced as part of this process.
2. Deal with Returns
Examine a returned product when it arrives at your location or at a centralised processing centre to establish its return category. (Note: If reverse logistics has been streamlined, you should already know where the product should go before it arrives.) Sort items into one of the following categories: repair, resell as new, resell as a return, recycle, scrap, or refurbish.
3. Keep Returns Moving
Sending repairable products to the repair department can help you reduce your everyday trash.
4. Repair
Move the returned item/equipment to the repair area after evaluating it and determining whether it can be fixed. If it’s not possible, sell any parts that can be sold.
5. Recycle
Any parts or items that you are unable to repair, reuse, or resale should be given to the recycling centre in your area.
Chapter 2: Ethical Sourcing
The Importance of Ethical Sourcing
Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the manufacturing of the things they use. Human trafficking and the use of child labour are two supply chain concerns that procurement executives must be aware of. Furthermore, many customers have become more concerned about environmental sustainability. An in-depth look at ethical sourcing concerns and risk mitigation measures may be found below.
Dimensions of Ethical Sourcing
• Environmental issues include biological perseverance, energy conservation, pollution laws, carbon/water footprint reduction, and global warming.
• Social: local communities, diversity, and acceptable working conditions
• Financial stability, energy demands, and cost-cutting
Social Responsibility and the Supply Chain
Consumers are becoming more interested about how items are made. Brands that were unaware of labour or environmental issues at first- and second-tier vendors may become embroiled. Many businesses have found themselves dealing with persistent controversies long after a problem has been resolved, despite their best efforts. When it comes to ethical sourcing, companies must take proactive steps to ensure that their supply chains are free of risks such as:
• Human Trafficking and Forced Labor: Every country, including the United States, has modern slavery and child labour. International agreements have been established to combat labour abuses, and supply chain managers play a key role in this. Visibility into a vendor’s sourcing activities helps ensure a company that its partners are adhering to its own standards.
• Environmental Damage: While the mining and energy sectors are most closely identified with concerns about conservation, pollution, and sustainable growth, every supply chain has an environmental imprint. A company’s manufacturing process may rely on nonrenewable resources or utilise dangerous chemicals. Companies must be aware of their environmental effect and take appropriate steps to mitigate hazards.
• Corruption: Bribery, money laundering, and other financial crimes can help corrupt politicians, drug traffickers, and terrorists profit themselves. To avoid entanglements with high-risk persons, it’s vital to know who owns a corporation.
How to Evaluate Suppliers
When it comes to evaluating, onboarding, and monitoring vendors, procurement and compliance officers frequently collaborate. This method was compelled by a slew of rules and regulations. When it comes to identifying unethical suppliers, firms need reliable business data, but where can they find it?
Online compliance tools are a quick and easy way to check business data from reputable sources like Dun & Bradstreet and the US government. These systems have grown in sophistication, relying on analytics to determine the dangers that a company faces. Companies located in countries or industries where unethical actions are prevalent can be marked for investigation.
Analysts in procurement and compliance can also look into important actors to find politically exposed persons (PEPs), or personnel with ties to government officials. While most PEPs act within the law, risk mitigation techniques may still be necessary to avoid the appearance of collaboration.
When analysing suppliers, there are additional sources of information that can be used. Performing a news search on a corporation may disclose previous conflicts. Databases of business information, such as Hoovers, frequently reveal parent/subsidiary links that aren’t always obvious.
Regulating the Supply Chain
Many agencies and organisations assist in the development and enforcement of supply chain rules and regulations, including:
• US Department of Labor: The US Department of Labor administers and enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• Customs and Border Protection of the United States: Attempts to prevent the importation of commodities made with forced labour.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in charge of overseeing industrial waste rules in the United States.
• International Labour Organization (United Nations agency): Assists countries all around the world in developing policies to end worker exploitation.
Many major corporations have pledged to collaborate with governments and non-governmental groups to create socially responsible supply chains.
Chapter 3: Efficient Transport
Greenness and Logistics
The majority of sustainable transportation considerations are focused on people, putting freight difficulties to the sidelines. Logistics is at the heart of modern transportation systems, implying a level of order and control over freight movements that could only be achieved with modern technology. It has emerged as one of the most significant advancements in the transportation sector. Greenness has become a catchphrase for a variety of environmental issues, and it is generally regarded positively. It is used to imply environmental compatibility, and hence, like logistics, it is regarded as advantageous. When combined together, the two words describe a system of transportation and distribution that is both ecologically benign and efficient.
Production planning, materials management, and physical distribution are only a few of the dimensions covered by this loosely defined phrase (shown below). It provides the way for a wide range of ecologically friendly supply chain solutions to be implemented. As a result, many stakeholders may employ a variety of solutions, all dubbed “green logistics.” One company may concentrate on product packaging, while another may concentrate on alternative fuel cars; both are engaged in green logistics.
However, a closer examination of the concept and its applications reveals numerous paradoxes and contradictions, implying that its use may be more challenging than initially anticipated. Despite the fact that there has been much dispute about what exactly green logistics comprises, the transportation industry has developed extremely focused and specialised interests in the subject. Green logistics solutions are assumed to be effective if transportation costs are lowered and assets such as cars, terminals, and distribution facilities are better utilised.
Green has become a buzzword in the transportation business, as it has in many other fields of human endeavour. It arose from a growing awareness of environmental issues and negative externalities that began in the 1950s, when the rapid rise of trucks had a severe influence on urban neighbourhoods. Truck size, emissions, and noise became public concerns, prompting the first regulation addressing pollutant and noise emissions, as well as road access restrictions. In a more recent context, well-publicized topics including sustainability, energy, waste disposal, and climate change have aided in the establishment of green logistics as a systematic subject of investigation and mitigation.
Environmental principles like material flows and the carbon cycle (seen below) found their way into supply chain management. Environmental sustainability was established as a goal for worldwide action in the World Commission on Environment and Development Report (1987), providing green problems a considerable boost in political and economic arenas. Through its modes, infrastructures, and flows, the transportation industry has been identified as a key contributor to environmental challenges. The growing field of logistics was considered as a way for the transportation industry to become more ecologically conscious. However, environmental concerns and transportation sustainability issues are still mostly focused on passenger travel.
The logistics industry’s interest in the environment was particularly evident in terms of seizing new business opportunities. While traditional logistics aims to organize forward distribution, or the transportation, warehousing, packaging, and inventory management from the producer to the consumer, environmental concerns opened up markets for recycling and disposal, resulting in the birth of a new sub-sector known as reverse logistics. This reverse distribution, as mentioned in the preceding Course Manual, entails the transportation of waste and the transfer of utilized materials. Even though the phrase “reverse logistics” is extensively used, alternative terms such as “reverse distribution,” “reverse-flow logistics,” and even “green logistics” have been employed.
The circular economy (shown below) is a more recent framework that incorporates logistics into reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and trash disposal in a feedback loop. It’s becoming a popular method that takes into account the entire scope of logistics, including the greening of both forward and reverse supply chains.
Chapter 4: Packaging and Waste
How sustainability is influencing product design
Consumers are increasingly seeking more sustainable products and businesses, offering those who have made this transition a competitive advantage…
A buyer’s purchasing decision is influenced by a variety of factors. Cost, convenience, and verified product or service evaluations are some of the primary aspects that customers have traditionally considered when purchasing a new product or service – but this has evolved in recent years.
Consumers are increasingly expecting safer, more ecologically friendly goods as part of the evolution of the purchase experience. Because of the shifting consumer demand, businesses are rethinking how they plan, create, and manufacture their products and services, with sustainability as a top priority. However, designing a sustainable product can be difficult, and businesses must evaluate the entire supply chain to ensure that their product is not only environmentally responsible but also meets consumer needs.
Our mindsets are changing
The first step toward becoming a leading sustainable organization is to recognize the need to begin operating more sustainably. Consumers are more aware than ever of the arguments in favor of modifying behavior and habits to be more sustainable on both a micro and macro level as a result of climate change and what is happening to our world. Customers are willing to pay more for sustainably produced items, according to a recent survey, indicating that sustainable products are in increasing demand and consumers are willing to prioritize them. People have been demonstrated to be happier when they use green items, improving their appreciation of the product.
As customer attitudes change, businesses are under growing pressure to change their operations to be more environmentally friendly. For many businesses in practically every industry, sustainability is becoming a critical component of their operations. At the start of this decade, high-profile brands have been declaring their carbon-neutral intentions at an unprecedented rate. Microsoft, for example, has pledged to be carbon zero by 2030, taking their sustainability initiatives to the next level.
What the supply chain can do
To develop sustainability solutions for specific industries, many frameworks and coalitions are evolving. Organizations like the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, for example, have established standardized value chain measuring tools to assist businesses in assessing their social and environmental effect. Organizations may correct defects and inefficiencies in their processes, improve their sustainability performance, and maintain a level of environmental transparency by employing this measurement, bringing them one step closer to meeting their carbon dioxide emissions and waste reduction targets.
Then there’s a product’s lifecycle evaluation, which includes everything from raw material use to end-of-life scenarios and potential waste-design alternatives. Is there a method to make the product componentized, such that if it can’t be recycled or refurbished in its entirety, it can be dismantled and used to build other goods?
Finding creative methods to be sustainable without passing higher prices on to customers is one thing; finding inventive ways to be sustainable without passing higher prices on to consumers is another – and this is where the real problem in product design lies. When creating supply chain sustainability strategies, there are two ways to solve cost difficulties.
The first is to include circular economy into everyday behaviors, such as direct product invention. We’ve already seen this with companies adding recycled materials into their products, and it’s becoming more popular in the textile and footwear industries.
The second way is for businesses to create new product and service models. IKEA, for example, is considering experimenting with furniture rentals and leasing, which would utilize fewer materials and resources. Organizations can introduce creative ‘greener’ solutions in their firm by adapting existing services that benefit both the company and the consumer.
What to expect going forward
New entrants are already bringing exciting ideas to the market and forcing incumbent companies to modify their goods, but many companies still have a long way to go. Over 70% of Fortune 500 business emissions are anticipated to come through their value chain, rather than the direct energy they use.
Small and large businesses alike must cultivate a corporate culture that prioritizes sustainability. In today’s market, establishing clear targets that every department and employee can work toward, as well as altering operations to become more sustainable, are crucial to meeting shifting buyer needs and allowing businesses to reap the many benefits of sustainable business practices.
Sustainable innovation and company strategy will, in the end, benefit both customers and enterprises. Regardless of the short-term challenges that firms may experience, consumers, employees, and stakeholders will be affected in the long run.
Chapter 5: Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
Understanding the benefits of green manufacturing
Someone will almost certainly raise the well-known argument that the costs of implementing green logistics outweigh the benefits in any debate about sustainability. To be sure, this is the widely held belief about sustainable production methods: Processes that lessen environmental impact cannot possibly be more cost-effective, given the expenses required.
However, such a viewpoint is short-sighted, as evidenced by the growing popularity of sustainable product procurement. Many companies have realized that assuming techniques that have yielded savings in the past will continue to do so in the future is myopic. Failure to produce environmentally friendly items is not only frowned upon in today’s consumer product industry, but energy costs have also altered significantly. Fossil fuels are becoming increasingly expensive, while solar and wind power are becoming more accessible.
The devil’s in the details
Taking a long-term view is critical when developing a green manufacturing strategy, but thinking too broadly might be dangerous. The finer points of putting in place sustainable practices must be carefully considered.
Tatsuo Enami, Gigaphoton Executive Officer and General Manager, said in a post for Solid State Technology that it’s critical for businesses to consider how their sustainability activities might help them save money. Having the correct partnerships — as well as a suitable amount of visibility – is crucial, according to him.
“High-volume manufacturers must work with vendors and suppliers that will help enable their overall cost and green manufacturing goals. Tracking and managing total operational costs is critical for sustaining a cost-effective, high-volume manufacturing (HVM) environment,” Enami wrote.
It will be impossible to manage the myriad elements required in green manufacturing, such as managing heat, gas, and electricity use across the operation, without a thorough awareness of the practices of significant sourcing partners and a shared commitment to sustainability across suppliers, Enami remarked.
Sustainable and lean
It’s also critical for businesses to grasp the underlying principles that enable green logistics and cost reductions to coexist. Shawn Kitchell, Madico Window Films Senior Vice President of Operations, explored the connection between sustainability and lean manufacturing in a piece for Environmental Leader.
• Avoiding overproduction: According to Kitchell, creating the smallest number of items required to meet demand – a core tenet of the “lean” movement – can reduce energy and raw material use.
• Transportation management: Keeping shipments to a minimum reduces both fuel expenses and carbon emissions.
• Using fewer materials: Avoiding over-processing saves money and helps the environment.
Combining sustainable production with an agile, cost-conscious company model requires keeping these ideas in mind.
What does remanufactured mean?
Remanufacturing is an industrial process for rebuilding and recovering a previously sold, worn, or non-functional object. The piece can be returned to a ‘like-new’ or ‘better-than-new’ condition by disassembling, cleaning, repairing, and replacing worn out and obsolete components, and will be just as reliable as the original product. In the concept of a circular economy, remanufacturing is critical.
As corporations look for a method to tackle the present climate issue, remanufacturing technology is becoming more popular, as it allows them to decrease waste and pollution. Remanufacturing is not only ecologically friendly, but it also fosters a circular economy by allowing things to be reused rather than discarded. As a result, remanufacturing technology contributes significantly to economic development and is emerging as a new source of economic growth.
What can be Remanufactured?
There are no simple guidelines for what can be remanufactured. However, there are several characteristics of an object that make remanufacturing easier. A corporation will typically choose remanufacturing for complex, long-lasting, and high-value objects and parts. A product is also more likely to be remanufactured if it employs or is made of long-lasting technology and is constructed of precious or high-quality materials. It must also have a long-lasting core that can be reused and repurposed, as the core is the most important aspect of an object when it comes to remanufacturing. The core is often returned to service after being remanufactured in most cases. It’s also crucial that the original equipment can be disassembled and broken down into its individual parts.
Advantages
• Maintains high performance standards
• Prevents parts from becoming obsolete
• It is environmentally friendly and helps to reduce CO2 emissions greatly
• Energy efficient – When compared to the production of new parts, remanufacturing uses 80 percent less energy
• Conserves precious raw materials
• Sustainable, extending the life of existing petrol and diesel vehicles
Chapter 6: Eco-design of products
Eco-design is a set of manufacturing techniques that allows a product or service’s environmental effect to be reduced during its full life cycle. It is the circular economy’s only weapon for limiting waste and conserving resources before the manufacturing stage. A product, a service, or an event can all benefit from eco-design. You will learn: – Why all organizations will adopt eco-design one day – The numerous areas where it may be applied – How to build an eco-responsible product in this Course Manual. You will have learned everything you need to know about the concepts and uses of eco-design in everyday life by the end of your reading.
Why do eco-design products?
The fundamental purpose of an eco-design strategy is to lessen a product’s or service’s environmental impact. It also provides for the stimulation of research and the promotion of innovation. It is, after all, a matter of implementing the idea of achieving more with less while maintaining product performance. Meeting new consumer expectations is another major difficulty. In addition, new environmental restrictions have been enacted. Eric Mugnier of the consultancy company EY testified as follows: “I think that today, eco-innovation is not just “a good thing to do” but has become a necessity. We have seen an impact on the younger generation at Saint Gobain. Clearly in terms of motivation, talent attraction or even talent retention. Focusing on eco-innovation has clearly made a difference for many researchers at Saint Gobain and for many people who have joined the company in recent years. So we have no choice but to continue. But how to continue successfully? You have to make eco-innovation visible to your customers. So that’s clearly the next step for us: how do we make it more visible and easier to understand for our customers, whoever they are?”
What is the purpose of eco-design products?
The deployment of the following points is crucial to the development of an eco-design approach:
• Developing products while considering environmental and economic concerns.
• Create optimum product or service versions to choose the one with the least negative impact.
• Examine life cycles in order to include them into the circular economy as much as possible.
• Reduce and optimize manufacturing costs.
• Bring a global perspective and a firm structure that is conducive to long-term growth.
• To obtain environmental certification for its initiatives in order to market them.
Official definitions
There is no universally accepted concept of eco-design today. The three official definitions from the most major organizations in this sector will be presented.
The AFNOR definition
The AFNOR’s (Association française de normalization) definition, which dates from 2004, is the simplest but nonetheless fairly broad: “Eco-design consists in integrating the environment from the design of a product or service, and during all the stages of its life cycle.”
The definition of the NF X 30-264 standard
The 2013 NF X 30-264 Environmental Management standard provides a little more precise and up-to-date explanation: “Systematic integration of environmental aspects from the design and development of products (goods and services, systems) with the objective of reducing negative environmental impacts throughout their life cycle for equivalent or better service. This approach from the beginning of a design process aims to find the best balance between environmental, social, technical and economic requirements in the design and development of products. ”
ADEME’s definition
According to the ADEME (Agence de l’environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’énergie): “It is a preventive and innovative approach that reduces the negative impacts of the product, service or building on the environment throughout its life cycle (LCA), while maintaining its qualities of use. ” A video from the Eco-design and Life Cycle Management Cluster explains their definition.
Chapter 7: Renewable Energy
Using renewable energy to drive supply chain innovation
New technologies, such as developments in renewable energy resources, are presenting potential opportunities for supply chain improvements.
Worth the investment
Renewable energy resources, sometimes known as “renewables,” are naturally replenishing fuel sources that may be used to replace coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power with clean, safe, and reliable energy that emits little or no carbon. Renewable energy sources, unlike nuclear power and fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), deliver clean, safe, and reliable power with low or no carbon emissions.
Renewables are an appealing choice for the supply chain because of a number of possible benefits:
• Avoid risks of fossil fuel price fluctuations and regulatory changes
• Attract customers, partners, and employees interested in corporate responsibility
• Drive corporate growth by keeping pace with competitors
Switching to renewables, either selectively or throughout the supply chain, can help lower long-term costs, provide pricing stability, mitigate future regulatory risk, boost brand value, generate new income, and promote staff engagement.
With renewable energy becoming more accessible and inexpensive than ever before, now is the time to analyse your supply chain for methods to transition to renewables like solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydro power so you can start experiencing the advantages right away.
Recent developments and outlook
Renewable energy now accounts for 13% of all electricity generated in the United States, up from 8% in 2007. In 2015, renewables accounted for 90% of the growth in electricity generation. By 2040, zero-emission energy sources are predicted to account for 60% of installed capacity.
The acceptance and advancement of renewables has been boosted by overcoming old hurdles.
Renewable energy is currently more economical and accessible than it has ever been. The cost of the technology has come down. Access to new finance instruments has improved, and capital needs have decreased. In some places of the United States, favorable regulation has created incentives for selling excess supply back to the grid.
The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21), which saw 195 countries approve the world’s first universal, legally binding global climate agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, demonstrates the growing significance of policy in determining renewable energy growth.
Many businesses are assessing and revising energy management plans, of which renewables are often a fundamental component, in reaction to evolving public perception. The American Business Act on Climate Pledge has been signed by 154 companies in support of robust climate action. Through the RE100 program, 81 companies have pledged to pursue 100 percent renewable energy.
Driving value in the supply chain
Renewable energy offers cost and risk benefits across the supply chain when it is viewed as a strategic asset rather than a tactical expense.
Furthermore, renewables can provide secondary, intangible benefits such as improving company culture and employee engagement, advancing your sustainability agenda and assisting in the achievement of sustainability goals, strengthening corporate reputation, and driving corporate growth by keeping up with competitors and signaling to customers that you are a leader in environmental stewardship.
The bottom line
Renewable energy can be leveraged throughout the supply chain to lower long-term costs, reduce risk, generate new revenue, boost brand value, and boost employee engagement. Companies should re-evaluate their energy procurement strategy as technologies and laws advance to take advantage of these benefits.
Chapter 8: Coordinate with partners
This Course Manual attempts to discover efficient Green Supply Chain Integration (GSCI) strategies that can help organizations in developing and developed countries enhance their operational, environmental, and financial performance at the same time (eg China, USA and the UK).
Overview
In recent years, many companies in both developed and developing countries have taken steps to implement green supply chain management in order to increase efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. Many companies have acknowledged the necessity to collaborate or integrate with their supply chain partners to undertake environmental management in order to become greener. More than 120 companies, including British Telecom Group, Vospre Thornycroft Group Plc, Kraft Foods, IKEA, Levi Strauss and Co., and others, have signed up for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, which allows companies to track carbon emissions throughout their product life cycle and supply chains.
There is a scarcity of knowledge in the management literature about how companies can effectively coordinate environmental management across their supply chains, and, more importantly, how companies can achieve desirable environmental performance across a supply chain without jeopardizing their operational performance. Even though several recent research articles suggest that environmental collaboration (collaboration in environmental management with suppliers and customers) can improve both operational and environmental performance, the concept’s effectiveness has yet to be properly validated and appreciated.
The concept of environmental collaboration is elevated in this research to a novel concept known as Green Supply Chain Integration (GSCI), which is a more strategic and integrative approach to achieving green supply chain performance. The focus of the research is to discover effective Green Supply Chain Integration techniques that can help businesses in both developing and developed countries enhance their operational and environmental performance (USA, China, Thailand and UK). It highlights the synergistic effects of numerous Green Supply Chain Integration methods and elements such as regulation, competitive prioritization, and supply chain structure, all of which can help or hinder such initiatives.
This research is significant since most supply chains are globally fragmented, but every company must achieve exceptional operational and environmental performance at the same time. The research is timely because, while the necessity to successfully coordinate environmental practises in a global supply chain has been recognized, there’s still a dearth of understanding about how to make breakthroughs in operational and environmental performance.
Chapter 9: Consolidate Shipments
Companies interested in greening their supply chains rapidly recognize that carbon and energy waste is an expenditure, and that reducing this expense not only saves the environment but also brings in truckloads of cash. This worksheet shows how shipment consolidation, a strong logistics method that merges two or more small shipments into a single load that can be despatched on the same truck, may help reduce carbon and energy waste.
In recent decades, significant environmental challenges have emerged as a result of dramatic developments in technology capabilities and a push toward internationally networked production and distribution operations, requiring the close and rapid attention of both practitioners and academia.
Furthermore, businesses should make every effort to become smarter in their resource use in their operations, as customers are wanting more in terms of sustainability. The environmental damage that comes with economic expansion necessitates immediate response from all market participants, including regulators, company operators, and consumers.
‘‘If current predictions of population growth prove accurate and patterns of human activity on the planet remain unchanged, science and technology may not be able to prevent either irreversible degradation of the environment or continued poverty for much of the world,’’ reports The Royal Society of London and US National Academy of Sciences (1992). As a result, greening the supply chain has become a significant corporate challenge. Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) is defined as “integrating environmental thinking into supply chain management, including product design, material sourcing and selection, manufacturing processes, final product delivery of the final product to the consumers as well as end-of-life management of the product after its useful life’’ (Srivastava,2007).
The intelligent use of logistics systems has a lot to offer in terms of greening the supply chain through various efficient distribution and transportation tactics, especially when it comes to freight movement. These environmental tactics, which include purchasing, inbound logistics, manufacturing, outbound logistics, marketing, after-sales support and product returns, recycling, remanufacturing, and centralized distribution, all rely on the efficient use of materials in production and freight flow.
Transportation is regarded as the most significant source of environmental dangers in logistics systems. Not only do transportation vehicles emit hazardous substances, but they also produce noise pollution. Carbon dioxide (CO2), for example, is the most common greenhouse gas emitted in the United States, accounting for 85 percent of the climate change potential of all human-produced emissions. CO2 has a significant role in greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 96% of all transportation-related emissions (EPA, 2006). As a result, the transportation sector is the primary source of CO2 emissions in the United States. Truck emissions climbed from 42 percent in 1995 to 49 percent in 2006, and show no indications of diminishing (RITA,2008).
Chapter 10: Empty Miles
Climate change is a huge risk to businesses all over the world, and it’s vital that companies do all they can to halt its devastating effects. Many of the world’s most carbon-intensive sectors are now making changes to go green, and the logistics industry is one of them.
Whilst a great number of logistics processes are currently detrimental in terms of climate change, there are steps that can be taken to offset carbon emissions and improve sustainability. One of the key areas which logistics companies should be focusing on is ‘Empty miles’. Let’s take a closer look at what this term really means, and how removing dead miles might benefit businesses, consumers and the planet as a whole.
What are empty miles?
Dead or empty miles are terms used to refer to any travel that is undertaken unnecessarily, as part of logistics processes. The vast majority of supply chains include some dead miles. These miles are often the result of problems with infrastructure, inefficient routes or a lack of planning in delivery options. Not only are dead miles bad for the environment, they are also costly and time-consuming. All businesses should be on the lookout for ways to remove dead miles from their logistics processes, in order to save time, money and emissions.
Consumer expectations are rising, making it increasingly challenging for companies to provide urgent and same-day delivery solutions without contributing to dead mileage. However, something logistics companies should adopt (if they haven’t already) is to optimize delivery routes and encourage multi-pickup and drop-offs, rather than direct routes.
This is something that the food delivery space struggles with, especially because food has to be delivered as an express service – almost always contributing to dead miles on the return journey. This highlights the need for further innovation in the industry to find a solution that is perfect for both supplier and the consumer. In the meantime, however, removing dead miles is a task that has to be undertaken with some compromises.
It’s clear that removing dead miles is often a complex task, not least because the miles tend to be a result of numerous factors. Businesses that offer consumers a range of time slots for delivery, for instance, may well find their vans and lorries fall victim to dead miles regularly.
In cases like these, the company has made a decision to offer its consumers the choice of many different time slots for their convenience. Removing dead miles might sometimes mean limiting consumers’ choices, and losing some amount of edge over the competition. However, as consumers become increasingly aware of the impact of climate change, the influence that environmental factors have on purchasing decisions is on the rise.
Companies should highlight the steps that are being taken to remove dead miles, and get consumers on board with their new focus on sustainability. Look to retailers such as Ocado for inspiration. The online supermarket gives consumers the opportunity to book a ‘green’ delivery slot, when their vans will already be in the area. This helps to reduce dead miles, and gives consumers the opportunity to back the company’s sustainability improvements.
Why should we consider empty miles?
Dead miles are expensive, inefficient and bad for the environment. So, removing them is a no brainer. Companies looking to grow over the coming months and years need to put sustainability at the top of the agenda. Not only is ‘going green’ crucial for the planet as a whole, it’s also set to become a huge concern for consumers. Customers really do care about the carbon footprint of the brands they buy, and this concern is growing over time.
Younger generations, such as millennials, are particularly interested in the environmental impact of brands. The Cone Communications CSR Study found that “68% of millennials bought a product with a social or environmental benefit in the past 12 months,” and “88% will be more loyal to a company that supports social or environmental issues.”
It’s not just for the benefit of customers, however. Removing dead miles is important for business as well. Reducing dead mileage can have a positive impact on warehouse or storage efficiency by enabling better optimisation of storage space. This allows warehouses to sell more storage whilst reducing the cost for the customer. More so, it enables storage facilities to better plan inbound and outbound freight for all-round increased efficiency. Better planning improves the turnaround of goods, consequently helping to boost that all-important customer service.
Any sustainable transport or logistics business needs to make eliminating dead miles one of its key objectives. The carbon footprint of dead miles is unnecessary, and usually completely avoidable with the help of a few changes. Businesses should carefully consider the journeys that their staff take, and adapt routes to enhance efficiency wherever possible. By doing so, companies can save huge amounts of time and money, whilst simultaneously reducing their environmental impact.
Ultimately, in today’s climate, it’s clear that brands can no longer afford to overlook going green – so it’s time to think seriously about eliminating those dead miles.
Chapter 11: Just-in-Time
Florida and Davison (2001) propose a “three zero manufacturing paradigm,” in which manufacturing managers strive for zero inventory, zero defects, and zero environmental waste and emissions all at the same time. Intuitively, a mix of JIT, Total Quality Management (TQM), and green supply chain management approaches could have a positive impact on this paradigm. Both JIT and TQM have been extensively investigated and proven to increase organizational performance by focusing on the elimination of all waste from all processes, the requirements of a customer focus, and the production of high-quality goods and services that perfectly satisfy consumer requirements.
A just-in-time supply chain moves material to the production process just before it’s needed. The strategy lowers the need for excessive amounts of materials to be stored in a warehouse, and it works best when each action is carefully coordinated with the next.
Learn more about this supply chain strategy and how to use it in your company.
What Is a Just-in-Time Supply Chain?
By refining the timeliness of ordering materials, the just-in-time supply chain strives to eliminate timing delays and costs. The idea is to have no more — and no fewer — resources on hand than you require at the time. This simplifies operations, lowers storage costs, and forces a company to understand its supply chain thoroughly.
• Acronym: JIT
Any anomalous surges in customer demand are compensated by safety stock in supply chain strategies other than JIT. Safety stocks also protect against production failures, quality concerns, and other unforeseen issues of this nature. In JIT, on the other hand, the company tries to synchronize its activities to the point where additional safety supplies aren’t required.
How Does a Just-in-Time Supply Chain Work?
Any well-designed supply chain aims to deliver exactly what your consumers want, when they want it. In an ideal world, a company can achieve this while spending as little money as feasible. Some supply chain professionals utilize JIT as one way to do this.
JIT supply chains can also be used for a variety of other corporate operations. Human resources and accounting departments can use JIT to make the most efficient use of time and resources for the tasks at hand.
While many people who work in supply chains and finance find JIT appealing, it is challenging to put into reality. To have an optimal supply chain, a company must provide its consumers with exactly what they want, when they want it, and for as little money as feasible. Customers could be inside or external to the company.
In either case, understanding the demand of those clients is one of the most critical components of JIT. Communication is the key to comprehending that requirement. Direct communication is possible, as is the use of tools like enterprise resource planning (ERP) and materials resource planning (MRP).
After you’ve figured out what your customers want, the next stage is to build a solid relationship with a provider. You can count on this vendor to deliver exactly what you need, when you need it. Because most suppliers can’t distribute supplies right away, a successful JIT supply chain relies on a company knowing just how early they need to acquire things in order for them to arrive at the exact moment they’re needed.
While the premise of understanding customer demand and supplier connections is straightforward, perfecting these understandings in real-life scenarios is significantly more difficult.
Chapter 12: Start Now
Opportunities to Start now, and planning for the future
Fundamental shifts in consumer behavior, supply chains, and market routes threw corporations off balance during the COVID-19 crisis. Responding to this event highlighted the necessity for leaders to expedite the implementation of agile working practices and value chain transformation in order to help navigate future environmental instability.
The ability to reduce waste and pollution is becoming a more essential criterion for prospective purchasers. Making progress strengthens your brand’s favorable image and gives employees a sense of accomplishment. Mandatory modifications are unavoidable for many firms. Begin by determining which prospects are worthy of immediate investment and which should be postponed. Focus first on the prospects you have control over, then reach out to others upstream and downstream in your supply chain.
In January 2011, Munich Re, one of the leading global reinsurers, said: “The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change.”
The reinsurer claims that 2010 saw the second-highest number of natural disasters since 1980, with total economic costs of US$130 billion. It appears that the moment has come to transition from green awareness to green action.
BearingPoint conducted its first green supply chain survey in 2008. (in collaboration with ESCP-EAP and Supply Chain magazine). Environmental activities made by European businesses were mostly motivated by the need to comply with environmental legislation, according to the study.
“There is no way around sustainable logistics in the future. We are deciding today what kind of world we and our children will live in 30 years from now.”
Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group
Meeting consumer demands
Consumers are steering the drive toward greener supply chains, according to Lucy Tammam, founder and director of sustainable couture company Tammam. “Sustainability has gone mainstream,” she says. “The real power shift is coming from consumers who are steadily becoming more conscious about buying ethically.”
Customers will “find out” companies that are simply “greenwashing,” that is, leveraging the strength of an environmental message as a marketing tool without making any meaningful commitment.
As a result, firms are under pressure to examine their supply chains and communicate with suppliers about sustainable practises. Fortunately, there are professionals who can assist and firms that have already taken a more environmentally friendly path.
Curriculum
Global Supply Chain Development – Workshop 1 – Greener Global Supply Chains
- Reverse Logistics
- Ethical Sourcing
- Efficient Transport
- Packaging and Waste
- Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
- Eco-design of Products
- Renewable Energy
- Coordinate with Partners
- Consolidate Shipments
- Empty Miles
- Just-in-Time
- Start Now
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Global Supply Chain Development corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.
Study environment
You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.
Study tools & rules
Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.
Successful distance-learning
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.
Self-assessment
Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.
Accepting responsibility as a student
Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.
Planning
By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.
Management
Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.
Study objectives & tasks
The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.
Study forecast
As a guide, the Appleton Greene Global Supply Chain Development corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.
Performance management
It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.
With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.
With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.
Keeping in touch
You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.
Work colleagues and family
You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.
Making it relevant
The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.
Distance-learning check-list
Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.
Tutorial Support
Programs
Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.
Support available
You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.
Support Process
Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.
Time Management
It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Global Supply Chain Development corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Global Supply Chain Development program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.
Distance Learning Guide
The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.
How To Study
The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).
Tutorial Support
Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Global Supply Chain Development corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.
Tutorial Support Tips
Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.
Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails
Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.
Think about the impression that you want to create
Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.
Remember that quality is preferred to quantity
Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.
Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers
Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.
Keep a record of your tutorial support emails
It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Individual training workshops or telephone support
Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Tutorial Support Email Format
You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.
Subject line of your email
Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.
Main body of your email
Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)
Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.
Question 1
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 3
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 4
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 5
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.
Procedure
* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.
How To Study
Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.
Planning your study environment
Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.
Planning your program objectives
It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.
Planning how and when to study
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.
Planning your study tasks
You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.
Planning your time
You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.
Keeping in touch
Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.
Charting your progress
Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.
Making it work
To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.
Reading methods
Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.
Speed reading
When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.
Content reading
Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.
Making structured notes on the course manuals
When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.
Organizing structured notes separately
You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.
Question your understanding
Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.
Clarifying your understanding
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.
Question your interpretation
Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.
Clarifying your interpretation
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.
Qualification Requirements
The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Global Supply Chain Development corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Global Supply Chain Development Specialist (AGSCDS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.
Global Supply Chain Development – Grading Contribution
Project Study – Grading Contribution
Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%
Qualification grades
A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.
When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:
Pass with merit
A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory
Pass with distinction
An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory
Preliminary Analysis
Policy Research Working Paper
“Greening Global Value Chains by Bernard Sinclair-Desgagné, The World Bank Sustainable Development Network Office of the Chief Economist September 2013:
1. Introduction
Environmental regulation has a relatively long history. In his pathbreaking book on technological innovation in the Middle-Ages, for instance, Gimpel (1975) tells of a Royal decree of 1307 forbidding the use of sea coal in the London area. This type of coal was extracted just below the surface of some seashore areas in Durham and Northumberland counties and was abundant in those days. Its energetic performance was rather poor by modern standards; its smoke smelled badly and entailed significant health hazards. However, substitutes to sea coal, namely charcoal or higher-quality coal coming from Scotland, were rather expensive. A special enforcement agency had therefore to be created, in order “to find out all individuals burning sea coal in the city or its surroundings, to impose large fines on them right away, and to destroy their ovens in case of repeated offense.” Meanwhile, on the other side of the Channel, the French Parliament ruled on 7th September, 1366, that slaughter houses and tanneries be located on the Seine River downstream of Paris. Brewers were among the most vocal supporters of this decree, for slaughter houses and tanneries strongly degraded water, their main input. Each year then, about 250,000 animals were killed in Paris; tanning and butchering accounted for hundreds of tonnes of hazardous organic waste being thrown in the river. The new rule was thus well received by the population in general, although it affected negatively the production of slaughter houses and tanneries (which were crucial to virtually all urban economies in those days) by sensibly raising their transportation costs.
These stories illustrate three major points about environmental regulation. First, historically, the ability of governments to enforce environmental regulation on polluters was not an issue. Second, polluters’ costs to comply with a ruler’s decree could largely be ignored (within reasonable bounds, of course). Third, the willingness of targeted firms to move ahead in limiting pollution was not expected nor required.
Clearly, these features do not match the present economic setting. All over the world, employment, development and competitiveness have now become imperatives for any responsible government, so the ability of firms to preserve environmental resources while still prospering and creating jobs can hardly be overlooked. In addition, the globalization of business is now putting several polluting activities out of reach of regulators, so in order to deal with environmental problems effectively governments must refrain from coercion and share the task of managing environmental resources with business firms.
Taking stock of this landscape, economists and business scholars started three decades ago to investigate how environmental concerns could shape business strategy and be taken care of across business units. Their contributions are summarized and appraised in Reinhardt (2000), Gabel and Sinclair-Desgagné (2000), Sinclair-Desgagné (2005), and Johnstone (2007), among others. Current research is now increasingly focusing on global value chains (GVCs), as these largely make up the basic context in which most firms operate nowadays.
Making a global value chain greener raises specific challenges. Who are the participants in such a chain, how do they interact with each other, and how do they respectively and collectively affect the environment? What incentives should be set across the chain in order to foster collective environmental performance while maintaining individual competitiveness? How can the chain’s members coordinate their actions effectively? This note’s objectives are to briefly cover state-of-theart knowledge on these questions, and to point out certain relevant considerations that have received little weight so far. In accordance with the Green Growth Knowledge Platform’s intended outlook, special attention will be given to how public policies and business strategies can support each other in meeting those challenges, particularly in developing countries.
2. Getting the right picture
Like any practical goal, the greening of GVCs first relies on information. This section will accordingly consider the generic components of a GVC, the milieu in which its activities take place, and the extent of environmental data each entity should have or generate.
• Who is involved?…
Building on Klassen and Vachon (2012), Abbey and Guide (2012) and the DCED (2012) document, Figure 1 provides a broad framework to consider greening a global value chain. In most industries – electronics, automotive, agro-food, aerospace, etc. – the typical GVC is seen as a sequence of raw materials extraction, components making, assembly, retailing, and customer utilization and disposal. As far as production is concerned, these activities are complementary, so any constraint that is put on one of them will affect the others, be they located upstream or downstream. This calls for a systemic approach to greening supply chains. As Klassen and Vachon (2012, p. 269, 271) indicate: “(…) firms in a supply chain do not work in isolation; (…) greener supply chain management is defined as the strategic and transparent integration of material, information, and capital flows to achieve environmental and economic objectives through the systemic coordination of key inter-organizational business processes.” The considered system will naturally comprise a number of environmental tasks, for example: site cleanup, water treatment, air pollution abatement, cleaner production, resource recovery, refurbishment and manufacturing, and recycling. Nowadays, these tasks are often outsourced, in whole or in part, to specialized firms forming the so-called environmental goods and services (EGS) industry. Alas, this industry is often overlooked in environmental policy discussions. Some precisions on it seem therefore in order at this point.
”
To continue reading this research paper, please visit:
https://www.greengrowthknowledge.org
MIT Sloan Management Review Research Feature
“ ‘Greening’ Transportation in the Supply Chain – MIT Sloan Management Review research feature by Susan L. Golicic, Courtney N. Boerstler and Lisa M. Ellram:
Even corporations with clear environmental aims fail to go the distance when it comes to their supply chains. But lessons from a small group of Fortune 500 companies can give them the direction they need.
Not long ago, it would have been considered unnatural for corporations to set their priorities and goals with an eye toward improving their environmental performance. But a steady flow of high-profile corporate initiatives and studies of customer behavior have revealed a change in the business climate. Companies that integrate sustainability practices throughout their supply chains are experiencing a clear benefit. Increasingly, key stakeholders — from investors to customers to prospective employees — are monitoring sustainability efforts for themselves and making their decisions accordingly.
But more than just the threat of negative publicity is pushing corporations into the green zone. With domestic policy makers debating the merits of cap-and-trade legislation and world leaders struggling to agree on a climate change treaty, it’s only a matter of time before environmentally unaware companies will face steep fines for their failure to keep pace. At the same time, the slow-growing U.S. economy is forcing companies to focus on improving their efficiency to offset tepid demand and counterbalance the price volatility of commodities such as water and energy.
About the Research
This study, conducted in 2008, explored the strategies and practices of more than three dozen Fortune 500 companies to determine the extent to which they acted to improve supply chain and transportation sustainability. To obtain a sample of companies with environmental business strategies, we first researched three environmental supply chain initiatives: EPA’s Climate Leaders, EPA’s SmartWay Transportation Partnership and the Global Environmental Management Initiative. These consider greenhouse gas emissions across industries and provide a way to target companies that have a particular interest in supply chain sustainability. The companies participating in the three initiatives were cross-referenced with Fortune 500 and Roberts Environmental Center listed companies, yielding a total of 294 businesses demonstrating environmental strategies (58.8% of the Fortune 500), with 76 (15.2%) participating in at least two of the three initiatives.”
To continue reading this article, please visit:
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/greening-transportation-in-the-supply-chain/
Research paper
“Green Transportation in Green Supply Chain Management By Raeda Saada, 2020:
Abstract
Organizations of the present day have directed their work patterns by acquiring the approach of green supply chain management (GSCM), in order to combat harmful environmental concerns. The most prominent reason behind the adoption of green strategy is to reduce the burden of the polluted environment. It is a concept which identifies the relationship between the supply chain operations and the natural environment. The present chapter provides a detailed discussion regarding the application of green transportation in green supply chain management, while shedding light to the evolution of green supply chain management, and its principle along with the factors that support total quality environmental management. The overall discussion is focused by elaborating the examples of green transportation in GSCM. The discussion revealed that most of the international markets prioritize the emission of gas, rather than focusing on implementing the green technologies in transportation. Slow steaming, voyage optimization, and efficiency in port operations are some of the major recent trends of green transportation identified in green supply chain management. However, some of the common examples of green transportation in GSCM Dalsey Hillblom Lynn (DHL) model of green transportation and Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (IKEA) model of green transportation which serves as the major initiatives in the management of green transportation.
1. Introduction
Green supply chain management (GSCM) has acquired integrating importance for managing the organizational practices with environmental concerns. Some organization’s supply chain managers still need to understand that reducing the environmentally harmful attributes will not only be beneficial for the society but will also improve their logistic operations. The most important reason behind adopting the greening strategy in supply chain management is to reduce the burden of polluted environment caused by the wastage of industries. Undoubtedly, logistic operations have greatly contributed in raising the level of air pollution which affects both the environment and also the economy.
GSCM has been defined differently by various researchers, for instance, Sarkis defined GSCM as the process where all the organizational operations and innovations related to supply chain management are deliberated in accordance with the environment, whereas, for Dwivedi, GSCM includes the fundamental industrial activities such as material recycling, reusing, and substituting. Similarly, Shan and Wang defined GSCM as a set of processes involving the activities of customer’s and manufacturer’s course of orders, product designs, procurement activities, distributions, and logistics while corresponding to the principles of eco-friendly environmental management. Sharma et al. explain the concept of GSCM as an integration of safe environment in designing products, sourcing and selection of material, production process, and final product delivery to the customers as well as disposal of wasted products.
According to Weeratunge and Herath, GSCM is the component which reflects the relationship of natural environment and supply chain operations. It further involves all the external or internal factors which influences the management operations of logistics and measures the performance of the supply chain process according to environmental aspects. Due to the extensive customer demands, organizations are shrinking to the core of Red Ocean and seek to establish new businesses or techniques to attract customers. In recent years, companies have shown an immense interest toward adapting the strategies of environmentally friendly methods by producing goods and services that meet the criteria of safe environment. By shifting toward ecological systems, organizations can enhance the efficiency of production, achieving the competitive advantage and reducing the impact of harmful factors of the environment.
2. The evolution of GSCM
According to Intravaia and Viana, environmental pollution issue has emanated exponentially since the 1960s. The reason behind this alarming situation was the absence of law specifically designed to manage environmental risks and damages, such as ISO 14000 which aims to manage and monitor the impact of environments. The concept of GSCM was contemplated in 1996 by the US Department of Manufacturing Research Consortium in the University of Michigan States. The main approach behind this concept was to regulate the environmental effects and resource allocation in the supply chain process. The revolution of GSCM measures enhances the quality of services and makes the supply chain process cost efficient by implementing precautionary steps with respect to environmental safety.
In 2007, Turk institutions of economics and World Bank proposed the index containing the performance of logistic operations which evaluated the level of performance and development of different countries. This performance index was complied with various components such as customer’s efficiency and management control, quality of transportation and infrastructure, logistic services, time frequency for shipment and delivery, tracing and tracking facility of the consignment, and ability to manage cost-efficient shipments.
The early concept to adopt the GSCM is to provide humans with the standard lifestyle by reducing the health risking hazards resulting in increased consumer trust. According to Gandhi and Vasudevan, green management is considered as one of the significant practices to save the energy consumed during the supply chain processes. The revolution of GSCM resulted in spreading awareness about the environmental security, following which several industries are now implementing the waste-free and emission-free concept of energy. This implementation will help them to ensure the management of green environment for their customers who pay high concern toward global warming and climatic changes. Onurlubas asserted that the evolution of green management has optimized organizations to pay more attention toward adopting the green practices to enhance the efficiency of environment. The reason behind this excessive concern is that consumers have begun to question their practices with respect to their impact on climatic and environmental changes, thus, socially responsible and conscious organizations are revolutionizing their manufacturing processes by introducing and implementing green production strategies.”
To continue reading this research paper, please visit:
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/72772
Harvard Business Review
“A More Sustainable Supply Chain:
Companies tend to focus on their top-tier suppliers, but the real risks come lower down.
by Verónica H. Villena and Dennis A. Gioia, From the Magazine (March–April 2020).
Summary.
Increasingly, multinational corporations (MNCs) are pledging to procure the materials and services they need from companies committed to fair labor practices and environmental protections. But the reality is that their suppliers—especially those at low levels of the chain—often violate sustainability standards, exposing MNCs to serious financial and social risks.
To explore this problem—and identify solutions—the authors studied the supply networks of three MNCs deemed to be sustainability leaders. These companies engage in behaviors that are worth emulating; for example, they have established long-term sustainability goals, and they try to cascade good practices all the way down to lower-tier suppliers, using a combination of direct, indirect, industrywide, and global strategies. But all MNCs have more work to do to develop sustainable supply networks. They must emphasize social and environmental responsibility, along with economic considerations, at every level of the supply chain. They must give their procurement officers better training and incentives to pursue supplier sustainability. And to encourage widespread dissemination of best practices, they need more direct contact with the procurement people at their first-tier suppliers.
In recent years a rising number of multinational corporations have pledged to work only with suppliers that adhere to social and environmental standards. Typically, these MNCs expect their first-tier suppliers to comply with those standards, and they ask that those suppliers in turn ask for compliance from their suppliers—who ideally ask the same from their suppliers. And so on. The aim is to create a cascade of sustainable practices that flows smoothly throughout the supply chain, or, as we prefer to call it, the supply network.
It’s an admirable idea, but it’s been hard to realize in practice. Many of the MNCs that have committed to it have faced scandals brought about by suppliers that, despite being aware of sustainability standards, have nevertheless gone on to violate them. Consider the embarrassing scrutiny that Apple, Dell, and HP endured not long ago for sourcing electronics from overseas companies that required employees to work in hazardous conditions, and the fallout that Nike and Adidas suffered for using suppliers that were dumping toxins into rivers in China.
What’s more, all those scandals involved first-tier suppliers. The practices of lower-tier suppliers are almost always worse, increasing companies’ exposure to serious financial, social, and environmental risks. In this article we describe various ways that MNCs can defuse the ticking time bomb those risks represent.
Where the Problems Are
To understand the situation and develop ideas for tackling it, we conducted a study of three supply networks. Each was headed by an MNC considered to be a “sustainability leader”—one in the automotive industry, one in electronics, and one in pharmaceuticals and consumer products. (For the specific selection criteria, see the “About the Research” sidebar.) We also studied a representative set of each MNC’s suppliers—a total of nine top-tier and 22 lower-tier suppliers, based variously in Mexico, China, Taiwan, and the United States. What we discovered was that many were violating the standards that the MNCs expected them to adhere to. The hoped-for cascade effect was seldom occurring.
We found problems in every country we studied. In Mexico we visited five lower-tier suppliers; all lacked environmental management systems, and four lacked procedures for handling red-flag social problems such as sexual harassment, retaliation by supervisors, and hazardous labor conditions. At three of the companies, temporary workers made up nearly 50% of the workforce, and turnover rates sometimes reached 100%, making it difficult to implement viable environmental, health, and safety programs. In China and Taiwan we visited 10 lower-tier suppliers, all of which had marginal environmental practices, dangerous working conditions, and chronic overtime issues. In the United States we studied seven lower-tier suppliers and found that three had high concentrations of airborne chemicals and a lack of systematic accident reporting.
The pattern is worrisome. Remember, all those suppliers were connected to model firms that were working proactively to encourage sustainability. If exemplary MNCs are having trouble ensuring good practices among their lower-tier suppliers, then “regular” firms, in all likelihood, are faring even worse at this.
The problem, ironically, often starts with the MNCs themselves. They frequently place orders that exceed suppliers’ capacity or impose unrealistic deadlines, leading supplier factories to demand heavy overtime from their workers. When we asked a representative at one supplier why his company had violated a 60-hour workweek limit, he gave us a frank explanation: “We didn’t want to tell our customer that we can’t produce its products on time, because otherwise it’s going to try to find someone else that can. But our customer didn’t give us enough notice to hire enough skilled people to do the job.”
First-tier suppliers, for their part, rarely concern themselves with their own suppliers’ sustainability practices. That’s often because they’re struggling with sustainability issues themselves. The noncompliant company we cited above, for example, doesn’t try to enforce a strict 60-hour workweek limit with any of its suppliers. “We don’t comply with this requirement ourselves,” the representative told us, “so how could we ask our own suppliers to do so?”
For MNCs, there are special challenges in governing lower-tier suppliers. There’s often no direct contractual relationship, and a particular MNC’s business often doesn’t mean that much to the lower-tier supplier. If American and Japanese automakers rely heavily on a certain seat maker, for example, they can demand that it adhere to their sustainability standards. But that seat maker may have a hard time getting its suppliers to follow suit. Suppose it does business with a foam manufacturer that has many other big customers in the electronics, appliance, and health care industries—each of which has different sustainability standards. The foam manufacturer has little incentive to conform to the automakers’ sustainability requirements, because the automakers account for only a small fraction of its total business.
Furthermore, most lower-tier suppliers are not well known, so they receive relatively little attention and pressure from the media, NGOs, and other stakeholders. Even when they do attract attention (for sexual harassment problems, for example, or chronic overtime demands), we found that they do not feel the need to address the issues involved. They tend to act only when MNCs intervene.
Lower-tier suppliers are also the least equipped to handle sustainability requirements. They often do not have sustainability expertise or resources, and they may be unaware of accepted social and environmental practices and regulations. They are also frequently located in countries where such regulations are nonexistent, lax, or not enforced at all. And typically they don’t know much about the sustainability requirements imposed by MNCs—but even if they do, they have no incentive to comply. This may explain why most of the lower-tier suppliers in our study lacked programs to dispose of toxic waste and in fact had no environmental management program whatsoever.
MNCs, too, are handicapped by ignorance. They frequently don’t even know who their lower-tier suppliers are, let alone where they’re located or what capabilities they have (or don’t have). Many of the 22 lower-tier suppliers in our study are small or medium-size private firms that provide little information to the public—characteristics that, in effect, make them almost invisible. Several directors of the three MNCs we studied viewed this as a big problem. “The demon in this place,” one of them said, “is the [lower-tier] suppliers that I know the least about.” Another said, “I don’t have control over the ones that pose the highest risks, so I’m losing sleep over them.”
All these concerns mean that lower-tier suppliers are unquestionably the riskiest members of a supply network. If they have poor or dubious sustainability performance, then an MNC that does business with them can endanger its reputation and suffer profound repercussions—losing customers, being forced to find new suppliers, or having its supply chain disrupted. To reduce such risks, MNCs need to include both first-tier and lower-tier suppliers in their sustainability programs.”
To continue reading this article, please visit:
https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-more-sustainable-supply-chain
Course Manuals 1-12
Course Manual 1: Reverse logistics
Types of Reverse Logistics
Reverse logistics components refer to the many types of reverse logistics. They are responsible for return handling and return policies and procedures (RPP), as well as remanufacturing, packaging, unsold items, and delivery concerns. Leases, repairs, and product retirement are examples of other sorts of reverse logistics.
Reverse Logistics Components:
• Returns management: This process deals with consumer returns or preventing returns in the first place. These activities should be quick, easy to handle, visible, and simple. Customers evaluate a company based on its re-return policy and return flow. A re-return occurs when an item is returned for the second time. Extended return policies, such as granting store credit, are frequently triggered by these returns. For instance, a client may purchase a returned goods on sale, take it home, and discover it is defective. Although the store policy does not generally allow returns, it does allow for a store credit for the damaged item. When a vendor rejects a return and returns it to the buyer without a refund, this is also known as a re-return. This scenario could occur with things that are produced to order.
• Return policy and procedure (RPP): RPP refers to a company’s return policies that it shares with customers. These policies should be easy to find and follow. Employees should follow them as well.
• Remanufacturing or refurbishment: Remanufacturing, refurbishment, and reconditioning are all examples of reverse logistics management. These tasks include product repair, rebuilding, and reworking. Cannibalization of parts is when companies recover interchangeable, reusable parts or resources from other products. Reconditioning entails dismantling, cleaning, and reassembling items.
• Packaging management: This type of reverse logistics focuses on reusing packing materials to cut down on waste and disposal.
• Unsold goods: Returns from retailers to manufacturers or distributors are handled via reverse logistics for unsold goods. Poor sales, inventory obsolescence, or delivery rejection can all cause these types of returns.
• End-of-life (EOL): When a product is designated as EOL, it is no longer useful or functional. It’s possible that the product will no longer satisfy a customer’s needs or that it will be replaced with a newer, superior version. End-of-life products are frequently recycled or disposed of by manufacturers. Manufacturers and countries may face environmental issues as a result of these products.
• Delivery failure: Drivers return merchandise to sorting centers when deliveries fail. The sorting centers then return the merchandise to their original location. While it’s uncommon, certain sorting centers may include staff who can figure out why a delivery failed, fix the problem, and resend.
• Rentals and leasing: When a piece of equipment’s lease or rental contract expires, the company that owns it has the option to remarket, discard, or redeploy it.
• Repairs and maintenance: Customers and organizations may agree to maintain or repair equipment as part of a product agreement. After repairing damaged returned products, the business occasionally sells them to another customer.
What Are the Five Rs of Reverse Logistics?
Returns, reselling, repairs, repackaging, and recycling are the five Rs of reverse logistics. Companies use metrics to track improvement and performance for each of these possibilities. Your company might want to check into the Five Rs to see whether they might help you streamline your reverse logistics procedures and cut costs.
Reverse Logistics Examples
Companies all across the world are changing how they deal with waste, and the supply chain is a key part of that. Returns, exchanges, and recycling are the topic of these reverse logistics instances.
People are more likely to acquire things from a company if they believe returns are simple, and if they have a positive return experience, they are even more likely to become repeat customers. Home Depot, for example, provides reverse logistics assistance for online orders made through its website. By 2020, the company’s online sales will account for about 15% of overall sales. When a consumer returns an item, they have the option of printing a shipping label or dropping it off in-store. These items are subsequently delivered to Home Depot’s reverse logistics centers, which deal with broken and misdirected merchandise.
Levi Strauss employs reverse logistics to promote textile sustainability. The company repurposes jeans or recovers and reprocesses fibers to turn them into raw ingredients for new jeans. Levi Strauss can make reconstructed jeans at a higher price point by partnering with other companies for repurposing.
Another example of the reverse supply chain in operation is Kohl’s, a prominent retailer with over 1,000 physical locations. Kohl’s collaborates with Amazon to accept, filter, and return Amazon returns in one package. Customers who prefer to return things in person profit from this relationship, while Kohl’s gains customers who might not otherwise visit the shop. Kohl’s also sells Amazon products, which they can simply return if they don’t sell.
To address waste, some major businesses are looking to reverse logistics. Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Unilever are all switching to reusable packaging that can be returned by customers. The containers will be cleaned and reused by the companies. These companies’ transportation and logistics are developing, and they will pick up the packing as they drop off merchandise.
GE Healthcare and Cisco, for example, specialize in refurbishing, repairing, and remanufacturing damaged or out-of-date consumer items. Cisco refurbishes items like phones, routers, and switches. Imaging and ultrasound machines are remanufactured by GE Healthcare.
Microsoft has a significant global program to deal with device, battery, and packaging end-of-life issues. Microsoft offers a program for refurbishing and reusing personal computers, and its product packaging is 100 percent recyclable.
Some organizations, such as factory outlets, off-price and discount retailers, and online auction sites, resale overstocked commodities to the secondary market. Overstock items are purchased by retailers such as TJX Companies (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods) and sold at a discount to consumers.
Importance of Reverse Logistics to Your Business
Reverse logistics is critical because it ensures a smooth flow of commodities. The method lowers costs, adds value, lowers risk, and brings the product life cycle to a close.
According to Gartner Research, around 70% of organizations intend to invest in the “circular economy.” This circular economy follows traditional logistics and then loops back around through a closed-loop supply chain, according to Gartner.
Companies participate in a system that promotes a sustainable economy by following this practice. Companies utilize recovery, repair, and recycling to discover new applications for discarded products. Materials that were once considered waste have regained their value.
Many countries have policies requiring “producers” to create more sustainable methods, hence the circular economy ensures compliance. Subsidies for waste avoidance, research and development, and recycling are all outlined in the recommendations. Other rules impose landfill restrictions, require collection and recycling systems, and penalize specific waste activities.
How Does Reverse Logistics Create Value?
Reverse logistics adds value to a business by converting trash into revenue and establishing consumer trust. Returns are resold, reused, and recycled by businesses. Furthermore, efficient reverse logistics keeps storage and distribution costs low.
According to Gartner Research, less than half of returned goods are resold at full price. Finding the optimal disposal option for returned objects has value. Retailers such as B-Stock, for example, resale returned items. In 2019, B-Stock sold 70 million returned or excess items. The company buys the returns for a portion of their original price and then resells them to the customer at a discount.
Everyone benefits from using reverse logistics to improve the efficiency of the traditional supply chain. Some companies keep their forward and reverse logistics separate, while others integrate the two. The success of merging them is determined by the company’s experience, product value, and return volume. In any case, they employ measures to increase their supply chain profitability ratios. Read on for expert advice on how to increase earnings in your business.
Benefits of Optimized Reverse Logistics
Optimized reverse logistics generates financial gains while also having a favorable influence on the environment and corporate culture. Refining the processes for what happens to products after they are delivered aids in customer retention and cost savings.
A benefit of well-executed reverse logistics is the product data obtained while communicating with customers after delivery. Data provides insight into a company’s supply chain, as well as the chance to improve products and/or customer service.
Reverse logistics optimization also leads to improved supply chain visibility, which has a number of advantages, including:
1. Cost reduction
2. Greater customer satisfaction
3. Better customer retention
4. Faster and better service
5. Loss reduction
6. Improved brand sentiment
7. Waste reduction and greater sustainability
Challenges of Reverse Logistics
The fact that reverse logistics requires bi-directional flow is a hurdle. For it to be effective, managers must set up the proper infrastructure. This frequently necessitates the use of software that can automate and track each phase of the reverse logistics process. Management must also continuously monitor and analyze the organization’s reverse logistics processes after the infrastructure is in place to maintain efficiency.
To gain a complete picture, companies must track both inbound and outbound logistics. The receipt of raw materials or items from the supplier to the manufacturer is managed by inbound logistics. The processes that convey finished items to the end customer are known as outbound logistics. Inbound and outbound logistics are both measured from the standpoint of the manufacturer, but reverse logistics can occur at any point in the supply chain.
7 Strategies to Optimize Reverse Logistics
Companies require coherent plans that account for speed, efficiency, and cost to maximize reverse logistics. Consider policies, partners, data, capacity, logistics, and transportation while taking action.
The seven strategic ways to optimize reverse logistics are:
1. Evaluate Relevant Policies and Agreements. Examine and change the procedures for returns and repairs at your organization. These policies should be straightforward and take into account the underlying causes of returns and repairs. Returns and repairs policies can be competitive differentiators for a company.
2. Collaborate with Suppliers. Close engagement with suppliers can help guarantee that customers have a seamless, integrated experience rather than one that is disconnected and difficult to traverse.
3. Use Data to Optimize Processes. You can learn why customers are returning things by collecting data on product returns. After that, you can alter your sales, product design, and forward logistics operations as needed.
4. Track products forward and backwards. When you link raw materials to completed goods and client orders, you can track ingredients in the event that you need to issue recalls—rather than issuing them for entire lines, you may pinpoint the problem and issue recalls selectively.
5. Centralize Return Centers. You can better classify products and determine the appropriate next step for each of them with a centralized return center. Businesses can more efficiently determine how to reclaim product value with the help of a center. If your organization doesn’t have the financial resources to set up a separate returns center, consider dedicating a section of your warehouse or factory to returns.
6. Examine Logistics and Transportation. Review the forward and reverse logistics and transportation processes on a regular basis. Check to see whether some of these procedures and transit can be combined. You can save trips, time, and money if your delivery trucks can pick up empty pallets as they drop off full pallets.
7. Automate. To help streamline processes, use cloud-based logistics software. A software system, for example, can keep track of asset recovery, manage refurbishment, and give business intelligence analyses.
How Do Reverse Logistics Impact Supply Chain Management?
Another important possibility for supply chain improvement is reverse logistics. The reverse and forward flow of goods is managed by supply chain management, and a surge in returns can push up supply chain expenses, reducing profitability.
What Is Reverse Logistics vs. Reverse Supply Chain?
The backward movement of goods (such as defective products) from vendors back up the supply chain is known as the reverse supply chain. It’s the polar opposite of a traditional supply chain, which moves things from manufacturer to retailer to consumer.
Everything relating to returns and what happens to such things after the customer returns them is referred to as reverse logistics. This includes developing and implementing methods to reduce return-related expenses and losses, as well as improving the returns experience.
The Future of Reverse Logistics
The future of reverse logistics revolves around reducing return disruptions. Returns are on the rise, particularly in ecommerce and, increasingly, in the retail business. Reverse logistics can be used to integrate all aspects of the returns process.
Connecting the product’s data to how personnel must handle it is one method to integrate returns. The supply chain can support this integration by documenting what happens to a returned product, such as whether it will be resold, repaired, or recycled for raw materials. Reverse logistics’ future includes integrated supply chain management software that aids in these decisions and generates useful reports.
Course Manual 2: Ethical Sourcing
Responsibly sourced supply chains can benefit everyone
Consumer companies may reduce their environmental and social impact and position themselves for significant growth by working closely with their suppliers.
Consumer enterprises will have a tremendous opportunity in the next 10 to 15 years. By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will have joined the global consuming class, up 75% from 2010. As family incomes rise and people spend more of their budgets on consumer items, consumer spending should rise even faster than the number of consumers. China, for example, is on track to add 100 million working-age consumers by 2030, with personal-products expenditure likely to double from present levels.
Supply chains: A missing link for sustainability
A well-functioning supply chain—the complete hierarchy of organizations involved in manufacturing and delivering goods, including energy providers—can help a consumer company handle two types of sustainability risks. One sort of risk concerns the long-term effects of supplying goods and services to clients. The supply chain of the average consumer company generates significantly more social and environmental costs than the company’s own operations, accounting for more than 80% of greenhouse-gas emissions and more than 90% of the impact on air, land, water, biodiversity, and geological resources (pictured below). By focusing on their supply chains, consumer companies can dramatically lower their costs.
A second form of risk arises as a result of the influence of sustainability on consumer enterprises’ supply networks. GrainCorp, a significant Australian agriculture company, stated that a drought reduced grain delivery by 23%, resulting in a 64% decline in profits in 2014. Unilever believes that it loses over €300 million per year as a result of rising food costs caused by increased water scarcity and diminishing agricultural production. Eight garment firms were included in a rating of the world’s 100 most respectable companies in 2014. Following the catastrophic collapse of the Rana Plaza plant in Bangladesh, which had been producing goods for them, two were demoted from the ranking in 2015, and they were left off the list in 2016.
Despite the fact that supply chains contain sustainability concerns, few organizations collaborate with their suppliers to mitigate these risks. Consider how companies are dealing with the climate effect of their supply networks. Only 25% of corporations that report their greenhouse-gas emissions to CDP, a nonprofit that supports the publication of environmental impact data, said they work with their suppliers to minimize emissions.
Even when companies try to sway their suppliers, they are likely to face difficulties. One of the most significant is that consumer corporations do not directly deal with all of the companies in their supply chains. Primary suppliers frequently subcontract sections of major contracts to other firms or use purchasing agents to place orders with other firms. Subcontracting is particularly common in the apparel sector; the fast-fashion industry, in particular, necessitates the production of enormous quantities of items in a short amount of time. Subcontractors might be managed haphazardly, with little regard for the health and safety of their employees.
Conditions like this make it difficult for consumer companies to understand the sustainability impact in supply chain sectors where it is most likely to occur. In a recent poll conducted by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing consumer product sustainability, less than one-fifth of the 1,700 respondents stated that they have a comprehensive understanding of their supply chains’ sustainability performance. More than half of respondents said they couldn’t identify sustainability issues in their supply chains. Consumer companies can’t start working with their suppliers to solve sustainability issues in their supply chains until they recognize them.
Three approaches to improving sustainability in supply chains
Consumer enterprises are accountable for ensuring that their supply chains are adequately managed in the perspective of buyers and investors concerned about the sustainability of the things they buy and the companies in which they possess stakes. These businesses also have a lot of clout when it comes to influencing their suppliers. Three approaches, we believe, can assist consumer companies in making their supply chains more sustainable. Identifying significant concerns across the whole supply chain, integrating the company’s supply-chain sustainability goals to the global sustainability agenda, and assisting suppliers in managing their effect are just a few examples.
Locate critical issues across the whole supply chain
Companies must assess how natural and human resources are used at every step of the production process, whether in the supply chain or in direct operations, to comprehend the impact of making consumer goods. Environmental, social, and economic challenges must all be taken into account by businesses. Because there is such a wide range of consumer products, these challenges might vary greatly from one to the next. LCD manufacture, for example, emits fluorinated greenhouse gases, while coffee farms are known for employing underage employees to produce and harvest coffee beans.
Several organizations provide measuring frameworks and instruments to assist businesses in identifying the most serious sustainability challenges in their supply chains:
TSC has developed a set of performance indicators and a reporting system for more than 110 consumer product categories, covering 80 to 90% of the effect of consumer items. TSC reviewed scientific information and consulted with over 100 stakeholder organizations to identify hotspots and build performance measures for them.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) provides over 50 performance indicators for assessing supply-chain risks linked with a variety of commodities, as well as the likelihood and severity of such risks.
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has created guidelines to assist public firms in ten industries, including consumer goods, in providing relevant information to investors on company sustainability performance throughout the value chain.
The CDP and the Global Reporting Initiative have developed measurements and standards for comparing various sorts of sustainability impact.
Link supply-chain sustainability goals to the global sustainability agenda
Companies can set goals to reduce the effect of supply-chain concerns once they know where they are. They should, ideally, base their objectives on experts’ suggestions for reducing various forms of sustainability impacts to levels that preserve or increase human well-being.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for example, is a UN-sponsored scientific group that has set global targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. CDP and WWF calculated that the consumer-staple and consumer-discretionary sectors in the United States should cut their greenhouse-gas emissions by 16 to 17 percent and 35 to 44 percent, respectively, to produce their fair share of global reductions between 2010 and 2020, based on these recommendations. Reaching those goals would also save $15 billion in the consumer staples sector and $38 billion in the consumer discretionary sector. According to the same analysis, setting aggressive reduction targets increases the likelihood of corporations meeting their targets and realizing higher returns on their carbon-reduction efforts.
General Mills adopted this method to create an emissions-reduction goal for the whole value chain that matches to the internationally agreed-upon aim of reducing emissions by 41 to 72 percent by 2050, compared to 2010 levels. General Mills declared in late 2015 that it would strive to lower emissions “from farm to fork to landfill” by 28 percent within ten years, with its supply chain accounting for more than two-thirds of its total greenhouse-gas emissions. To achieve these objectives, the company is pushing its agricultural suppliers to use sustainable methods and has committed to sourcing 100% of ten priority components from sustainable sources by 2020.
Some vendors have set their own sustainability goals in advance of getting client demands. Cargill, for example, has pledged to making the palm-oil supply chain transparent, traceable, and sustainable by 2020.
Assist suppliers with managing impact—and make sure they follow through
Consumer corporations and retailers wield tremendous purchasing power over their suppliers, giving them significant influence over their business practices. Few corporations in the consumer and other sectors utilize their clout to persuade their suppliers to lessen their environmental effect, but that is changing. Membership in CDP’s supply-chain program increased by 30% between 2010 and 2015, however there are still less than 100 companies in the program, including 19 consumer companies. From 1,000 to over 4,000, the number of suppliers reporting through the program has expanded fourfold. More than 3.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions have been reduced as a result of the supply-chain partnership, with suppliers saving an average of $1.3 million per emissions-reduction program.
Consumer corporations and others have implemented more sophisticated and effective strategies for influencing the practices of their suppliers in recent years. They’ve progressed from issuing codes of behavior, conducting audits, and fielding questionnaires to assisting suppliers in developing and implementing sustainability programs that directly support their own objectives. Farmers can employ technologies, guidelines, and products developed by Campbell Soup Company and the Environmental Defense Fund to assist them to optimize fertilizer use and promote soil conservation.
Companies’ ability to support a wide number of suppliers has also improved thanks to digital technologies. Walmart created an online platform in 2014 to assist thousands of its Chinese suppliers in making their factories more energy efficient. The program has allowed the average provider to cut their energy consumption by 10% on average. Unilever collects data on whether farmers in its supply chain are implementing sustainable practices using a software tool created in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen. Unilever provided them with the tool for free, with the goal of sourcing all of its agricultural content from sustainable sources by 2020.
Companies should track and hold suppliers accountable for their sustainability performance to support efforts like these. Consumer companies can only achieve ambitious sustainability goals if they set high expectations for their suppliers’ performance and quit doing business with those that fall short—just as they do for other factors like product cost and quality, as well as shipment timeliness.
Course Manual 3: Efficient Transport
Green Logistics and its Paradoxes
A review of common logistical system characteristics finds significant anomalies in terms of mitigating environmental externalities. They are divided into five categories:
A Blueprint for Green Logistics
Many economic sectors are already feeling the effects of environmental concerns, and the logistics business is no exception. The question is how these pressures will manifest themselves, and which actors will be the most proactive. The following are possible outcomes, however they are not mutually exclusive:
• A top-down strategy, in which government policies impose environmental standards on the logistics industry through regulations;
• A bottom-up approach, in which environmental advances are driven by industry-wide adoption of best practises by innovative businesses;
• A compromise between government and industry, e.g., through certification processes that lead to accreditation to desired environmental standards.
The first is that, in a top-down manner, government intervention will impose a green agenda on the industry. Despite the fact that this is the worst-case scenario for the logistics business, it is clear that government action and law are becoming more direct in their approach to environmental challenges. As the EU moves toward a ‘fair and efficient’ pricing strategy, there is an increasing interest in charging for external costs. A large increase in costs could have a greater impact than a tax that is phased in over time. With the reintroduction of tolls on new highways and bridges built by the private sector, as well as congestion pricing, especially in metropolitan areas, there is an increasing interest in road pricing in North America.
Pricing is only one aspect of government intervention
In most countries, laws restricting the flow of hazardous items, decreasing packaging waste, mandating the recycled content of products, and requiring product collection and recycling are already in place. Indeed, it is laws like this that has spawned the reverse logistics industry. Many sorts of government action with the potential to effect the logistics business include truck safety, driver education, and time constraints for drivers.
The problem with government intervention is that the results are frequently unknown, and in a complicated industry like logistics, many of them could have unintended repercussions. Environmentally-inspired policies may have diverse effects on freight and passenger traffic, just as common regulations may have substantially disparate effects on various modes. The environmental impact of logistics extends beyond transportation regulations.
The location of terminals and warehouses is critical for the industry to achieve its sustainability aim. However, these are frequently under the land use and zoning control of lower levels of government, whose environmental goals may differ from those of national and international organisations. The collaborative development and siting of logistics zones and intermodal terminals as co-located facilities has been a positive trend.
In certain ways, a bottom-up solution would be the industry preference if a top-down approach seemed likely. Its leaders oppose allowing government action to dictate the future course of the country. A bottom-up method can be implemented in a variety of ways. These emerge when the industry’s business objectives align with the environment’s imperatives, similar to reverse logistics. One such match is the concern of the logistics industry with empty movements, which range from empty trucking backhauls for regional freight distribution to the repositioning of empty containers across oceans. With the increasing sophistication of fleet management and IT control over scheduling and routing, even more advantages are possible. With increased energy prices, another match involves fine-tuning the routing and operations of freight transport systems. Slow steaming tactics are being adopted by maritime transport corporations as a means of reducing fuel consumption and improving the usage of their ship assets.
Possible attitudinal changes within and outside logistics are less predictable, but they have a considerably bigger potential impact on the industry’s greenness. These developments are similar to those that have already occurred in the recycling industry. There has been an outpouring of public enthusiasm for household recycling. Some companies have taken this a step further by successfully promoting their green strategy compliance and uptake. Companies have discovered that by promoting their environmental friendliness and compliance with environmental norms, they can gain an advantage over their competitors in the marketplace. Traditionally, price and quality were the deciding factors, but because environmental preservation is considered as desirable in general, greenness can become a competitive advantage. Pressure from within the industry may eventually lead to increased environmental consciousness. Buyers will expect environmental compliance, therefore companies that stand out will lose business.
The compromise looks to be the best option, with the industry establishing environmental management systems as a follow-up (EMS). Although governments are involved in varying degrees, a number of voluntary systems are in place, notably ISO 14001 and EMAS (Environmental Management and Audit System). Firms are certified under these systems after building an environmental quality control system that is adapted to their needs, as well as environmental monitoring and accounting methods. Certification is considered as proof of a company’s environmental commitment and is commonly utilized as a public relations, marketing, and government relations advantage. This is a fundamental commitment by the company to do environmental assessments and audits, which is a considerable departure from previous practises, which prioritized efficiency, quality, and cost considerations. The following are some of the issues that certification schemes face:
• Certification might be skewed in order to represent or protect the interests of particular stakeholders or markets.
• Due to the unpredictability of the rewards, achieving compliance can be a time and resource intensive task. The certification procedure might take anything from six months to two years, depending on the circumstances. This can be detrimental to small businesses and developing economies. As a result, certification can act as a barrier to entry, successfully maintaining conforming enterprises’ market advantage.
• Once a certification has been obtained, audits and review can take up a lot of time and resources because they can happen every three years. They can also relapse, suggesting that the certified firm may not adhere to the standards for which they were certified on a constant basis.
It is reasonable to believe that one or more of the three probable pathways for a greener logistics business will help shape the industry in the future. Although legislative guidelines show a strong tendency toward making users pay the entire cost of using infrastructures, logistical operations have mostly eluded these measures. The focus of environmental policy is on private automobiles (e.g. emission controls, gas mixtures, and pricing). While air transportation (noise and pollution) is becoming increasingly regulated), the degree of control over trucking, rail, and maritime modes is less. In many jurisdictions, for example, diesel fuel is much less expensive than gasoline, despite the diesel engine’s poor environmental effects. Trucks, on the other hand, emit 7 times more nitrogen oxide and 17 times more particulate matter per vehicle-kilometer than cars. The trucking sector, particularly in North America, has avoided the majority of the environmental externalities it has caused.
Applying Green Logistics to Supply Chains
Although the environment was not a major concern or priority in the industry itself, green logistics has become an increasingly important aspect of supply chain management discourse and practises in recent decades. The basic themes of materials management and physical distribution can be broadened with a focus on measures that help alleviate green logistics’ paradoxical nature:
• Product design and planning. Product design and development has traditionally focused on improving commercial and competitive aspects such as pricing, quality, features, and performance. Product design can also include planned obsolescence, with the idea that it would be abandoned after a specific length of time or use. This is a regular occurrence in the electronic products industry, as each new generation of a product (computers, phones, and televisions) improves both quantitatively and qualitatively.
• Products are increasingly being analysed from the perspective of the supply chain, including their sourcing and delivery, with the goal of building or revamping more environmentally friendly supply chains. This can include the product’s physical qualities, such as material intensity (lighter, alternative materials) or manufacturing procedures that allow for a higher part transport density. Closer suppliers (near sourcing) may be selected, even if they are more expensive, in order to reduce transportation expenses. It is also possible to choose to work with suppliers who have proved that the parts and resources they provide were obtained in a sustainable manner.
• Physical distribution is important. Concerned with measures to lessen physical distribution’s environmental implications, specifically transportation and warehousing procedures. It could entail the use of ecologically friendly facilities (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – LEED – is a globally recognised certification scheme) and carriers who follow environmentally friendly standards. Delaying shipments until a sufficient load factor is achieved could also be a priority. Alternative modes and fuels are being more widely used, particularly in city logistics. A modal shift to rail for long-distance travel and economies of scale on maritime shipping are two measures that could contribute to greener supply chains.
• Managing the materials. Concerned with decreasing the environmental implications of goods manufacture at all phases of production throughout the supply chain. Better packing and packaging is a key method for increasing load density while reducing material consumption and waste. As industrial inputs, low-impact commodities, particularly recycled resources, can be favoured. Waste management solutions are being sought to guarantee that end items are either dumped appropriately or, preferably, repurposed for other uses, as products or their components become increasingly recyclable.
• Reverse distribution. Concerned about activities and movements involving the return of used products and waste for recycling or disposal. It has created new business opportunities in specific areas of materials management (mostly recycling and waste disposal) as well as physical distribution (collection channels). Environmental benefits are derived rather than direct in this case. In a literal sense, reverse logistics adds to the traffic load and facilities necessary to handle it, therefore the transportation business does not necessarily offer a greener face. Manufacturers and domestic waste producers are the ones who get credit for the environment.
• When implementing green logistics in supply chains, the network and spatial footprint of freight distribution must be taken into account. The hub structures that support various logistical networks result in an exceptional land take. Airports, seaports, and rail terminals are among the most significant land users in cities. The development costs of many airports and seaports are so high that they require subsidies from local, regional, and national governments. The dredging of channels in ports, the provision of sites, and operating expenses are rarely fully reflected in user fees. In the United States, for example, local dredging costs were supposed to be covered by a harbour improvement tax, but this was found unconstitutional, and channel maintenance is now handled by the US Corps of Army Engineers. Infrastructure and superstructure provision in Europe is aided by national and regional government subsidies.
• The trend in logistics toward hub creation is certainly not environmentally friendly, since it encourages the convergence of traffic flows and their externalities inside a defined area. On the plus side, because these environmental externalities are focused and identifiable, this provides chances to mitigate them.
Improved logistics flows and performance necessitated the construction of new facilities in suburban regions, a phenomenon known as “logistics sprawl.” As a result, this process is linked to increased land take and a level of freight flow disorganization inside a metropolitan area. Logistics zones give distribution hubs a more cohesive setting, with shared amenities including parking lots and intermodal terminals. They have the advantage of efficiently minimizing the consequences of freight distribution on neighboring areas, such as with direct access ramps to roads (less local intrusion) or the establishment of noise and pollution buffers. Logistics zones have a variety of rationales and settings, as well as environmental mitigation techniques. Despite this, reducing the environmental implications of distribution hubs remains a difficult task.
There is mounting evidence that green logistics improves supply chain performance, particularly because greenness encourages a holistic approach to supply networks. Green logistics is viewed as a way to internalize cost savings while avoiding the issue of external expenses by the actors involved in logistical operations. Reducing packaging and waste is frequently cited as a major environmental objective. The surge in energy prices is providing extra incentives for supply chain managers to enhance logistics, which will bring energy and emissions to the forefront.
These findings back up the contradictory relationship between logistics and the environment: lowering costs does not always mean lowering environmental impacts. The logistics business is still not very green since it ignores key environmental challenges such as pollution, congestion, and resource depletion. Green logistics is an unintended consequence of policies and tactics aimed at improving supply chain cost, efficiency, and dependability. City logistics, where the “last mile” in freight distribution as well as a substantial portion of reverse logistics activities takes place, is a key aspect of more ecologically friendly freight distribution systems. Even in this setting, however, the driving force is cost, time, reliability, warehousing, and information technology, not directly environmental considerations.
Course Manual 4: Packaging and Waste
Consumers are paying much closer attention to the environmental impact of their purchases and voting with their wallets. Manufacturers, merchants, and other brands must move toward sustainable solutions as “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” becomes more crucial. Environmentally conscious sourcing, production, and shipping are critical, but consumers and governments are increasingly concerned about packaging waste.
There are numerous motivations to decrease packaging in the supply chain, including consumer concerns, legal obligations, industry leaders, and margin preservation.
In the first section of this Course Manual, we’ll discuss:
• The situation of packaging today, as well as how legal, corporate, and consumer issues are affecting the stakes.
• How packaging will evolve as it gets smarter and more sustainable in the future.
The Current State of Packaging
There are three key angles to consider while analyzing the packaging market right now:
1. Governmental and legal regulations that are enacting new rules that force package adjustments.
2. Corporate and industry leaders’ actions, as well as the necessity to stay up with competition.
3. The behaviors of the end consumer and attitudes about your brands, products, and packaging.
How Governmental and Legal Regulations Work to Reduce Packaging Waste
Governments and regulatory organizations all over the world are drafting new rules to limit packaging and minimize waste. The following packaging guidelines and rules are either being negotiated or have been passed into law:
• Europe: From January 1st, 2021, an EU-wide tax on non-recycled plastic packaging waste will be in effect, costing businesses around € 0.80 per kg of non-recycled plastic packaging waste in their supply chain.
• Europe: By 2024, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive will have been law, requiring packaging to satisfy criteria for packaging and weight, as well as steps to avoid packaging waste, such as holding producers accountable.
• Europe: A recently passed rule regulates single-use plastic packaging, focusing on ten of the most common single-use plastic products that contribute to marine pollution.
• Australia: The Australian Packaging Covenant states that by 2025, all packaging in Australia shall be recyclable, compostable, or reused.
• California, U.S.: SB-54 Solid waste: packaging and goods is a bill that aims to minimize plastic waste by 75% and phase out single-use plastics almost entirely.
These are just a few of the regulations that suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and others must comply with. This is only the beginning. As countries take more action against packaging pollution in the next years, we should expect a slew of new regulations.
These regulations must be met by enterprises that want to sell on international markets. Failure to do so may result in legal action, fines, a loss of reputation, or the inability to sell into specific geographies.
How Corporate Behavior Requires All Businesses to Act-On Packaging Waste
Businesses of all kinds are looking for any advantage they can get to stay ahead of their competitors in an increasingly competitive global environment. Businesses of all sizes must keep up or risk losing client share as market leaders and significant industry players declare serious initiatives to eliminate packaging waste.
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retailers, in particular, are putting a greater emphasis on environmentally friendly packaging. Profit margins drive much of this—less packaging and lighter materials lower prices across the supply chain.
Initiatives announced by corporate leaders include:
• Walmart made a new pledge to reduce packaging waste by making all of its private-label packaging recyclable, reusable, or biodegradable by 2025.
• By 2025, Nestlé plans to invest millions of dollars in making all of its packaging recyclable or reusable.
• The Loop Reusable Packaging Program, which is endorsed by industry giants such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble, will allow consumers to buy common products in durable, reusable packaging. Others include The Body Shop, Danone, and Carrefour.
• Since 2017, Apple has been decreasing its packaging footprint and continues to do so.
These business leaders are raising the bar for everyone else by putting “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” into practice. These industry behemoths can also afford to portray their companies as environmentally conscientious and sustainable, and smaller businesses must follow suit.
How Consumer Behaviors Around Sustainability Are Influencing What They Choose to Buy
Consumers are making better decisions about how to spend their money. Excessive packaging is also a turn-off, not merely because of the provenance or carbon footprint of manufacture and logistics.
According to studies, consumers’ purchasing decisions on sustainability are as follows:
• Environmental impact was regarded as extremely or very significant for packaging by 43% of US customers.
• Packaging is a key element in 38 percent of American customers’ shopping decisions.
• 70% of “purpose-driven” buyers will pay a premium of up to 35% extra for environmentally friendly items.
• 40% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for more environmentally friendly packaging.
The global pandemic had an impact on behavior as well. Consumer preferences are influenced by hygienic concerns, ease of sanitization, and product origins. Environmental concerns are shifting away from local retailers and toward Amazon and other industrial giants as a result of the transition to online purchasing.
So, how will this legal, corporate, and consumer scrutiny affect future packing methods and generate more environmentally friendly supply chains?
How Packaging is Changing to Become Smarter and More Sustainable
Several important packaging trends, we believe, will have an impact on supply chains in the next years.
Reduce Use of Conventional Packaging Materials and Seek Alternatives
• New packaging designs that use less material and emphasize alternatives such as recycled materials, fiber-based packaging, and other alternatives to virgin wood and paper.
• Consumers having access to customized, reusable shopping containers that they may keep at home and bring to the store to keep products fresh and of high quality.
• Ecommerce-driven packaging and logistics, which could lead to more centralized collection facilities and a rethinking of “last-mile” distribution.
• Edible packaging produced from vegetables and starches that may be consumed by humans or fed to pets.
Innovation and Customization for Packaging
• Temperature and other environmental monitoring on packaging that can react to storage temperatures and other circumstances, so consumers are better informed about product quality and expiration dates.
• Interactive packaging using RFID or other scannable elements that can deliver extra information such as recipes or complementary components or items.
• Personalized packaging aimed at certain customer categories and their needs, such as simple reuse, recycling, or composting instructions.
More Efficient Packaging for Reducing and Recycling
• More customized items and SKUs, with packaging geared around user convenience and price.
• Packaging with a focus on hygiene to help alleviate concerns about catching COVID-19.
• Shippable ecommerce packaging for direct-to-consumer models.
• Micro-supply chains, which allow things to be created and distributed close to the end consumer while also incorporating reuse and recycling.
The race to sustainability starts in the supply chain
The in-store retail experience and its impact on the more or less eco-conscious consumer are frequently discussed in relation to sustainable packaging. Trade and wholesale supply chains, on the other hand, generate significant amounts of secondary packaging waste and recycling.
According to David Wilson, UK managing director of Vanden Recycling, what happens upstream is critical, and the high volume of packaging waste involved presents real business potential.
The average consumer still has little understanding of the supply chain’s early stages.
“Back-of-store recyclates form a large part of packaging material collected and reprocessed, with advantages over post-consumer waste,” he says. “These include concentrated tonnage in known locations, the opportunity to capture as a single stream, plus an interested party incentivized by rebate or reduced cost.”
Furthermore, warehousing, storage, shipping, and logistics can all have an impact on and even define the formats that make their way into consumer bags and hands, as well as business offices and stores.
Bigger loads mean fewer trips for more sustainable delivery
This supply chain hinterland also supports the burgeoning omnichannel retail and home-delivery businesses, where consumers receive industrial-grade packaging, return it occasionally, but do not always reuse or recycle it.
Maximizing the load potential, either by weight or volume, appears to be a simple way to reduce both the quantity of secondary packaging and the number of associated vehicle moves. The largest roadblock, according to Stuart Milligan, a PhD researcher at the University of Bath School of Management, is the lack of a sector standard.
“Smaller pallet loads tend to be produced as manufacturers and retailers are not joined up with regards to handling and storage,” he says. “A standardized approach would result in greater synergies.”
Green strategies may also have monetary advantages. “There will be low-hanging fruit which will yield both a reduction in packaging and financial savings. The challenge will come when the quick wins have been realized and retailers then have to invest to redesign their processes,” he adds.
While pricing increases are a business reality, excellent communication is not, according to Robert Lockyer, CEO and founder of Delta Global, a luxury packaging developer. “Retailers must be more open to options that may cost a little more, while prepared for consumer reaction to rising prices. If we accept a general rule that it will cost more to go green initially, but less in the long term, those who drive change will benefit from customer loyalty,” he says. “Ultimately, for change to happen, the retail industry must get better at informing customers.”
Innovation is on the up for sustainable packaging
Meanwhile, costs are rising, according to Seb Gauthier, founder and director of BlueRock, a bamboo toothbrush subscription service. “The average consumer still has little awareness of the early stages of the supply chain, so positive consumer behaviour cannot be relied on to absorb the cost. The initiation of greening early-door secondary supply chains will therefore likely come in the form of tax breaks and other incentives,” he says.
The good news is that innovation can also be found upstream. Garçon Wines is focusing on secondary packaging and logistics in addition to pioneering an award-winning 100 percent recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) letterbox-friendly flat wine bottle.
The Garçon Wines 10 Flat Bottles Case, created in partnership with DS Smith, will drastically reduce carbon emissions and costs. Because 10 full-sized, flat wine bottles may fit in a compact container instead of only around four standard, round glass bottles, a loaded pallet can carry 1,040 bottles of wine instead of just 456.
According to Santiago Navarro, chief executive and co-founder of Garçon Wines, sustainable packaging is simply the future. “The round wine bottles, we know and like, have been around since the 19th century, but are no longer fit for purpose. We offer a 21st-century wine bottle which is spatially efficient, lightweight, durable and sustainable,” he says.
“The strength and low weight of the bottle also mean the bottles need considerably less secondary packaging to move safely through the supply chain.”
Small changes make a huge difference
Anti-mosquito business incognito, which won the Waitrose Way Treading Lightly Award for green supply chain, is another consumer-facing advocate of upstream sustainability.
In addition to studying renewable sugarcane alternatives to regular plastic, the company employs sustainable cardboard for all back-end packaging, uses green bubble wrap, and shreds its own paper for reuse as recyclable fill.
“We put in requests to fulfilment houses for green packaging and delivery,” explains managing director Howard Carter. “We also put pressure on third-party manufacturers.”
Closing the loops in the supply chain
Greening can be about where, as well as what, though, Mr Carter adds. “Some companies may have a delivery that goes to the warehouse first and then to the fulfilment house. What we’ve done is to locate the warehouse in the fulfilment house. This closed loop means fewer journeys,” he says.
Lucozade Ribena Suntory invested £70 million in its Gloucestershire factory in 2010 to bring bottle production onsite with Logoplaste. This also eliminated the need for transportation, resulting in lower supply chain emissions.
As a result, in addition to high-profile initiatives like handing out 30,000 Lucozade Sport Ooho seaweed capsules at the London Marathon, much of the greening is still done behind the scenes.
According to Michelle Norman, director of external affairs and sustainability, “lightweighting” is an important aspect of the worldwide brand’s plan to make all of its plastic packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.
“In January, we lightweighted the best-selling 500ml Ribena bottle, which removed 325 tonnes of plastic from production every year. Now the bottle is also undergoing a redesign to ensure it is fully compatible with bottle-to-bottle recycling,” she says.
Reusability trumps reduction
According to UPS’s head of global sustainability, Patrick Browne, innovation comes in all forms and sizes, and even the smallest change can have a huge impact.
“We encourage customers to focus on right-sizing, using the minimum amount of packaging to achieve maximum protection,” he says. “There’s less cardboard, obviously, also less packing material, which helps reduce waste. Right-sizing enables us to better optimise space in our trucks and deliver more each trip.”
Using reusable transport packaging instead of single-use cardboard cartons is a more environmentally responsible option.
TerraCycle, for example, collaborated with UPS last year to test a customised, sturdy, and reusable tote for their revolutionary Loop campaign, which aims to minimise single-use packaging of daily things like shampoo, detergent, and even ice cream.
Several European hospitals and healthcare companies are currently shipping with reusables. According to Ester Van den Bossche, UPS temperature true packaging solutions manager, Europe, it decreases costs over time, minimises waste, and saves on recycling, thus numerous benefits are achievable.
“Large-volume shippers within a closed-loop or managed open-loop system might consider using reusable transport packaging such as pallets and crates, totes or bins,” she says. “These items can be used for shipping or for storage and transportation.”
According to Debbie Hitchen, director and circular economy lead at consultancy Anthesis, reusability sometimes trumps even reduction because if we reduce packing to the point where things are destroyed, we score an own goal.
“Some stores have started transporting fruit and veg in stackable plastic crates that go straight onto the shelf. You might think old cardboard boxes were better because they are easier to recycle, but it turns out that the plastic crates protect well and are returned to be reused over and over,” she points out.
The secondary success storey isn’t always visible, but it’s critical in every manner for achieving sustainability goals.
Course Manual 5: Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing is key to supply chain growth
New items flow from manufacture to a customer in the majority of supply chains. Those products are increasingly being returned to the supply chain, either as returns for warranty work or to be rebuilt for reuse.
According to recent data from the APICS Foundation, remanufacturing serves a wide range of strategic objectives for businesses, provides significant career growth opportunities for workers, and has become critical in advancing sustainability goals.
“Remanufacturing was once considered a niche process,” says Jonathan Thatcher, director of research, APICS Foundation. “Today it is becoming a mainstream practice.”
The findings were published in a recent paper by the APICS Foundation called Examining Remanufacturing in Supply Chain and Operations Management. The report is accessible for download on the internet. On June 5, at 1:00 p.m. CT, Thatcher will host a webinar on the findings. The complete report and registration for the webinar may be found here.
For supply chain and operations management specialists, remanufacturing, defined as the process of restoring used or worn products to like-new condition, is a developing potential. Previously limited to some aspects of the B2C supply chain, such as customer service, remanufacturing has found a home in both B2C and B2B supply chain models, and is rapidly expanding as more markets accept and trust the “as good as new” notion. While many companies consider remanufacturing as part of their warranty processes, Thatcher believes there are a variety of entrepreneurial potential in areas including electronic gadgets, printer cartridges, and other products.
“Remanufacturing provides obvious benefit for the forward progress of sustainable supply chain initiatives,” adds Sharon Rice, executive director, APICS Foundation. “Supply chain professionals are eager for more information about this quickly evolving area because, as our survey has shown, more than 50 percent of survey respondents felt it was important for supply chain and operations management professionals to have at least some familiarity with remanufacturing as they expect a growing demand for remanufactured goods.”
The APICS Foundation polled supply chain and operations management practitioners in 2013 to obtain data for this report, in response to increased interest in remanufacturing and demands for more research.
Three important findings emerged from the polls, which help to define the current impression of remanufacturing and how professionals expect it to assist the industry in the future:
• Remanufacturing drives sustainability – Sustainability was cited by 68% of respondents as the most important benefit of remanufacturing, and 41% already consider it a formal component of their organization’s sustainability strategies.
• Remanufacturing provides vast organizational benefits – While remanufacturing added to the complexity of reverse supply chains, it was praised for the additional benefits it provides to an organisation, including increased customer satisfaction (66 percent), improved product and organisational value chain (47 percent), and lower production costs when compared to new manufacturing (46 percent).
• Remanufacturing adds career versatility – Forecasting, planning, and inventory management are all new abilities required for remanufacturing. A supply chain and operations management expert with these abilities can better recognise opportunities for growth and innovation in forward and reverse supply chains.
APICS also discovered that a number of supportive trends are convergent in favor of remanufacturing, ranging from the opportunity to build brand awareness in emerging markets that require lower-than-new price points to the development of a functional reverse supply chain path as a risk management strategy.
Remanufacturing and reverse logistics are becoming more common in the supply chain, and it may become a mandatory capability for supply chain workers in the future. “This is no longer in the category of emerging competency,” says Rice. “As APICS looks to keep up to date, we believe that in the future, we’ll see remanufacturing in our certifications as a base line competency.”
Benefits of Green Manufacturing
Manufacturers are under a lot of pressure these days to find cost-effective solutions to increase the quality of their products while also cutting prices. Going green appears to be practically impossible for many of these businesses. However, as customer and government pressure continues to mount, many firms will be forced to make a decision.
Many manufacturers are unaware that there are a variety of incentives available to businesses who choose to go green. These advantages may assist in increasing sales while cutting overall operational costs. The awareness of these significant advantages has prompted a number of businesses to adopt environmentally friendly modifications in their workplaces. The top five advantages of green manufacturing are listed below.
Save Money
Many green workplace modifications, if well managed, can help lower a manufacturer’s overall operating expenses. Solar and wind energy, as well as energy-efficient equipment and machinery, can significantly lower power expenditures. Green production practises, such as recycling and becoming paperless, can also save money on supplies. When it comes to the bottom line, green manufacturing investments can pay off handsomely.
Tax Credits and Incentives
The government has created a variety of tax credits and incentives to assist enterprises in making the changeover to green manufacturing alternatives. These credits and incentives are designed to help manufacturers pay the costs of implementing green policies. Because these credits are available at both the federal and state levels, the specific incentives available may differ by state. Furthermore, several utility companies provide green manufacturers with incentives and rebates.
Built a Green Reputation
With so many people worried about the environment these days, choosing to go green can benefit a company’s reputation. Companies may easily rebrand their green manufacturing image in order to attract a new consumer base. This will almost probably enhance the manufacturer’s overall sales.
Business Growth
Manufacturers compete fiercely for numerous government contracts, yet even one government deal can be extremely beneficial to a company. Making the decision to go green can help manufacturers not only increase their chances of winning a contract, but it can also make them eligible for a wider range of government contracts. This is because certain contracts stipulate that only companies that meet specified green manufacturing requirements are allowed to participate.
Impact on the Environment
Making green manufacturing decisions will undoubtedly have a good impact on the environment. It will enable that manufacturer to have a lower carbon footprint and discharge fewer poisons into the atmosphere. This informs the manufacturer that they are making the best options possible to safeguard the environment.
Many companies have already made the decision to go green, and the vast majority of them are reaping all of the above benefits. Making the conversion to green manufacturing may appear daunting at first, but if done correctly, it can be extremely beneficial to the firm. Green manufacturing may no longer be an option, but a must for any firm trying to stay competitive in today’s market, thanks to tax perks, incentives, cost savings, and increased sales.
Green Manufacturing Success Stories
Working with their local MEP Centers on sustainability and green projects, American manufacturers are generating verifiable results. Among the accomplishments are:
• E3 Review Strengthens Virginia Company’s Environmental Commitment, Savings of Over $200,000.
• Lean and Clean Programs Aid $3 Million in New / Retained Sales, 5 New Employees, and $500,000 in Cost Savings for New Jersey Manufacturer.
• The Profitable Sustainability Initiative (PSI) assists a Wisconsin company in reducing fuel and emissions while also recognising $75,000 in shipping costs.
• Kansas organisation saves more than $61,000 in overall equipment savings and $24,000 in annual energy savings thanks to an energy-savings project.
• New Hampshire manufacturer reduces energy use by 10% and saves $25,000 per year thanks to an energy efficiency project.
Course Manual 6: Eco-design of products
As the world’s population approaches 8 billion, the linear economy’s old “buy, use, throw away” paradigm no longer makes sense and is leading us down a path of uncertainty. As a result of this realization, eco-design has emerged as a production viewpoint that incorporates environmental protection principles into every phase: from conception to development, transportation to recycling.
We have excellent reasons to manufacture more effectively and efficiently: raw materials and natural resources are scarce and will run out if we are not attentive. Minerals are critical to key areas of the economy, such as the technology industry, while some, such as water, are life-sustaining. When you factor in CO2 and the energy consumed by manufacturing, the price the Earth is paying is unsustainable.
Sustainable Production and Design
Human consumption of natural resources has doubled in the last 30 years, according to Greenpeace, prompting the United Nations (UN) to advocate for a new production model that maximizes resource and energy efficiency, develops sustainable infrastructure, expands access to basic services, and creates high-quality green job opportunities. Sustainable manufacturing has environmental benefits for both industry and society.
What is Eco-design and why is it so important?
There’s something wrong with a civilization that needs 7,500 litres of water to make a pair of pants – the amount of water consumed by a person in seven years. This UN report from 2019 is just the tip of an iceberg that requires solutions like eco-design. It’s a new way of thinking about product sustainability from beginning to end, with green criteria applied to extraction, production, distribution, and consumer usage.
Eco-design is a cornerstone of the circular economy, a concept aimed at giving items an unlimited life cycle within a closed, waste-free loop. In contrast to the buy-use-throw-away or ‘linear’ economy, designing using sustainable materials ensures that commodities in the circular economy reach the end of their useful life in a suitable state to be put to new uses.
Features and examples of eco-design
Many product features are affected by the eco-design approach, including:
Fewer materials
Fewer materials and energy are used in the manufacturing process. This conserves resources while lowering pollution.
Easy to recycle
Using materials that are easily identifiable, reused, or recycled ensures easy disassembly.
Use of bio-materials
It is recommended to use a single type of material or a biodegradable material, whether natural or synthetic.
Long-lasting
Long-lasting shapes and sustainable materials should be used to extend the product’s useful life.
Multipurpose, reusable and recyclable
Products should have numerous purposes, be reusable, and be made from recyclable materials.
Lowering emissions
To reduce CO2 emissions, products should be of an appropriate size to conserve material and fuel during transportation.
Innovative
Product efficiency and sustainability can be improved through technological advancements.
Green message
Sustainable design communicates the concept of sustainability through messages embedded in the product.
Eco-design can be seen in a variety of consumer products, including biodegradable furniture, recycled dinnerware, edible coffee cups, bamboo sunglasses or toothbrushes, as well as clothing and shoes created from ocean plastic and ecological gold jewellery.
The Eco Design Approach
Eco design is a component of a broader strategy known as “multi-step” and “multi-criteria.” In a circular economy perspective, this method supports a product’s complete lifecycle by conserving and recycling as much natural resources as possible. It has to do with taking into account specific criteria at various stages:
Successive stages:
• Extraction and delivery of raw materials
• Manufacturing
• Product distribution
• Consumer use
• End of life (recovery and recycling)
Main criteria taken into account:
• Consumption of raw materials
• Energy consumption
• Releases in the natural environment and other pollutions
• Climatic impacts
• Impacts on biodiversity
Some goals and principles are specifically about:
• Using fewer materials and resources for product manufacture
• Using materials and resources with the least amount of environmental impact
• Producing the least amount of waste and pollution feasible
• Reducing the ecological implications of distribution
• Intelligent design that makes disassembly simple makes reusing and recycling easier
The organization that extracts materials as well as manufactures are both included in an eco design strategy. All persons and structures engaged in the rest of a product’s lifecycle, such as retailers and customers, are included as well. All of the procedures that make up a product’s value chain are also discussed.
Tools For Eco-Design
Before implementing an eco-design strategy, we must first determine which stages of a product’s lifecycle are the most environmentally important. The following questions should be asked: “Are the materials utilized biodegradable?” and “Is the energy used for extraction renewable?” By answering them, you’ll be able to figure out what steps need to be performed to effectively reduce the product’s environmental impacts.
Eco-design can also be applied in house design from a more personal standpoint. In this case, eco-design mostly entails the use of renewable building materials such as bamboo or cork, as well as the purchase of used furniture and the use of recycled fiber carpets. At the same time, eco-design at home entails making efficient use of energy. Using double-paned glass windows for greater insulation and investing in solar panels to generate energy are also common practices in this regard.
Companies Using Eco-design As A CSR Approach
Eco-design is also an integral part of a company’s CSR strategy (Corporate Social Responsibility). Many organisations are employing eco-design concepts to create greener products in order to lessen their environmental impact. Biomimicry is a fantastic design philosophy that is inspired by emulating nature, and it is linked to eco-design.
Examples Of Eco-Design
Example Of Eco Design #1:
Malongo Ek’Oh Espresso Machine (2013 EcoProduct Award for Sustainable Development): programmed anti-obsolescence design, modular, easy to repair, solid materials, European production, energy efficient (75%)… These machines, which are associated with fair trade coffee, provide services that are comparable to, if not better than, those provided by competitors.
Example Of Eco Design #2:
CAMIF Conso’ localization service: the consumer can choose the equipment item for his or her home (furniture, bedding, etc.) based on the closeness of the manufacturing location to his or her residence. This reduces CO2 emissions during delivery and is an excellent illustration of the manufacturer’s eco-design effort.
Example Of Eco Design #3:
Adidas-Parley shoes and clothing are the result of a collaboration between the sportswear manufacturer and the environmental group. They devised a design-conscious way to combat the problem of plastic pollution and its effects on the marine environment.
Example Of Eco Design #4:
IKEA’s Kungsbacka kitchen is also made from recycled plastic bottles and wood
Example Of Eco Design #5:
Some pieces of Lego (the well-known bricks) are now constructed with plant-based polymers. They’re 98% polyethylene, made from sugar cane
Example Of Eco Design #6:
Nestlé recently announced that Haagen-Dazs ice cream will be sold in reusable, double-walled steel containers.
Example Of Eco Design #7:
When compared to CFL bulbs, LED bulbs do not contain mercury and use substantially less energy. They do, however, have significant drawbacks.
Example Of Eco Design #8:
Patagonia’s (sportswear) organic cotton is another example of how cotton may be cultivated with less water and without destroying the environment.
Example Of Eco Design #9:
Bamboo toothbrushes are biodegradable and manufactured from a tree that grows at an extraordinarily quick rate.
Example Of Eco Design #10:
Cases for cellphones produced from recycled plastic or wood that are environmentally friendly.
Eco-design: Regulation
The European Directive 2009/125/CE provided a framework for the establishment of ecodesign requirements for energy-related items when it comes to the connection between eco-design and energy efficiency. It discusses, among other things, the minimal performance standards required to bring products on the market (in particular, household appliances). Nonetheless, in April 2021, a new rule went into effect with measures that are more favourable to improving eco-design in the EU.
Furthermore, an eco-designed product must be supported with the ability for consumers to obtain reliable information about the features that qualify it as such, such as:
• A definition of eco-design in accordance with ISO / TR 14062 or Directive 2009/125 / EC
• The specifics of what is environmentally engineered (product, component, packaging, etc.) If this isn’t the case for all of the items purchased (packaging included)
• The product’s or packaging’s primary environmental qualities
• Information on the environmental effect reductions achieved as a result of the eco-design process, both qualitative and quantitative.
Course Manual 7: Renewable Energy
What is renewable energy?
Overview
Renewable energy resources, also known as “renewables,” are fuel sources that replenish themselves over time, such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydropower. Renewable energy sources, unlike nuclear power and fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), deliver clean, safe, and reliable power with low or no carbon emissions.
Recent developments and outlook
Renewable energy now accounts for 13% of all electricity generated in the United States, up from 8% in 2007. In 2015, renewables accounted for 90% of the growth in electricity generation. By 2040, zero-emission energy sources are predicted to account for 60% of installed capacity.
The acceptance and advancement of renewables has been boosted by overcoming previous hurdles. Renewable energy is currently more economical and accessible than it has ever been. The cost of the technology has come down. Access to new finance instruments has improved, and capital needs have decreased. In some places of the United States, favorable regulation has created incentives for selling excess supply back to the grid. The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21), which saw 195 countries approve the world’s first universal, legally binding global climate agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, demonstrates the growing significance of policy in determining renewable energy growth.
Many companies are assessing and revising energy management plans, of which renewables are often a fundamental component, in reaction to evolving public perception. Companies like Apple Inc. and Kohl’s are “all-in” on renewable energy. The American Business Act on Climate Pledge has been signed by 154 companies, and the RE100 program has committed 81 companies to seeking 100 percent renewable energy. Incorporating renewable energy into the supply chain Renewable energy can be leveraged throughout the supply chain to lower long-term costs, reduce risk, generate new revenue, boost brand value, and boost employee engagement. Companies should re-evaluate their energy procurement strategy as technologies and laws advance to take advantage of these potential benefits.
Benefits of renewable energy in the supply chain
Value drivers for renewable energy
Renewable energy may deliver cost and risk benefits across the supply chain when it is handled as a strategic asset rather than a tactical expense. Renewable energy has the potential to deliver a more reliable and constant energy supply than fossil fuels, with fewer hazards associated with commodity price volatility. On-site renewables such as wind and solar can be combined with storage devices and fuel cells to ensure that vital company operations and supply chain functions are not disrupted. To reach scale, many businesses opt for power purchase agreements (PPAs), which provide electricity at a fixed price for a period of time ranging from 15 to 20 years.
The shift from monthly power bills to long-term energy procurement via PPAs transforms energy from an overhead cost to a strategically managed direct material input, resulting in cost savings. A renewable energy procurement plan is also an active way to mitigate risk from legislative changes. Future government action on climate change could impose additional compliance requirements, ranging from COP21 to the 2015 U.S. Clean Power Plan, which proposes a 30% reduction in carbon pollution from the power sector compared to 2005 levels. Investing in a clean energy strategy now could give you a leg up on future regulatory changes. Increased usage of renewable energy in the supply chain has the potential to boost income as well. Consumers are increasingly choosing to buy from and invest in firms that are environmentally and socially conscious.
In general, many of today’s supply networks still rely heavily on people. The rationale for renewable energy adoption is strengthened by the positive impact on corporate talent: company performance on sustainability concerns can help attract and retain talent. Switching to renewable energy in visible ways can help minimize attrition rates, lowering training expenses, increasing in-house experience, and serving as a talent differentiator. These intangible talent benefits may be more difficult to measure, but they are still a crucial factor to consider when deciding on a renewable energy strategy. Companies can get intangible benefits from renewable energy by installing highly visible renewable energy solutions, such as solar carports in parking garages.
Key levers for renewable energy in your supply chain
Supply chain applications
Significant renewable energy opportunities exist at each stage of the supply chain.
Examples
01. Develop: Due to the energy requirements of early-stage design equipment, energy consumption is generally considerable during design and prototyping activities. During this stage of the product lifecycle, renewables can assist minimize energy cost and effect, increasing overall life cycle assessment (LCA) of products.
02. Plan: Improve forecasts and reduce exposure to commodity price fluctuation associated with traditional fossil fuels.
03. Source: Effectively shift energy from an overhead to direct material by sourcing a 15-year PPA for energy generated from an offshore wind farm.
04. Make: Decrease manufacturing-related operational costs and sensitivity to commodity prices by locking in cheaper, longer-term contracts for renewables.
05. Deliver: Reduce warehouse energy spend through onsite rooftop solar photovoltaics, and reduce transportation fuel costs through truck electrification technologies powered by the same system.
06. Return: Use material waste or unsellable organic products (food waste) to make energy using waste-to-energy technologies such as anaerobic digesters.
These are just a handful of the many ways that renewable energy can help supply chains advance. In the end-to-end supply chain, there are opportunities for cost reduction and value generation.
Motivation for action
The time has come for businesses to evaluate their supply chains in terms of renewable energy adoption. Renewable energy is more accessible than it has ever been. The overall cost of technology has fallen, and new finance mechanisms are allowing for more dynamic implementation. The motivation—and momentum—for renewable energy is high, thanks to improvements in capital costs, technical efficiency, legislation, and public or other stakeholder opinion. For many organizations, renewable energy may be a significant source of value. While each firm that develops the ability to capture value from renewable energy must create a portfolio of investments that is adapted to its specific organizational profile, renewable energy investments can have a significant and beneficial impact on their operations.
Course Manual 8: Coordinate with Partners
Publications and outputs
According to the findings, certain organizations in both developed and developing nations have implemented green supply chain integration, which is a type of integrated green supply chain management (GSCI). It demonstrates that businesses have begun to develop an integrated management system that directs the implementation of corporate strategy and top management behaviour toward a better balance of financial and environmental objectives (green internal integration).
Before organisations can effectively communicate and interact with suppliers, consumers, and community stakeholders, this is a critical first step. It demonstrates that some businesses have begun to collaborate with community stakeholders such as local governments, non-governmental organisations, and even competitors in order to coordinate their efforts in greening global supply chains (green stakeholder integration). Such multi-stakeholder initiatives are especially effective when they are backed by large customers and the UN. It has also been discovered that collaboration with suppliers, consumers, and other stakeholders is dependent on more than just building new trust and relationships. It is reliant on information sharing and the integration of environmental management practises throughout supply chains (green supplier, customer and stakeholder integration).
More importantly, research has demonstrated that applying all of the green supply chain integration (GSCI) methods can improve competitive performance in terms of the environment, cost, and finance. These findings are encouraging because they show that being lean, green, and lucrative is doable. However, the research reveals that businesses can’t just focus on one of the four GSCI principles and expect to see cost and financial savings. Some GSCI approaches are better for enhancing environmental performance (green internal and supplier integration), while others are better for cost and financial performance (green supplier and customer integration). According to the findings, organizations who successfully integrated all four GSCI practises (green internal, supplier, customer, and stakeholder integration) outperformed their competitors in terms of environmental, cost, and financial performance.
Supply chain collaboration (SCC)
Advancing GSCM necessitates a high level of information-sharing connection between suppliers and customers, as well as collaboration and integration.
Collaboration in supply chain refers to a process by which trading partners collaborate to arrange important supply chain operations such as raw material delivery, manufacturing, and delivery of finished products to end customers. Business planning, sales forecasting, and all procedures required to refill raw materials and finished products are all part of the process.
Supply chain collaboration (SCC) is a long-term engagement between supply chain partners. Collaboration begins with open-market discussions, in which a smaller number of providers work together to supply mutual customers. Cooperation refers to organizations working together to achieve a common goal, such as customer satisfaction. Through information linkages, such as the usage of electronic data interchange, the relationship progresses to the next level of coordination (EDI).
Coordination refers to the ability of diverse businesses to work together to sort out their difficulties, much like supply chain partners do to give value to customers. Following that, businesses begin to collaborate when they start combined planning and technology exchange (supply chain integration). As a result, supply chain integration is a facilitator of collaboration.
There are two types of supply chain collaboration: vertical collaboration and horizontal collaboration.
The link between external suppliers, internal focus organizations, and customers is known as vertical collaboration (external).
When the focal company (internal) collaborates with other organizations and third-party logistics (3PL) businesses (external) for collaborative transportation, this is known as horizontal collaboration.
Consider Partnerships
Stanley Black and Decker and Ecolab, a manufacturer and provider of water, hygiene, and infection control products, are both investing in startups and early-stage companies that are developing promising supply chain sustainability solutions. To improve the accuracy and speed of data collection, analysis, and reporting, these solutions use automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data analytic technologies.
Stanley, for example, launched the Stanley + Techstars Accelerator to help entrepreneurs build artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions for advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing processes, as well as sustainable packaging development. The Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator, which promotes companies creating solutions to decrease waste in global food supply chains, counts Ecolab as a founding partner.
Take Action; Measure Results
The following steps—the precise policies, best practises, and technologies a firm can apply to decrease its environmental impact and help its supply chain partners and consumers do the same—are informed by achieving full visibility across the whole supply chain. These could include using renewable energy sources, adopting a “right to repair” product design methodology to extend product lifespans, replacing PVC-based packaging with recyclable and emissions-free materials like cardboard, and implementing smart water management methods.
“Technology has advanced to a point where we can now monitor, evaluate and analyze facility water use in ways that we couldn’t in the past, making it easier to identify risks,” said John Guttery, Ecolab’s senior vice president of enterprise initiatives. “We have a level of transparency that allows facility managers to identify and diagnose areas of their operations that can be made more efficient through better methods of water treatment or simply avoiding using more water resources than necessary. The insights we have today provide the data needed to make the business case for action, implement effective localized solutions and report progress back to the board room.”
A Group Effort
Guttery and Dan Fitzgerald, Stanley’s product sustainability director, also suggest connecting into a network of like-minded organizations, big and small, from many industries, who are devoted to increasing sustainability. Ecolab, according to Guttery, is looking for suppliers “who can offer alternative solutions that provide equivalent or better functionality with a lower impact.” When that’s not possible, “we additionally request that suppliers work on improving their operational footprint so the materials or components we have purchased, and will continue to purchase, have a lower carbon footprint.”
“Advances in technology are going to drive either of those scenarios,” Fitzgerald added. “The most complex problems cannot be solved within one company’s four walls. Collaboration is necessary to solve the world’s largest problems.”
Ecolab’s 2030 Impact Goals are connected with the United Nations Business Ambition for 1.5°C, and engagement with supply chain partners will be critical to meeting its targets.
“The old adage applies here,” Guttery adds. “If you want to go faster, go alone, if you want to go further, go together.”
Problems
Green collaborative initiatives frequently fail owing to a lack of trust or opportunistic conduct if suitable collaboration arrangements and coordination are not in place. According to a recent MIT poll, many companies still lack a cohesive sustainability approach/strategy for dealing with their supply chain partners. Firms struggle to structure and govern joint sustainability arrangements (classical contract or joint venture) as well as manage the exchange contingencies that come with them. In many circumstances, opportunistic conduct is hindering the implementation of mutually agreed-upon green cooperation due to a variety of unanticipated events. Managers are inhibited from engaging in more comprehensive and effective green collaboration because there are no efficient governance systems in place. The literature has acknowledged the necessity for governing sustainability collaboration and has proposed certain contractual methods (for example, a cost/revenue sharing plan). However, most of the existing study is conceptual, and further effort is required.
With the advent of demand to integrate sustainability into supply chain management, the conceptual understanding of sustainable supply chain management is expanding due to an emergent set of principles on how to manage supply chains sustainably. These principles include accounting for and reconciling sustainability dimensions; taking a fully integrated, holistic approach to vertical and horizontal alignment; considering multiple stakeholders in decision-making greater collaboration with partners resulting in a change of mind-set from competitive to collaborative advantages and, extending the boundaries of responsibility for and the necessity of collaborative activities across supply chain networks.
Course Manual 9: Consolidate Shipments
Shipping costs e-commerce businesses a lot of money, and it also has a negative influence on the environment by increasing emissions of global pollutants like CO2 and local pollutants like particulate matter (Stellingwerf et al. 2018). As a result, the ultimate purpose of city logistics (including urban logistics operations) is to improve economic performance while minimising negative social and environmental consequences.
Several projects in the field of urban freight have evolved as a response to the detrimental effects of goods movement in urban areas, and they have shown to be successful in meeting the goals established by multiple stakeholders. Implementing urban consolidation centers or horizontal collaboration initiatives, for example, are two options that have been extensively researched in the literature. Companies, on the other hand, tend to concentrate their efforts on addressing last-mile delivery operations from a practical standpoint by selecting appropriate vehicles and primarily optimizing transportation routes through the use of technology. This routing-optimization approach enables academics and practitioners to quickly and efficiently deal with tactical and operational planning, as well as their replicability in real-world scenarios.
Fortunately, several businesses have begun to see the benefits of greening their operations. For example, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, recently launched a GSCM project in which it requested its 60,000 global suppliers to cut their packaging consumption by 5%, removing 667,000 m3 of CO2 from the atmosphere and 213,000 vehicles from the road, resulting in a massive savings of $3.4 billion (Hoffman, 2007). This study investigates the influence of Shipment ConsoLidation (SCL) on greening and cost-cutting efforts, motivated by the apparent relevance of decreasing environmental damage caused by transportation operations. SCL is a logistics approach that allows for economies of scale by combining two or more minor shipments on the same vehicle. SCL has been demonstrated to not only cut transportation expenses, but also to be a potent GSCM practice when used correctly.
Background on SCL and related literature
SCL is an environmentally friendly logistics method that combines two or more orders (or shipments) to transport a bigger quantity to the same market region on the same vehicle. This can significantly cut per-item, per-order, or per-unit-weight transportation costs. By deploying fewer long-haul shipments and resulting in highererton-miles per vehicle per year and lower total vehicle-miles, the effective use of SCL helps to improve GSCM targets in terms of reduced transport effort. Shippers and/or carriers can line-haul larger cargoes for cheaper prices per unit as a result of the associated economies of scale in transportation operations, allowing them to provide discounts to clients. The carrier’s collection, delivery, and dock-handling prices are favoured by SCL. A Full-TruckLoad (FTL) cargo, for example, requires only two carrier stops: one at the origin and one at the destination. Small shipments, on the other hand, necessitate more stops for pickup and delivery, despite the fact that there are fewer long-haul dispatches. Another advantage of SCL is in logistics customer service; SCL can enable faster and more consistent line-haul or transit times, resulting in lower inventory without compromising customer service requirements. Furthermore, with shorter transit durations, capital is tied to the consignment for a shorter period of time, and speedier deliveries may speed up cash flow.
Shipment Consolidation Policy under Uncertainty of Customer Order for Sustainable Supply Chain Management
With rising environmental concerns, shipment consolidation has emerged as one of the most important initiatives among logistics service providers to minimize CO2 emissions and transportation costs. Due to the increased delivery time caused by shipping consolidation, customers’ orders may be canceled. As a result, order cancellation should be taken into account while determining the best shipping consolidation procedure.
In the state of supply chain coordination, the shipment consolidation plan should be determined. Integrated policies with transportation choices and inventory control have been studied to stay up with this trend. Consolidating shipments does not automatically lower a company’s costs. When numerous small orders are combined into a bigger shipment, delivery time and inventory holding time both increase. For the goal of greater customer service, several new e-commerce providers, such as 11 Street, South Korea’s largest e-commerce provider, enable order cancellation if the order has not yet shipped. Allowing order cancellation, whether as a result of a flood of information about goods and prices shared among customers or simply changes in customers’ opinions, is beneficial to companies in the long run, even at the cost of increased order uncertainty, because better customer service leads to higher customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty and profitability. Because many factors, such as inventory management, vendor selection, transportation planning, production planning, distribution planning, and procurement planning, contribute to supply chain uncertainty, it is critical to understand, manage, and reduce uncertainty in order to improve performance. As a result, such trade-offs must be addressed while deciding whether or not to consolidate shipments.
When delivery times grow, impatient customers may cancel orders, and delivery time uncertainty reduces customer satisfaction. There is a trade-off between decreasing the cost of a customer’s waiting time and minimising the cost of providing service. As a result, order cancellation must be factored into the shipment consolidation policy.
Home Delivery
Retail buyers usually pay additional prices for home delivery that occurs within a limited time window, according to Manerba, Mansini, and Zanotti (2018). Because of the larger number of kilometres travelled and vehicles utilised by a shop serving an Italian metropolitan area, it was shown to be unproductive. Other companies, such as Amazon, provide customers incentives (i.e. financial rewards) to persuade them to wait longer for their home deliveries. Customers are also prepared to wait longer for house delivery when they understand their involvement in decreasing environmental effect, according to Fu and Saito (2018). The use of logistical resources such as equipment, facilities, and vehicles has improved as delivery time windows have been extended. Actually, in the context of last-mile delivery, it has the potential to improve customer closeness along certain routes while also lowering fuel consumption and transportation costs by aggregating supplies.
Conclusion
While consolidation has accelerated in an effort to address service-sensitive connections or difficult network segments, the benefits are universal and may be applied to inbound, vendor, and pool distribution networks, all of which have five major benefits:
1. Improved supply chain performance
In LTL shipping, the likelihood of a cargo failure grows with the length of the haul and the handling at each terminal. Shipments are put at risk due to unpredictable variables at each site, resulting in a higher failure rate than truckload transfers. A shipper can fill a whole trailer with numerous LTL orders and deliver it to a facility to be mixed with other cargo via consolidation. The operator of some consolidation facilities will have a sailing schedule to approved consignees, which will reduce costs, allow for more effective planning, and improve service.
2. Significant cost savings
Consolidation offers significant cost savings due to the advantage of truckload pricing at the LTL size. Freight from several suppliers or different portions of a supply chain might be staged at a single location to be sorted, integrated, and loaded into full truckloads with the goal of maximising trailer use. Because of the faster transit times from the consolidation point, some shippers are able to convert their leg-one move to a more cost-effective transportation option, such as intermodal, resulting in even more savings.
3. New levels of efficiency
In contrast to the typical LTL model, consolidated truckload shipping offers various benefits to both shippers and receivers, particularly when it comes to facility management. Inbound LTL trucks typically carry 10% less pallets than full truckloads, implying that there could be 10% more trucks waiting at distribution facilities to fulfil the same number of orders. LTL shipments require longer to inventory, inspect, and document OS&D during unloading. Unloading a truckload shipment is quick with a consolidated order, which can boost facility capacity fluidity.
4. Enhanced ease of operation
A sophisticated management organisation on behalf of the shipper and/or consignee handles what appears to be a laborious process. These systems provide the consignee with a single bill for all vendors in the programme, as well as a consolidated buying group for all vendors in the programme. The ability to load a complete trailer with freight at origin relieves a shipper of the LTL process management burden. These time savings for both consignees and shippers allow you to focus on supply chain strategy and continuous development, which will help you achieve your business objectives.
5. A greener network
The biggest benefit of consolidation that goes unreported is the massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from supply networks. A considerable amount of carbon dioxide emissions is avoided due to fewer idle trucks waiting at distribution facilities, a reduction in trucks on the road, and the possible reduction in distance against multi-stops.
Global supply chains are riding a wave of innovation propelled by technology and fueled by a shift in customer behaviour. Companies can implement a consolidation plan by partnering with a vendor who can help them detangle the present process and provide a comprehensive end-to-end solution for each shipment. Consolidation is a simple way to obtain rapid wins for your supply chain, regardless of the method a shipper or consignee chooses.
Course Manual 10: Empty Miles
“Dead miles” seems like a lament from a Country and Western song, and it’s a concept that both supply chain and sustainability managers can relate to. Eliminating empty and unused miles is an important method to reduce supply chain costs and jumpstart positive supply chain sustainability outcomes.
So, what does an “empty/dead mile” entail? Assume a truck makes a delivery to a recipient and then returns empty to the original shipping point or travels a considerable distance to another pickup place. This is known as deadheading in the transportation industry, and the distance traveled when empty is known as empty mileage. Empty miles not only don’t create revenue, but they also cost money to operate and produce needless greenhouse gas emissions. Given the importance of transportation in supply chain operations, lowering empty miles can go a long way toward assisting businesses in meeting their financial and environmental objectives.
Here are three strategies for avoiding empty miles:
Find revenue opportunities.
The availability of revenue-generating loads for otherwise empty mileage may not be obvious when looking at your firm in isolation. Collaboration with other businesses is one method to uncover such opportunities. For example, CHEP (like IFCO, a Brambles firm) has identified $13 million in load revenue prospects for participating businesses through its Solutions Portfolio offering over the last 12 months. To uncover freight opportunities for its customers, CHEP overlays its transportation network with those of its customers.
Load consolidation or sharing.
There are several possibilities for eliminating transportation inefficiencies through collaboration or consolidation. Partial loads can be merged to increase payload, resulting in fewer vehicles being required to transport the same amount of freight. Consolidating freight from several shippers for delivery to distribution hubs or wholesalers is standard procedure in the produce industry. However, the same argument may be made for retail deliveries. For example, competitors may run partial loads to competing stores in the same location, but merging freight may result in huge mileage savings.
Another possibility for consolidation is the return of distribution residuals, such as empty pallets, containers, cardboard bales, and stretch wrap, which often weigh far less than the incoming load to the retailer. While supermarkets typically do not have the space to store this material for an extended period of time, some retailers are relying on other local service providers to pick up and consolidate these residuals until they reach full load quantities, allowing delivery vehicles to focus on revenue-generating loads instead of reverse logistics.
Unit load optimization
Improved cubic usage of loads can also help to cut down on mileage. For example, RPCs can be firmly stacked without voids to enhance load height, which means fewer pallets are needed for retail delivery. Other packaging redesign initiatives can also result in unit loads being built higher or more densely, resulting in fewer unit loads and, as a result, fewer vehicles on the road. As part of its Solutions Portfolio, CHEP assists customers in optimizing their unit loads.
Don’t let empty miles be the source of your supply chain woes. When considered from the perspective of transportation or social responsibility, the benefits of such a strategy are often cost savings and greenhouse gas reductions.
Technology Reduces Deadhead Miles, Improving Trucking Efficiency
Long-haul trucking is a well-known reality in the transportation and logistics industries as a major contributor to carbon emissions. Due to the high mileage and heavy loads required to maintain the supply chain’s integrity, the transportation industry contributes for 28% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
The importance of trucking to the shipping and logistics industry — and the economy as a whole — is undeniable. Trucks transport about 10.8 billion tonnes of freight in the United States each year, accounting for 70% of all goods moved domestically. While the EPA has taken steps to minimize greenhouse gas pollution from the transportation sector, such as establishing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requirements for trucks and encouraging the use of renewable fuels, these restrictions are insufficient.
The trucking sector is looking to technology to maintain the backbone of the freight economy and ensure that goods can be transported effectively while simultaneously reducing the harmful environmental effects of fossil fuel emissions. Technology can help transportation firms be more sustainable, decrease environmental impact, and enhance efficiency for a more responsible supply chain.
Reducing Empty Miles and Dead-Head
The negative impact of “empty miles” on both drivers and carriers is a common complaint in the trucking industry. According to some estimates, up to 40% of trucks on the road today are traveling empty miles. When a truck travels without a loaded trailer or cargo container, the gasoline emissions generated during the journey are practically squandered. Despite its inefficiency, it is frequently a crucial part of the container cycle. When a full container is brought from the steamship to its warehouse destination to be emptied, it is frequently required to be returned directly to the port, resulting in empty miles.
There are now technology solutions on the market that aim to break the efficiency bottleneck. To match empty containers at the warehouse with a firm in need of a container for their exports, fleet owners can use digital marketplaces or app-based mobile solutions. As a result, the container can be brought to a neighboring warehouse, loaded with items destined for export, and then returned to the port fully loaded. Fleet operators may support greater efficiency and minimize unnecessary carbon emissions caused by empty miles on the road by employing technology to enable these transactions, or “street turns.”
Today, software solutions exist to overcome a variety of sustainability challenges, including lowering empty miles and using capacity data, as well as tracking individual containers and optimizing drivers’ day-to-day schedule planning. Simply put, a human dispatcher may not be able to optimize these operations as quickly, accurately, or with as much understanding as a computer program.
Consider load-matching software options that help drivers with their scheduling demands. A trucking business can plan out a driver’s day schedule to reduce dead-head before their shift even begins if they know where they are starting their morning. If a driver’s home is one hour away from the port where their next container is being loaded, the driver must dead-head into that port. A software solution or digital freight marketplace can break that cycle by matching the driver with a nearby export, allowing the driver to cut down on deadhead, intercept that export load, and deliver it to the port destination in time to pick up their next container. As a result, there are fewer wasteful fuel emissions discharged into the atmosphere and fewer wasted hours on the road, which is a significant benefit for drivers, who are paid at their highest rates when actively delivering freight.
Using Data to Slash Idle Time at the Port
Port congestion is another issue that many logistics companies confront when it comes to long-term survival. Drivers are forced to idle for hours at a time during peak hours and seasons, when traffic from the port can back up to the nearest motorway, as they meander toward their next scheduled container pickup. As a result of the increased wait times, more fuel is emitted, causing more pollution and providing no value to the carrier during that time.
Reviewing port congestion data to avoid the busiest regions of the port is critical in places like the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Some solutions enable real-time reporting of wait times at certain terminals, allowing businesses to collaborate with those terminals and assign their trucks to a specialized lane or gate. These data solutions offer a promising alternative to traditional portside operations by scheduling drivers to visit less congested locations, reducing idle emissions and improving supply chain sustainability over time.
Technology can help create a more sustainable and efficient supply chain by harnessing data to cut carbon emissions for the millions of trucks already on the road today. Using digital solutions to reduce idle hours, dead-head, and empty miles has multiple benefits, including increasing carrier efficiency, boosting green programs for shippers, opening up better routes for drivers, and encouraging everyone to be more environmentally conscious.
Course Manual 11: Just-in-Time
Potential Issues With a Just-In-Time Supply Chain
You’ll most likely come up with an appealing prediction by estimating that compressed lead time and lowering the expense of carrying a safety stock inventory. JIT processes appear to promise shorter lead times and lower inventory costs. Consider the indirect cost of maintaining the systems and communications to know what materials and components need to be supplied precisely in time to really comprehend the impact of this supply chain technique.
Just-in-time approaches can generate unforeseen and unbudgeted expenses to surpass those original forecasts when there is a manufacturing or quality issue that affects supply, or a demand spike that produces a short supply scenario. Customer demand fluctuations might potentially degrade the performance of JIT systems. Fees, production interruptions, and other concerns can all have a significant negative influence on a company’s operations.
Just-in-time supply chains are not suitable for many enterprises. The more consistent a company’s supply and demand are, the more likely they will be able to use JIT tactics effectively.
In many circumstances, suppliers will have to forgo customer supply due to the requirement to react to a failure in just-in-time operations. If they are unable to meet their demands, they may have to sacrifice particular items or entire consumer groups. In certain situations, the hidden costs of JIT are difficult to quantify, but they have driven many corporations and supply chain organizations to abandon JIT as a viable operating procedure over time.
Succeeding with JIT
Combinations of operational competencies can help businesses obtain a competitive advantage. JIT, TQM, and green supply chain management methods, in particular, are organizational competences that, when combined by manufacturing businesses, may give a competitive advantage. The practices of JIT, TQM, and green supply chain management are complementary in that they assist each other. When related actions are combined, they produce a better level of environmental sustainability than when the practices are performed separately.
Because the primary goal of JIT is to reduce and eliminate waste (Wu et al., 2012), and TQM is about doing things right the first time, zero defects, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement (Sower, 2011), it is reasonable to assume that environmental sustainability initiatives will thrive in an organization that already employs JIT and TQM in its manufacturing processes. This could be due to wastes that are being targeted by lean and have environmental consequences.
JIT and TQM have been demonstrated to improve performance synergistically, meaning that when used jointly, they produce larger cost savings than if they were pursued separately (Wu et al., 2012). Lean manufacturing and environmental sustainability have previously been shown to be not only compatible but also complementary, resulting in a synergy that improves both environmental and business performance. According to Young (2009), successful JIT and TQM programs have prepared manufacturers to embrace environmental sustainability programs and practices; as a result, it is logical to propose, based on complementarity theory, that the combined impact of JIT and TQM practices on environmental practices could result in more improvement than each implemented separately.
Case study – Why just-in-time will remain the way forward for Toyota
For Toyota Motor Europe, Leon van der Merwe is in charge of inbound, outbound, and service parts logistics. He spoke to Christopher Ludwig at this year’s Automotive Logistics and Supply Chain Europe Live conference on Toyota’s strategy to modernize just-in-time and make its logistics more sustainable. Just-in-time supply chains may have been unduly exaggerated in their demise.
While material and chip shortages, as well as delays in container shipping, have put a burden on automakers’ low inventory strategy, blaming lean supply networks may misrepresent the Toyota Production System (TPS) and just-in-time logistics in some respects. The kanban method of replenishment at the heart of TPS, when done correctly with the right mix of visibility and cooperation, is built on a constant flow and smoothing bottlenecks – effectively leaning inventory where possible and balancing stock with the right amount of demand and production.
According to lean experts, carmakers like Toyota may have been able to manage current disruptions better than others because of JIT – rather than in spite of it.
TPS and JIT will stay at the heart of Toyota Motor Europe’s (TME) strategy, including its aims to decrease emissions and meet environmental goals in the future years, according to Leon van der Merwe, vice-president of supply chain. He does, however, see Toyota’s JIT strategy being modernized and strengthened, with traditional procedures being brought up to date with new technology and the business having better visibility in the supply chain beyond its tier one and two suppliers.
Leon van der Merwe, vice-president of supply chain at Toyota Motor Europe
TPS, according to van der Merwe, allows Toyota to eliminate waste from its supply chain network by providing a detailed visual representation of the steps and suppliers involved. JIT supply chain management is about having the proper inventory where it is required when it is needed, not just about lowering inventories. This not only allows any supply problems to be discovered and resolved faster, but it also identifies areas where Toyota can decrease waste and pollution.
In Europe, under van der Merwe’s leadership, the automaker is launching a logistics sustainability program that will catch up to the progress it has made in manufacturing, including a more strategic use of transportation modes, a greater focus on rail and multimodal, truck kilometer reduction, and the use of sustainable fuels for last-mile truck deliveries.
Van der Merwe further notes that part of his job is to ensure that decision-makers in R&D, buying, and manufacturing understand the financial and environmental implications of their actions on Toyota’s supply chain. That’s critical in a corporation where decision-making has shifted dramatically and become much more cross-functional, particularly in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak.
As it seeks a clearer end-to-end picture of its supply chain and logistics, the company has undergone certain organizational adjustments. Van der Merwe now has responsibility for inbound, outbound, and service parts logistics in Europe, which is a new integration for the manufacturer. While those three categories are essentially unique, they are founded on shared foundations such as safety, environmental sustainability, and people development, and integrating them together allows Toyota to improve processes, systems, and develop capabilities.
Since taking over in 2019, van der Merwe has witnessed key events such as the coronavirus outbreak, the UK’s exit from the EU, and, most recently, the semiconductor shortage. He also controls a supply chain that is adjusting to the seismic change to electrification, which is being driven in Europe by stringent legislative requirements for cleaner transportation. All of this has necessitated greater flexibility as mobility patterns shift and customer desire for instant satisfaction develops. Van Der Merwe, on the other hand, is focused on being more prepared and self-sufficient in the face of what lies ahead, and he believes Toyota’s supply chain and logistics concepts will help the company overcome those difficulties.
Key Takeaways
• A just-in-time supply chain management approach tries to cut process costs by only transferring materials when they are needed in the process.
• A well-managed JIT system dramatically minimizes expenses associated with having supplies on hand until they’re needed, such as storage fees.
• The problem with a JIT system is that it doesn’t respond effectively to changes in demand or production process disturbances.
Course Manual 12: Start Now
Next steps
Dr Assheton Stewart Carter, founder of TDi Sustainability, which advises businesses of all sizes on how to solve problems in supply chains, suggests starting with quick wins.
1) Quick Wins
“Supply chains are complex,” he says. “Rather than try and trace every step in the chain and every item to its source, identify first where the biggest opportunity is to make improvements. This might not be your direct supplier, but a factory, farm, or mine thousands of miles away. You could find that the raw material used in the parts you buy are associated with pollution, deforestation, or human rights issues. Ask yourself, then, what it is you can do to improve that situation?”
Su Morgan, the owner of the coffee subscription service Dog & Hat, says she greened her supply chain by scrutinizing the sustainability of each step.
“Look at the flow, from the order through to the customers putting waste in the bin,” she advises. “Think about each step and how you can support that to be greener. In our case, this saw us removing outer plastic bags for shipment and changing to thermal printed labels instead of inkjet-printed, which resulted in a huge decrease in print-cartridge use.”
2) Engage with suppliers
To create a truly sustainable supply chain, you’ll almost certainly need to persuade your suppliers to follow suit.
“Start with what you can control – your direct suppliers and business partners,” Carter advises. “Ask them where the parts for your products come from and the materials that are needed to manufacture them. You have more choice than you think.”
Visit suppliers, says Jessica Warch, co-founder of Kima, a lab-grown diamond jewelry firm. “We regularly visit our lab and workshop in Antwerp where our jewelry is handmade. Our supply chain is small so we can manage it well and want to keep it this way – the fewer middlemen the better for transparency.”
3) Ask the experts
Using specialists can also provide new perspectives. The Carbon Literacy Project, as well as consultancies like Green Element and South Pole, are recommended by Arno at Pawprint.
And, if scrutinizing your supply chain seems like a lot of work, keep in mind how critical these measurements are to your company’s success. “Sustainability should absolutely be considered a mission-critical KPI in supply chain management, on the same level as cost,” says Weber at Urbantz. “Consumers demand it, environmental legislation will only increase further, and most retailers and delivery companies now place a greater emphasis on corporate sustainability.” As a result, becoming more environmentally friendly should be a top focus for every company today.
What’s now? Five green supply chain priorities for immediate action
1. Put people first: Supporting innovative ways of working will keep the planning workforce healthy and productive.
2. Leverage data to improve visibility: Use data to gain a better understanding of demand, inventory, capacity, supply, and financing across the ecosystem.
3. Define segmentation to prioritize demand: Analyze demand attentively and identify priority micro-segments.
4. Create a sales and operations SWAT team: create dedicated planning and execution teams that can handle many interventions and efficiently orchestrate replies.
5. Evaluate supply chain scenarios: run simulations to forecast when and where excesses and shortages will occur, as well as end-to-end scenarios to gain actionable insights that can improve operational metrics.
Quick Solutions to bigger problems
Changing your energy provider is one of the quickest strategies to minimize your emissions at this early stage. You can properly claim zero emissions from your use of purchased energy if you move to a really green energy supplier (avoiding the greenwash). This can make a big difference in your overall emissions, allowing you to claim great results in the first few months before moving on to the more difficult issues. Having strong environmental policies in place, as well as evidence that you are implementing them, might make your company the most valuable link in someone else’s value chain.
Building the case and setting standards for sustainability
There are many distinct sustainability standards and accreditations, however for particular sustainability efforts, there are typically no widely accepted measurement standards. A standardized delivery method would greatly aid in unlocking this value, with larger enterprises assisting in the education and support of less sophisticated sections of the supply chain in order to achieve this goal. Software and skills work hand in hand in creating the ideal culture where data can drive this change, as well as data transparency.
Building a business case is difficult due to the lack of recognized indicators. Some companies regard this as a moral imperative, while others have used the accompanying favorable image of sustainability in marketing initiatives, and still others have been able to quantify the advantages. Whatever road you select or need to pursue, time is of the essential to stay up with your existing or growing competitors, as well as societal expectations.
The discussion among those in attendance at the Directors’ Forum revealed that the issue of standards is not confined to sustainability improvement programs. According to the group, standards are still needed to ensure consensus and interoperability across many aspects of manufacturing processes, including IoT, software protocol integration layers, and open data projects.
Microsoft and Blue Yonder are working together to help businesses overcome these obstacles. They work with customers to future-proof their supply chains by delivering the innovation needed to ensure that UK businesses can prosper in the future.
Environmental commitment planned for the long haul
Companies who choose to implement a green supply chain invest and commit for the long term: for example, 70% of companies that analyze their carbon footprint do so at least once a year.
Green initiatives also appear to be able to weather the storm brought on by the recent economic downturn. The crisis had no brake effect on planned and current environmental measures, according to two-thirds of corporations (66%): in fact, it accelerated most of them.
The Green Supply Chain, Both a Constraint and an Opportunity for Companies
Implementing a green supply chain addresses challenges that are presently significant to businesses and will become even more so in the future. Pressure and incentives from a variety of sources will compel them to take an environmentally responsible stance. Here are several examples:
• The burden of new regulations, which will only increase, with deadlines of 2030 or 2050 in many areas; The weight of new regulations, which will only grow since several areas have deadlines of 2030 or 2050;
• Due to the shortage of certain materials (oil, cobalt, ores, etc.) supply chains have grown increasingly unreliable;
• Consumers are putting more pressure on businesses because they now have better access to information on sustainable development and can spot greenwashing.
Companies will be able to achieve a competitive advantage while boosting their image in the eyes of their consumers, partners, or institutional players by creating a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) approach by predicting future governmental developments. Furthermore, despite the fact that the initial modifications can be costly to adopt, this will often allow them to lower specific areas of expense.
conclusion
Finally, businesses must take a holistic approach to sustainable development, including it into all stages of the manufacturing process. Beyond the environmental commitment, which is becoming an important element in consumer decision-making, the green supply chain offers firms the opportunity to fundamentally rethink their production and marketing strategies while also lowering costs.
Companies must include enough flexibility in their plans to guard against future disruptions. They should also think about putting together a solid framework that includes a risk management operations capability that is both responsive and resilient.
That capability should be driven by technology, with platforms that support applied analytics, AI, and machine learning. It should also ensure supply chain transparency from beginning to end. Risk response will need to become an intrinsic element of business-as-usual practises in the long run.
Workshop Exercises
Greener Supply Chains Exercises
01. Reverse Logistics: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
02. Ethical Sourcing: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
03. Efficient Transport: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
04. Packaging and Waste: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
06. Eco-design of Products: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
07. Renewable Energy: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
08. Coordinate with Partners: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
09. Consolidate Shipments: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
10. Empty Miles: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
11. Just-in-Time: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
12. Start Now: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
SWOT & MOST Analysis Exercises
01. Undertake a detailed SWOT Analysis in order to identify your department’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in relation to each of the 12 Greener Global Supply Chains processes featured above. Undertake this task together with your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
02. Develop a detailed MOST Analysis in order to establish your department’s: Mission; Objectives; Strategies and Tasks in relation to Greener Global Supply Chains. Undertake this task together with all of your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
Project Studies
Project Study (Part 1) – Customer Service
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 2) – E-Business
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 3) – Finance
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 4) – Globalization
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 5) – Human Resources
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 6) – Information Technology
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 7) – Legal
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 8) – Management
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 9) – Marketing
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 10) – Production
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 11) – Logistics
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 12) – Education
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Global Supply Chain Development process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Reverse Logistics
02. Ethical Sourcing
03. Efficient Transport
04. Packaging and Waste
05. Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
06. Eco-design of Products
07. Renewable Energy
08. Coordinate with Partners
09. Consolidate Shipments
10. Empty Miles
11. Just-in-Time
12. Start Now
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Program Benefits
Management
- Performance improvement
- Productivity improvement
- Stakeholder management
- Globalization process
- Decentralized approach
- International engagement
- Strategic alliances
- International distribution
- Lean management
- Project management
Production
- Process improvement
- Improved options
- Logistics management
- Procurement excellence
- Supply-Chain globalization
- Outsourcing optimization
- Insourcing optimization
- Lean process
- Productivity improvement
- Distribution enhancement
Globalization
- Business partnering
- Global process
- Mergers acquisitions
- Cost reduction
- Product improvement
- Quality management
- Process decentralization
- Supply-chain globalization
- Return on investment
- Competitive improvement
Client Telephone Conference (CTC)
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