Global Supply Chain Development Workshop 3 “GSC Sustainability”
Executive Summary Video
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Global Supply Chain Development (GSCD) 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
This workshop features a practical guide to continuous improvement, and can help companies to overcome challenges by offering practical guidance on how to develop a sustainable global supply chain process, based on the values and principles of the Global Compact. Featuring numerous examples of good corporate practice, the guide will assist companies in setting priorities for action that will lead to continuous supply chain performance improvement.
Objectives
01. Developing Business Case: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Establishing Expectations: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Determining Scope: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Engaging Suppliers: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Role & Responsibilities: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Industry Collaboration: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Tracking Performance: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Process Practices: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Communicating Progress: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
Strategies
01. Developing Business Case: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Establishing Expectations: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Determining Scope: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Engaging Suppliers: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Roles & Responsibilities: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Industry Collaboration: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Tracking Performance: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Process Practices: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Communicating Progress: 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, in order to analyse developing the business case.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse establishing expectations.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to determining the scope.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse engaging with suppliers.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse roles and responsibilities.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse industry collaboration.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse multi-stakeholder partnerships.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse tracking performance.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse process and practices.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, in order to analyse communicating progress.
Workshop Introduction
Workshop Objective
This workshop features a practical guide to continuous improvement, and can help companies to overcome challenges by offering practical guidance on how to develop a sustainable global supply chain process, based on the values and principles of the Global Compact. Featuring numerous examples of good corporate practice, the guide will assist companies in setting priorities for action that will lead to continuous supply chain performance improvement.
Introduction
More and more companies are extending their commitment to responsible business practices to their value chains, from subsidiaries to suppliers. They do so not only because of the inherent social and environmental risks and the governance challenges the supply chain poses, but also because of the many rewards supply chain sustainability can deliver. Indeed, sustainable supply chain management can be a strong driver of value and success – for business as much as for society. By spreading good business practices around the globe, it has enormous potential to contribute to more inclusive markets and advance sustainable development in the spirit of the United Nations’ mission.
Today, UN Global Compact participants around the world are demonstrating leadership by applying the ten principles in their supply chains. However, developing sustainable supply chain programs that encompass all of the Global Compact’s four issue areas – human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption – remains a daunting challenge for many.
Supply Chain Sustainability: This workshop can help companies overcome these challenges by offering practical guidance on how to develop a sustainable supply chain process, based on the values and principles of the Global Compact. Featuring numerous examples of good corporate practice, the workshop will assist companies in setting priorities for action that will lead to continuous performance improvement. We hope this workshop will encourage more businesses to embark on the journey towards more sustainable supply chains, thereby delivering tangible and lasting benefits to business, the environment and societies everywhere.
Practical Steps Towards Achieving Supply-Chain Sustainability
Supply chain sustainability is increasingly recognized as a key component of corporate responsibility. Managing the social, environmental and economic impacts of supply chains, and combating corruption, makes good business sense as well as being the right thing to do. However, supply chains consist of continuously evolving markets and relationships. To navigate this complex terrain, we offer a few baseline definitions and practical steps that companies can take toward progress, using the United Nations Global Compact principles as the basis to work toward supply chain sustainability. What is Supply Chain Sustainability? Supply chain sustainability is the management of environmental, social and economic impacts, and the encouragement of good governance practices, throughout the lifecycles of goods and services. The objective of supply chain sustainability is to create, protect and grow long-term environmental, social and economic value for all stakeholders involved in bringing products and services to market. By integrating the UN Global Compact principles into supply chain relationships, companies can advance corporate sustainability and promote broader sustainable development objectives. Why is Supply Chain Sustainability important? There are numerous reasons why companies start a supply chain sustainability journey. Primary among them is to ensure compliance with laws and regulations and to adhere to and support international principles for sustainable business conduct. In addition, companies are increasingly taking actions that result in better social, economic and environmental impacts because society expects this and because there are business benefits to doing so. By managing and seeking to improve environmental, social and economic performance and good governance throughout supply chains, companies act in their own interests, the interests of their stakeholders and the interests of society at large.
What Steps Can A Company Take?
This workshop outlines practical steps companies can take to achieve supply chain sustainability and presents examples to inspire action. The recommended steps summarized below are based on the Global Compact Management Model, which is a flexible framework for continuous improvement for the mainstreaming of the Global Compact into strategies and operations. The steps described below and throughout the guide are not linear. Rather they represent complementary actions that companies can take in order to achieve more sustainable supply chains. In addition, there are three principles for successful supply chain sustainability management – governance, transparency and engagement – that are essential to every step of the model.
Commit:Develop the business case by understanding the external landscape and business drivers; Establish a vision and objectives for supply chain sustainability; Establish sustainability expectations for the supply chain.
Assess:Determine the scope of efforts based on business priorities and impacts.
Define & Implement:Communicate expectations and engage with suppliers to improve performance; Ensure alignment and follow up internally; Enter into collaboration and partnerships.
Measure & Communicate:Track performance against goals and be transparent and report on progress.
This workshop is intended to help companies, both those who are new to and those experienced in supply chain sustainability, to apply the Global Compact principles throughout their supply chains and to integrate sustainability into their business strategies.
Supply Chain Sustainability Defined
In today’s globalized economy, outsourcing business operations doesn’t mean outsourcing responsibilities or risks—or that a company’s responsibility ends once a product is sold. Leading companies understand that they have a role to play throughout the life-cycle of their products and services. Supply chain sustainability management is key to maintaining the integrity of a brand, ensuring business continuity and managing operational costs. It is also an important aspect of the implementation of the Global Compact principles. Working Definitions “Sustainability” definitions vary. For the purposes of this guide, the definition encompasses the business role in addressing environmental, social (human rights and labor) and corporate governance issues, as covered by the Global Compact’s ten principles. “Supply chain sustainability” is the management of environmental, social and economic impacts, and the encouragement of good governance practices, throughout the lifecycles of goods and services. The objective of supply chain sustainability is to create, protect and grow long-term environmental, social and economic value for all stakeholders involved in bringing products and services to market. Through supply chain sustainability, companies protect the long-term viability of their business and secure a social license to operate.
Supply Chain Sustainability & the United Nations Global Compact
The Global Compact encourages participants to engage with suppliers around the ten principles and to advance sustainable development objectives as part of their commitment to the Global Compact, and thereby to spread good corporate citizenship practices throughout the global business community.
The 10 Principles of the Global Compact and Supply-Chain Sustainability
Human RightsPrinciple 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
LaborPrinciple 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor; Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labor; and Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights. The baseline responsibility is not to infringe on the rights of others. In addition, business can take steps to support and promote the realization of human rights, and there are good business reasons to do so.
Labour conditions in offices, in factories, on farms and at natural resource extraction sites such as mines, particularly in the developing world, often fall significantly below international standards and national regulatory requirements and can lead to serious human rights abuses. Businesses should strive to uphold international labor standards within their supply chains, including the right to freely chose employment, the freedom of children from labor, freedom from discrimination and the freedom of association and collective bargaining.
In addition, workers at times suffer from other labor rights abuses, including excessive work hours, degrading treatment by employers and inhibited movement. In order to avoid complicity in abuses, businesses should seek to ensure that they do not cause the rights of workers and others affected by their supply chain to be infringed upon, including the right to freedom of movement, freedom from inhumane treatment, the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to rest and leisure. The rights of all peoples to work in safe and healthy working conditions are critically important as well.
Companies can also begin to address human rights (including and beyond labor conditions) alone or by working with partners to promote a broad range of human rights such as gender equality and access to education and health.
EnvironmentPrinciple 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
Environmental impacts from supply chains are often severe, particularly where environmental regulations are lax, price pressures are significant and natural resources are (or are perceived to be) abundant. These impacts can include toxic waste, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, long term damage to ecosystems, hazardous air emissions as well as high greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. Companies should engage with suppliers to improve environmental impacts, by applying the precautionary approach, promoting greater environmental responsibility and the usage of clean technologies.
Anti-CorruptionPrinciple 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
The significant corruption risks in the supply chain include procurement fraud and suppliers who engage in corrupt practices involving governments. The direct costs of this corruption are considerable, including product quality, but are often dwarfed by indirect costs related to management time and resources spent dealing with issues such as legal liability and damage to a company’s reputation. Companies that engage with their supply chains through meaningful anti-corruption programs can improve product quality, reduce fraud and related costs, enhance their reputations for honest business conduct, improve the environment for business and create a more sustainable platform for future growth.
The impact of Sustainable Development upon Global Supply-Chains
By virtue of their ongoing business relationships, every company makes direct economic impacts through payments to employees, suppliers and governments and indirect economic impacts through monetary flows throughout supply chains and beyond. Companies which make their supply chains more economically inclusive can support further economic development through for instance job creation and increased incomes. Economic development has secondary impacts on socioeconomic development and the environment and is therefore a critically important aspect of sustainability.
Executive Summary
Supply-Chain Sustainability
Developing the Business Case
The first steps in developing a supply chain sustainability program are to evaluate the business case for action and understand the external landscape. These efforts will help identify the highest priority supply chain issues for your company, evaluate risks and opportunities and build the internal support to move forward.
There are many compelling reasons for taking action to improve social and environmental impacts throughout the supply chain. Many companies are driven by their corporate values and culture to address sustainability issues. For these companies, the fact that supply chain sustainability is the right thing to do and is a driver of social development and environmental protection helps create internal buy-in and commitment. Many companies also identify specific business drivers for supply chain sustainability. The business case for a particular company depends on a variety of issues including industry sector, supply chain footprint, stakeholder expectations, business strategy and organizational culture. Supply chain sustainability management practices that respond to multiple drivers can maximize the value to business.
Managing Risk
Companies can protect themselves from potential supply chain interruptions or delays associated with suppliers’ human rights, labor, environmental and governance practices by ensuring suppliers have effective compliance programs and robust management systems covering all the areas of the Global Compact Principles. For companies who have a single source for key inputs, managing risks is also critical to ensuring continued access to those resources. Increasingly, customer and investor expectations are driving companies toward more responsible supply chain management. Strong management of social and environmental issues can help companies address reputation risks. Finally, companies also use supply chain sustainability to ensure that their suppliers can adapt to anticipated strengthening of environmental regulations, extended product responsibility legislation and to reduce potential future liability.
Example: Westpac, an Australian bank, has used advertising campaigns and sponsorships to link the company’s brand to social engagement, environmental protection and sustainability. Westpac recognizes that many of its social, ethical and environmental impacts reside as much in its supplier relationships (or the ‘supply chain’) as in its own activities, and that managing supply chain sustainability is important to protect the company’s reputation and brand value. Risks associated with supply management include negative publicity, damage to a company’s reputation and actual losses of customer base. Westpac carefully manages these risks through a defined supply chain management practice.
Realizing Efficiencies
A focus on realizing efficiencies in the supply chain can reduce your company’s supply costs while also reducing the environmental footprint of your supply chain, including energy, water and natural and synthetic material use, as well as improving worker health and, motivation, and productivity. Benefits include:
• Strong labor and health and safety practices which may result in cost efficiency and improved productivity
• Increased understanding of key processes in the supply chain, including natural resource management and extraction, logistics and manufacturing, which enables better management and stewardship of resources
• More efficiently designed processes and systems which reduce required inputs and lower costs
Productivity and efficiency initiatives require a full understanding of the different steps of the supply chain and the key social and environmental impacts and cost drivers. By addressing the root causes of issues through strong communication capabilities, in-depth understanding of business drivers and sustainability trends and shared assessments and priorities for improvement, companies can drive improvements and derive the benefits.
Creating Sustainable Products
Collaboration with suppliers on sustainability issues can foster product innovation. Companies embarking on such initiatives have added new features and performance characteristics to existing products and even generated new products. For example, sustainable products may result in fewer negative environmental impacts than traditional products or have improved end of life collection and disposal options. It is also possible for the sustainability of products to be a differentiating factor and to lead to increased sales for some companies.
Example: Ahlstrom Osnabrück, a Finnish wallpaper company, began to develop products based on the Forest Stewardship Council’s standard in the late 1990’s after a large customer in the United Kingdom announced its commitment to source products that adhered to the FSC standard. By 2010, all of Ahlstrom Osnabrück’s pulp suppliers were certified to either the FSC or the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) standards, and the company has 12 manufacturing sites with FSC Chain-of-Custody certification, allowing the company to meet increased marketplace demand for certified sustainable forest products.
Establishing Expectations
Companies should also invest in understanding the expectations of their stakeholders including national and local governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), advocacy and activist organizations, academic and issue experts and community groups, as well as suppliers themselves.
Moreover, companies can also benefit from seeking input from customers and investors. Customer and investor demand is a primary driver for many supply chain sustainability programs, and insights from these stakeholders can help shape programs to ensure that they create the maximum return for the company. Engaging stakeholders early and regularly in the process of designing a program can help companies identify relevant standards and approaches to sustainable supply chain management. Some stakeholders are knowledgeable about, and sometimes even involved in the development of, different codes of conduct and certifications for suppliers. Examples include the Kimberly Process for jewelry, Forest Stewardship Council Certification for wood and paper products and the SA8000 for responsible labor practices across industries.
They can help you evaluate the credibility of different options and identify which might be relevant inputs for your company’s program. Emerging risks and opportunities in supply chains. From customers and employees to activists and NGOs, stakeholders are often the first to identify emerging environmental, social and economic issues in the supply chain. Companies who engage early and regularly with stakeholders have the opportunity to take a proactive approach to these issues and to partner with stakeholders rather than discovering the issues through an activist campaign. Early identification of issues through stakeholder engagement can also help companies take early leadership in comparison to peers. See Chapter 8 for more detail on multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Example: In developing its code of conduct, Westpac consulted its Community Consultative Council, suppliers and NGOs. The company included feedback from organizations such as the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Consumers’ Association, Australian Council of Social Security, Finance Sector Union, Human Rights, and Equal Opportunity Commission. Westpac listened and responded to the issues raised by these groups. The company also established a Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) Policy Review Committee where internal and external stakeholders’ perspectives on SSCM can be heard and used to improve its processes.
The importance of Investors and Customers as stakeholders in Supply-Chain Sustainability
Customers and investors are increasingly expecting that companies understand and manage impacts in their supply chains. Investors want to ensure that companies are aware of and are mitigating key risks affecting their supply chains. In addition, they are interested to know how companies are creating value from supply chain sustainability. Consumers and business customers are also encouraging companies to more closely manage their supply chains. In particular, some consumers are seeking more sustainable products; while business customers may include supply chain sustainability in their supplier selection criteria.
Establishing A Vision
Having a clear vision and objectives for your company’s sustainable supply chain programme will provide direction for your strategy and help to define your company’s commitment. A vision will be a helpful yardstick in evaluating the success of the programme and in identifying areas for continued improvement.
It is important that the development of the company’s vision and objectives are championed from the top of your company. This is critical to ensure the success of the program. Moreover, to ensure support from company leaders, it is important for executives and senior managers from all parts of the business related to the supply chain should be consulted in this process and have a say in the development of the company’s vision. Companies should consider how they can include representatives from supply management functions such as procurement and operations as well as corporate responsibility, design, marketing, logistics, quality assurance, compliance, legal, human resources and environment, health and safety functions in creating the vision, as each of these functions will have a role to play in the implementation of the sustainable supply chain program. For smaller companies, it is equally important that leaders agree on the vision for sustainable supply chains.
The output of the process should be a statement of vision and commitment. As you develop the statement, consider what is motivating the company to invest in sustainable supply chain management.
Are you driven by:
• Customer demands and concerns?
• NGO and activist claims over practices in your supply chain that affect your brand and reputation?
• Investor inquiries to understand how you are managing supply chain risk?
• Non-compliance with regulations and standards that is preventing you from doing business?
• Rising costs as a result of increased demand for and reduced supply of natural resources?
• Pressure from your industry peers who are also developing sustainable supply chain programmes?
• The company’s culture of strong emphasis and performance on sustainability?
• Business interest in addressing macro issues in the environment and society to ensure long-term sustainability of operations?
It is also important to define specific objectives and potential barriers or risk events affecting their achievement. What is the company hoping to achieve through a supply chain program? What are some long-term outcomes you want to work toward? How will a sustainable supply chain support your company’s business strategy? Objectives can vary widely, including: strategic business goals (e.g. creating long-term value for the company), operational business goals (e.g. saving cost by reducing wasted energy and materials), goals to improve your company’s reputation (e.g. wanting to change stakeholder opinions of your company), and compliance-based goals (e.g. ensuring activities meet all applicable laws and regulations). Based on the business motivations and objectives, you can craft a vision statement that reflects what you consider long-term success for a program. The vision for your company may change over time. As you become aware of issues and begin to understand and gain experience, it may become necessary to “reset” the vision.
Example: Grupo Arcor, a food products and confectionery business based in Argentina, faced a growing number of requests and inquires from clients, credit institutions, governments and business chambers about the company’s supply chain and sustainability. As a result, the company created a Supplier Social Responsibility Program, founded on a vision to integrate Grupo Arcor’s CSR Policy into its supplier relationships. Its specific objectives are: To align suppliers with the company’s CSR practices and supplier contractual policies; To guarantee minimum common standards in the company’s production and management processes based on sustainability; To increase and improve Grupo Arcor’s supply sources while favoring the economic inclusion of vulnerable groups with productive activities which are normally excluded from the competitive market. The program has three main strategies: awareness and training; progressive CSR incorporation into the supplier recruitment policy; and specific responsible purchasing projects.
Establishing Expectations
As you begin to solidify your vision for supply chain sustainability, an important next step is to translate expectations into a clear set of guidelines that will provide direction to suppliers and internal colleagues. At a minimum, you should expect suppliers to comply with national laws and to take proactive measures to avoid environmental and social harm.3 Overview of Codes of Conduct Codes of conduct are critical to establishing and managing expectations for both customers and suppliers. They create a shared foundation for sustainability, from which supply management professionals, suppliers and other actors can make informed decisions. For many companies, a supplier code of conduct is a natural extension of corporate values statements and seen as an affirmation of existing expectations rather than a new set of requirements. When developing codes of conduct, there are a number of international standards that should also be consulted and referenced.
The Global Compact principles outline each of the areas that need to be covered for a code of conduct to be considered comprehensive. Many companies will find that other companies in their industry have already created joint codes of conduct. These codes are designed to minimize the burden on suppliers by reducing the number of standards with which they must demonstrate compliance. They are also intended to streamline the process of conducting joint audits of suppliers and to reduce the effort required of companies to design their own codes. However, there is a risk that joint codes do not address all the issue areas of the Global Compact or will not meet specific concerns for your business.
Your company should consider whether adoption of one of these joint standards will receive the full support of executive management and be used in place of, or to augment, a unique code created by company. And if you determine that it is necessary for your company to write its own code, joint codes can still be a helpful starting place. If there are no joint codes for your industry that are comprehensive, or your company determines that they aren’t appropriate for your supply chain, there are several principles and initiatives that apply to supply chain management that should be referenced. For the social elements of the code, companies should refer to the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization Core Conventions and Recommendations which establish common expectations on a broad range of issues concerning work, employment, social security, social policy and human rights. Environmental topics that are most relevant will vary by industry, which makes dialogue and collaboration critical to identifying which issues are most important to cover in the code of conduct. It is also important to regularly review the contents of the code to determine whether updated language and interpretation is needed.
Key steps in development of a code include: 1. Consult with stakeholders, including suppliers 2. Base expectations on existing international norms of behavior rather than inventing new standards, to avoid undermining international law and prevent conflicting expectations for suppliers with multiple buyers 3. Consult with the cross functional teams, in particular supply management professionals 4. Consider a requirement that suppliers cascade these expectations to their supply base.
Examples: Though products are increasingly delivered online, print publications are still a significant part of Reed Elsevier’s business, and the company purchases a large amount of paper. Reed Elsevier’s challenge was to better understand the sustainability of the paper it uses. To ensure suppliers meet the ethical standards Reed Elsevier’s set for its own behavior, the company began the Reed Elsevier (RE) Socially Responsible Supplier (SRS) program in 2003. The cornerstone is the Reed Elsevier Supplier Code of Conduct, which incorporates the ten principles of the Global Compact. Suppliers are asked to sign and prominently post the Code in their workplaces. It also helps suppliers spread best practice through their own supply chain by requiring subcontractors to enter into a written commitment that they will uphold the Supplier Code. Reed Elsevier has also launched an annual paper survey asking suppliers to communicate their performance on all elements of the Code and the ten principles, not only on key environmental issues (such as mill standards, forest certification, recycled content, bleaching, resource reduction efforts) but also on how they ensure they do not use child and involuntary labor, avoid workplace discrimination and promote freedom of association.
Example: Levi Strauss & Co. was the first multinational company to establish Global Sourcing and Operating Guidelines, which outline the company’s commitment to responsible business practices everywhere it conducts business. The guidelines include two parts: (1) Country Assessment Guidelines, which help assess potential issues associated with conducting business in specific countries, and (2) Terms and Conditions, which help to identify business partners who follow workplace standards and business practices that are consistent with the company’s values.
Example: The Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), an industry association of more than 40 of the leading companies in the information and communications technology industries, established a joint supply chain code of conduct that provides a united voice for customer expectations, streamlines the oversight of supply chain conditions for both suppliers and customers and allows both to focus on changing social and environmental conditions. Each member company in the EICC has committed to adopting the code of conduct and implementing it in their supply chain.
Using the Code
In order to meet your company’s goals for supply chain sustainability, the code should be used as the foundation for setting internal and external expectations and as a framework for action and engagement with suppliers and other stakeholders. A new code needs to be shared throughout your company to raise awareness of the standards it describes. Supply management professionals will need to gain familiarity with the elements of the code in order to communicate it to existing and new suppliers and to explain how your company intends to work with suppliers to ensure compliance and continuous improvement. Possible mechanisms include internal websites, recurrent training particularly for new staff and regular communications from senior management to reinforce the importance of the code. Also, depending on how large and complicated your company’s structure is, it may be helpful to establish internal policies and procedures to explain how the code should be implemented by staff.
Companies often take a variety of approaches to communicating codes to suppliers including:
A special, one-time communication
This approach is often most effective when the communication comes from a senior level executive in your company such as the CEO or Chief Procurement Officer.
Inclusion of the code at first points of contact with suppliers.
Companies are including the code at the very start of new relationships with suppliers by posting it on their websites and including it in Requests for Proposals/Quotations. This helps to raise awareness among potential suppliers of the importance sustainability will play in their relationship with the company.
Integration of the code into supplier contracts.
Many companies also integrate the code into supplier contracts, or into purchase orders, by asking their suppliers to commit in contracts to complying with the expectations set out in the code.
Review of the code at a regularly scheduled business meeting.
Linking the introduction of the code to an established business process and having supply management professionals present the information will demonstrate the strength of the connection between business and sustainability performance. It can also be useful to have supply chain sustainability representatives participate in these meetings if there will be interactions between those individuals and suppliers in the future as part of the engagement and evaluation process.
Example: Telenor, a global provider of telecommunications services from Norway, implements its code of conduct through agreements on responsible business conduct with suppliers. These agreements require suppliers not only commit to the code, but also to allow monitoring and sanctions for non-compliance. Telenor also requires suppliers to cascade the company’s code of conduct requirements to their suppliers and reserves the right to monitor any tier in the supply chain.
Determining the Scope
The next step in designing a sustainable supply chain program is to determine the scope of the program. Often companies that are just starting out in supply chain sustainability seek to, or feel pressure to, engage their entire supply chain. However, given the size and spread of most companies’ supply chains, and the resources that will be required for effective engagement, this is typically unrealistic. Many companies therefore chose to focus their program on their “key” or most “strategic” suppliers, which are often those that the company sources directly from, has significant spend with and/or views as critical to production. In addition, there may be particular “hot spots” in your supply chain, even several steps removed from your operations, which could need immediate attention because of the high level of risk. For example, electronics companies are beginning to focus on minerals that are extracted from regions affected by social conflict and where human rights violations are present. The objective of determining the scope of the program is to identify which of your suppliers you should engage with and to what extent, noting that program boundaries tend to change over time as companies become more sophisticated and capable to manage supply chain sustainability more effectively.
Example: Ford Motor Company has made it a priority to take action on forced labor in the production of pig iron, which is used to make steel, even though it is six or seven tiers removed.
Example: In the development of Telenor Group’s responsible supply chain program, Telenor formally did not exclude any tier of the supply chain from the start. Further, Telenor also defined “suppliers” to include any kind of contractual partner, except customers. The practical scoping of this on operational level is carried out through supply chain risk assessment and prioritization within practical efforts.
The Importance of Looking Beyond Supplier Relationships
Sub-tier suppliers are defined as those companies that supply to your suppliers—they are all the companies that you don’t source from directly but that provide inputs for your products and services. For example, in the information technology sector, mining companies are sub-tier suppliers because they provide the metal that goes into electronic components. Similarly, in the financial services sector, some computer hardware manufacturers are sub-tier suppliers because they provide the servers that other information technology companies use to operate data centers. Many companies struggle with whether and how to include sub-tier suppliers in the scope of their supply chain program because of the lack of direct interaction and perceived lack of influence. However, many companies and industries have found that sub-tier suppliers have the most significant challenges in addressing sustainability issues. We recommend that companies be aware of where sustainability challenges are likely to arise by mapping their entire supply chain. You can then evaluate the importance of the issue to your business and its potential impact on society to determine if or how to include it in the scope of your supply chain sustainability program.
Mapping the Supply-Chain
To understand the appropriate scope for managing sustainability in your supply chain, you must first define what your company’s supply chain is. A supply chain map helps to trace the key activities of organizations and people involved in bringing a product or service from raw material to market. A generic product supply chain is illustrated below. Of course, the supply chain of individual products and services can look substantially different. Supply chain mapping therefore needs to be conducted on a product or service category basis. For companies in service industries, like hospitality and transportation, think of the various steps in your service and focus on the supply chain of key assets (such as ships in the transportation industry) and products that support your service (such as food in the hospitality industry). We recommend focusing on the most important product or service categories as a starting point. This could be identified by reviewing procurement contracts or your company’s cost of goods sold data, or similar primary information. For example, an automobile rental agency’s main assets are its fleet of cars and computer systems to manage reservations, and both of these categories would need to be mapped. <.p>
To map your supply chain:
Identify your major product and service categories to map. Consider your company’s largest categories of procurement spend and categories that are critical to business operations.
For each product or service category, trace the flow of materials and information. Don’t stop with your direct suppliers, go back to raw materials and original suppliers. Also, don’t make assumptions, work to understand the relationships and transactions as they actually exist. In some cases, agents or wholesalers may play key roles.
Gather information on the human rights, labor, environmental and corruption issues at every step of the supply chain. Where are there potential risks and opportunities associated with these issues? It can be very useful to discuss with peer companies, suppliers, industry bodies, civil society organizations and activists, as well as government representatives to identify issues.
Segmenting the Supply-Chain
With a more complete understanding of your company’s supply chain, you can begin to segment your suppliers to determine how to commit resources to improve sustainability. Segmentation allows companies to focus on the most critical elements of the supply chain. Good segmentation is a balance between acknowledging that some risk will always exist but that specific risks need to be addressed to avoid negative impacts to your business and to society. There are a number of different criteria to consider in supply chain segmentation including, but not limited to:
Risk to Society: Where are the biggest risks to human rights, labor, the environment and ethics in your supply chain?
Business Risk: What are the risks in your company’s supply chain that could impact ability to do business and meet the vision set forth for supply chain sustainability?
Risk to Economic Development: What are the risks for exclusion of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) when introducing code demands, monitoring and auditing schemes?
Both business and societal risk can be influenced by:
Spend: Which suppliers does your company have the highest spend with, including direct and indirect spend, and potentially therefore the most influence with?
Country: Which countries do your suppliers operate in, and which of those countries are high risk because of weak legal and regulatory frameworks, high levels of corruption, etc.?
Category: Which suppliers, including suppliers for products and processes, are most business critical for your company?
Tier: Which suppliers sell to your company directly, and which are sub-tier suppliers?
Nature of transaction: Does the transaction contribute to increased or decreased transparency and accountability for conditions in the supply chain? For example, sub-contracted labor, brokers, agents, and middlemen may lead to gaps in knowledge, awareness and influence.
There are two main steps to mapping risk in the supply chain:
1. Identifying Risk Events. Events, such as underpayment of wages at a factory in your supply chain, can create risk for your business. Internally – and externally-driven events that may not only be against the law but may also affect the achievement of your sustainable supply chain and business objectives must be identified. Risks can include business continuity, regulatory, reputation, market acceptance and customer requirements risks. External stakeholders may also identify other social, environmental, economic and governance risks which your company will have to evaluate for their potential impact on your business.
2. Assessing the Likelihood and Severity of Risk Events. Risk events should be analysed to understand their likelihood and potential impact. This will determine how they should be managed under your company’s supply chain sustainability program.
Many companies find it helpful to plot each risk event on a grid, where the two axes are “likelihood of occurrence” and “severity of consequences,” as in the mapping on the left. It is also possible to include additional dimensions and inputs to create the risk ranking. For example, stakeholder perception of risks 29 may be different, and your company may want to take this perspective into account as well in setting priorities for action.
Finally, to use this analysis to effectively segment your company’s supply chain, you will need to translate risks to types of suppliers. For example, an information technology company may find that many of its highest risks are focused on the raw minerals that are used in manufacturing its products. It would therefore want to focus its supply chain sustainability program at the base of its supply chain program. A pharmaceutical company, on the other hand, may find that many of its highest risks occur during transportation of its products when the integrity of its medicines and patient safety might be at risk. This company would want to engage with its logistics suppliers to address potential business ethics, labor and business continuity concerns. Some risks, such as greenhouse gas emissions, packaging waste and environmental management in logistics and transportation are common to many industries, and depending on the scale of activity, might require different interventions.
Example: Through its supplier mapping exercise, CEMEX, a Mexican building materials company, realized that 80 per cent of the company’s spend in the supply chain goes to 20 per cent of its suppliers. Given the significant size of its total supply chain, and the realistic ability of the company to affect change in suppliers, CEMEX determined that it could most effectively create sustainability improvements and realize business value from focusing on that 20 per cent.
Example: ArcelorMittal, a mining company based in Luxembourg, has a USD 50 billion supply chain extending from basic raw materials like iron ore to sophisticated downstream products and services. The company has mapped out the most significant sustainability related risks and opportunities for each category of the supply chain based on desk research as well as input from internal experts, users and the respective category purchase teams. ArcelorMittal has found that mapping risks in a method that is both robust, but also simple and aligned with the organization’s core risk management approach, is essential to crystallize the key priorities to be addressed. The company chose a 2 x 2 matrix (Impact x Likelihood) for each purchase category and held workshops with participants from the wider internal work-groups to discuss the challenges as well as opportunities in each of these categories. This process will need to be repeated on a regular basis to ensure the risk map remains up to date.
Engaging with Suppliers
The ultimate goal of engaging with suppliers is to develop a shared mindset about sustainability issues, to build supplier ownership of their sustainability vision, strategy and performance and to work more closely with suppliers with shared priorities. There are many different levers companies can use to improve sustainability in the supply chain. The mechanisms described in this chapter are focused on raising awareness and encouraging suppliers to integrate and drive sustainability into their business through setting expectations, ongoing monitoring and partnering with suppliers to overcome barriers to improvement. The figure below shows the tools that are used by companies across a wide range of industries to engage with suppliers on supply chain sustainability. Each has specific purposes, and it is important to have a strategic process to determine which supplier engagement tools to use and to what extent.
The first step to improving sustainability in the supply chain is to raise awareness of your company’s expectations for sustainability performance. In addition, there are two additional communication methods to consider:
Using existing customer-supplier communications.
Every company has some existing processes or methods to communicate with suppliers. These can vary from very basic to very sophisticated approaches. Often these communications are led by supply management professionals and focus on the business aspects of the relationship. You should consider how to regularly incorporate sustainability expectations and dialogue into these communications to help build shared mindset, reinforce key messages, and provide the opportunity for feedback. This approach has the benefit of providing a dialogue platform where the supplier can in turn raise issues of constraints or tensions created by your company’s demands (such as short lead times or many changes to order specifications). Having the right parties around the table can help identify ways to meet both the business and sustainability requirements.
Adding sustainability to the agenda of supply chain forums.
By participating in supplier forums and talking about sustainability expectations in your industry, you can help identify organizations that share your company’s issues and priorities. These discussions, which can include suppliers, but also peers, partners, policymakers and a broad range of other stakeholders, allow you to share details about your company’s priorities and expectations, and learn from others about their approaches. These forums can also provide an important opportunity to get feedback on your program and identify areas for improvement, as well as to build support for addressing systemic challenges that require a shared response.
Example: In 2006, the Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., a Japanese imaging technology company, began the implementation of an ethical procurement program to address customers’ needs and respond to their concerns related to management at environmental and labor issues in manufacturing facilities, to minimize manufacturing and brand risks from supplier noncompliance and to improve product and manufacturing quality. As the first step in the development of the company’s program, Fuji Xerox conducted “ethical procurement study sessions” with its nine key suppliers’ executives in 2006. The study sessions included a five-day study meeting in Shenzhen, China, with approximately 50 participants, including the executives of the suppliers, their factory presidents in Shenzhen area and Fuji Xerox of Shenzhen executives. The suppliers’ study group was critical to the successful launch of the company’s ethical procurement program.
Example: In 2009, The Coca-Cola Company, a food and beverage company based in the United States, brought a group of top global suppliers to Atlanta to participate with senior management in a discussion about the need for business to embed sustainability as a critical element of growth plans. During the meeting, the Chairman and CEO shared his thoughts on the evolution of supply chains, including how low costs, speed, efficiency and customization are merely the price of entry to compete in today’s marketplace, and how sustainability will be critical for consumer and customer differentiation. Rather than set top-down directives, the company sought suppliers’ strategic counsel in ensuring long-term mutual success in improving sustainability in the supply chain. Following the summit, CocaCola received nearly 200 proposals from suppliers, including ideas and strategies related to sustainable packaging, logistics, sustainable agriculture, water stewardship, and portfolio innovation. Coca-Cola is developing individual and collective action plans with the 32 suppliers who participated.
Monitoring & Evaluations
A monitoring system provides information on whether suppliers are complying with the codes and expectations your company has put in place. Monitoring systems are effective in establishing baseline measurements and assessing recent and current performance relative to minimum expectations. However, compliance-based approaches to monitoring have resulted in concerns about costs, disruptions to production of suppliers, doubts about the accuracy of the information collected and potential risks to safety of workers. You should carefully consider what approach to use and with which suppliers, in order to get reliable information collected and avoid over reliance on compliance audits.
Supplier self-assessments
Many companies invite suppliers to self-assess their sustainability performance as an initial screen in selecting new suppliers or as part of a risk assessment for identifying which suppliers may require closer monitoring. Self-assessments can provide customers with useful information and also increase suppliers’ understanding of customers’ expectations. Many companies also find that self-assessments Creating Incentives for Strong Sustainability Performance are a good starting point to cover a significant portion of the supplier base in a relatively short time frame and at relatively lower cost than audits. However, reliable self-assessments depend on trust, a suppliers’ competency to gather information from disparate parts of their organizations and clear communications so that suppliers understand what is being asked and how their information will be used. For example, the problem of double books is sometimes due to suppliers’ concern that their poor performance will result in immediate loss of business.
Example: Hewlett-Packard (HP), a large computer company and member of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), requests that suppliers identified as high risk complete an electronic self-assessment questionnaire to identify potential social and environmental responsibility performance risks. HP reviews the results of the self-assessment and provides feedback to suppliers, and suppliers create and implement an improvement plan if necessary. In addition to helping HP evaluate risk, self-assessments have been shown to help HP suppliers become more familiar with HP’s expectations of what it means to conform to HP’s code of conduct.
Compliance audits are on-site evaluations of supplier performance against your policies and expectations. An audit typically includes several elements as illustrated in the figure below. Audits can also include management systems assessments which gather information on the strength of suppliers’ sustainability management systems. There are several audit protocols in place in certain industries that can be leveraged. For example, the Global Social Compliance Program has gathered audit process best practices in a set of reference tools that companies can adopt or can use as a benchmark for their own system.
Audits can be conducted by your company staff or by a third-party auditing firm. The questions of when, why and how to engage external auditors should be driven by your overall supply chain risk management objectives. Both external and internal auditors offer distinct advantages and there is no standard “right way.” In fact, some companies use both. In deciding whether to rely on external auditors or to develop and maintain internal capacity for auditing, consider what type and level of expertise is needed to assess performance against your policies, such as environment or health and safety expertise and regional presence and capacity. Also, individual qualifications are also important and have an impact on the integrity and quality of the audit results. For companies with substantial audit requirements, it’s important to carefully Worker Interviews: With a representative sample of employees regarding working conditions. Records Review: Checking employee files, time cards, health and safety records, etc. Management Interview: Discussion of management systems, wages paid, working hours, etc. Facility Tour: Visual inspection of facility for obvious non-compliance. supplier audit components of an audit consider the cost, feasibility and effectiveness of internal versus external investments. Also, consider how suppliers will perceive and be affected by audits, how critical they are to your business and how much control your company needs to have over the process and results.
Effective audits are driven by a variety of factors including: • Preparation and knowledge of factory, workers and community prior to visit • Maintaining independence from management for credibility with workers • Selecting a random sample of workers to interview during all parts of assessments • Holding informal conversations with workers during times and in locations where they are comfortable and secure • Gathering enough information to ensure understanding of factory conditions • Documenting information and assessing workers’ credibility • Validating information from workers with other sources • Always being aware of the need to protect workers’ confidentiality and safety
Example: L’Oréal, a French cosmetics company, requires suppliers to agree to be audited by signing an “Ethical Commitment Letter.” All subcontractors are audited wherever they operate, as well as all suppliers of raw materials, packaging, on-site security, cleaning services, company cafeterias located in “at risk” countries and all promotional items suppliers. Other suppliers are audited on a case by case basis, as necessary. Audits are based on SA8000 standard, and carried out by specialized, independent third party auditors in the local language. Audits are carried out during a pre-agreed period of 30 days, without a warning of the actual date. They include a visit to the factory, workshops, offices and on-site accommodation as well as individual interviews with employees. The cost of the initial audit is entirely supported by L’Oréal, and the final report is sent in parallel to L’Oréal and the supplier.
Example: Over the past decade, Nike, a footwear and apparel company, has experimented with using many tools for encouraging and enforcing contract factories’ compliance with their code 37 of conduct and code leadership standards. One of the main components of the company’s monitoring program is its Management Audit Verification (MAV) tool, which is a labor assessment tool designed to audit performance in five key areas: work hours, wages, benefits, grievance systems and freedom of association. The audit focuses on the factory’s people management systems and practices and is performed by Nike’s compliance staff.
Remediation & Capability Building
Supply chain sustainability is an evolving vision, which means that it is critical to have an approach that defines and incentivizes continuous improvement. This approach should include both remediation of instances of non-compliance as well as investment in suppliers’ management capabilities. Remediation can include a number of activities: • Working with suppliers to create a corrective action plan for achieving compliance in a clearly defined and reasonable time frame. • Encouraging improvements through regular communications with non-compliant suppliers. • Defining a roadmap for gradually increasing standards and expectations. • Terminating supplier relationships when serious shortcomings on “zero-tolerance” issues are not remedied in spite of repeated notifications. Companies should identify zero-tolerance issues and explain their selection and consequences to suppliers in advance. Companies should also explain in advance the process for remediation and at what point continued noncompliance may result in termination. It is important that remediation requirements are communicated very clearly to suppliers, and that there are established timelines and consequences for not meeting them or continuing poor performance.
Example: Philips, an electronics company from the Netherlands, implemented a Supplier Sustainability Involvement Programme built on five pillars: setting out requirements; building understanding and agreement; monitoring identified risk suppliers through audits using the EICC checklist; working with suppliers to resolve issues quickly; and engaging stakeholders. When non-conformances are found during an audit, corrective action plans (CAPs) are agreed upon within 30 days. Philips will work with the supplier to define the CAP, specifying the required steps, milestones and responsibilities, and to track progress of the plan. Philips’ Supplier Sustainability officers follow up monthly and can escalate the issue to the responsible purchasing manager as necessary.
Remediation efforts are most successful in combination with efforts to build suppliers’ management capabilities. Capability building includes a variety of efforts, from training for supplier personnel to establishing worker hotlines and resource networks. For example, through a combination of practical workshops, training and in-factory consultations, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Factory Improvement Programme (FIP) helps factories increase competitiveness, improve working conditions, and strengthen collaboration and communications between managers and workers.
Roles & Responsibilities
Supply chain sustainability strategies need to be integrated and closely coordinated with business strategies that affect supply chains.
Internal Alignment: One of the most persistent challenges to supply chain sustainability is an unresolved tension in many companies between supply management professionals’ commercial objectives and their sustainability objectives and commitment to the Global Compact. This tension is manifested in different objectives for sustainability and supply management staff. A lack of internal alignment can have negative impacts on suppliers’ supply chain sustainability performance. For example, last minute quantity changes can create significant time pressures that erode working conditions if suppliers are forced to increase worker overtime schedules to meet compressed timetables. Successful implementation of supply chain sustainability programmes requires three levels of internal responsibility as illustrated in the figure below.
Governance and Oversight: Executive Leadership and the Board of Directors Executive and Board commitment, oversight and support are crucial in setting the correct tone and direction for supply chain sustainability. Executives should clearly articulate the company’s vision and approach to supply chain sustainability with concrete milestones and metrics. Written and oral communication from executives will help align business managers’ and supply management professionals’ priorities with these milestones and emphasize the importance of sustainability as a way of doing business. Executives and the Board of Directors should also regularly review progress against supply chain sustainability goals. This senior level oversight will help to hold people throughout the company accountable. Executives should also provide regular internal updates around the company’s sustainability priorities, successes and challenges.
Executives should also support supply management professionals’ communications with suppliers as appropriate. Executives at suppliers will appreciate the peer-to-peer interaction, and the involvement of your company’s senior leaders will help to demonstrate the seriousness with which supply chain sustainability is undertaken at your company. As discussed in Chapter 3, executives can help communicate about the code of conduct. They can also participate in supplier meetings as an incentive for strong performance.
Cross-functional Coordination among Business Managers
Competing requirements from different functions internally can negatively impact supply chain sustainability. To support sustainability objectives and enable suppliers to meet expectations, alignment between a wide variety of functions is required. In addition to supply management professionals, product design, business development, logistics, marketing and sales can all impact supply chain sustainability. Companies should consider how to bring together cross-functional representatives, as illustrated in the figure below, to get a clear picture of impacts and where they arise in company decision making. It is important that individual roles and responsibilities within the business are specified so that individuals can assume responsibility for implementing and meeting the vision and milestones set out by executives. These objectives should be backed by incentives and consequences. Sustainable supply chain personnel should also provide input to strategic planning processes in functions throughout the company. To build sustainability into decision making processes, sustainability expertise should be embedded in, or available to, every team with an impact on the supply chain.
Implementation by Supply Management Professionals
Depending on the structure of your company, the group of individuals with the most direct contact with suppliers, referred to throughout this guide as supply management professionals, will have the most responsibility for communicating sustainability expectations to suppliers and holding suppliers accountable for meeting your company’s expectations.
Supply management professionals have three primary levers for moving the needle on supply chain sustainability: 1. Selecting of new suppliers with relatively high sustainability capabilities and practices 2. Engaging with existing suppliers to set and raise expectations and ensure continuous improvement in performance 3. Integrating sustainability considerations in sourcing decisions such as consolidating purchases and winding down product or service lines.
Selecting Suppliers
During the due diligence process of selecting suppliers, companies can include social and environmental management and performance criteria alongside commercial criteria. This will allow supply management professionals to look at the full picture when evaluating suppliers, and in some cases, avoid working with suppliers that bring more sustainability risk to the company. A standard practice is to review responses to a supplier self-assessment questionnaire (described more fully in Chapter 5), which asks for basic information about policies and practices, and can be used in a risk assessment to prioritize suppliers for follow up.
Engaging with Existing Suppliers on Continuous Improvement
Existing suppliers will also need to comply with your company’s sustainability expectations. Depending on the current state of sustainability management systems at any given supplier, it may require investments in people and systems that will take time to translate into improved performance. Supply management professionals should take a continuous improvement approach to sustainability with existing suppliers based on: • Mutual transparency. Companies should expect that suppliers will openly and honestly share information related to their sustainability performance. In return, companies should provide clear expectations and guidance as well as advanced notice of changing policies or practices to suppliers. • Realistic timelines. Companies should carefully consider what their minimum requirements are, e.g. legal compliance, and what is a realistic timeline for improvements that go beyond the minimum requirements. • Continuous improvement. Companies can work with suppliers toward management excellence for sustainability and should define excellence in this context. Companies can also help suppliers develop management capacity by providing access to resources. • Partnership. Companies should commit to enabling open lines of communication with suppliers between decision makers of both parties. Customers can work in partnership with suppliers to clearly define roles and responsibilities and to create and achieve mutually agreeable goals.
Example: Timberland, an American footwear company, has changed the way it works with suppliers from a compliance-based approach to a more collaborative approach focused on workers. Instead of leaving a list of violations for factory owners to resolve and then checking back to verify improvements, the company now works more closely with factory management and their workers to understand the root cause of workplace issues in factories. The new approach puts the workers themselves at the centre of the process. Workers and their representatives are now invited to opening and closing meetings of supplier assessments and workers are interviewed in groups as part of the assessment process. In addition, worker code of conduct committees are established, trained and continuously involved in upholding the code of conduct.
Integrating Sustainability Considerations
Companies can take many steps to support supply management professionals in integrating sustainability and overcoming the perceived tension between sustainability and business drivers. Many companies begin by providing advice on sustainability issues such as human rights and environmental impacts in a way that makes clear links to other business factors, such as risk, quality, cost, etc. Companies are also experimenting with supplier scorecards which present information about suppliers’ sustainability performance alongside their business performance to support integrated decision making. Leading companies are also placing sustainability personnel within procurement to prevent mixed messages to suppliers.
Example: At Starbucks, buyers are trained on supply chain sustainability issues and how to address them, and have access to all supplier sustainability assessment reports performed for Starbucks. All communication with suppliers comes from buyers. Starbucks’s Ethical Sourcing team, the company’s sustainable supply chain experts, interacts regularly with buyers regarding supplier assessments and remediation matters. Training, information access and communications are all coordinated to equip buyers with the tools to incorporate supplier sustainability into their purchasing decisions.
Industry Collaboration
Industry collaboration and multi-stakeholder partnerships are important tools for advancing your company’s supply chain sustainability objectives, particularly for issues that are too challenging and complex to tackle alone. In addition, collaboration can increase the impact and overall efficiency of your company’s supply chain sustainability efforts by extending your reach, pooling resources, reducing duplication and avoiding conflicting messages.
The Context for Industry Collaboration
Many leading companies have come to see collaboration as an important element of addressing the root causes of sustainability issues. In addition, collaborative efforts represent a way for smaller companies with fewer resources to take action and contribute to further supply chain sustainability. Two primary types of industry collaboration have emerged: 1. Best Practice Sharing. These industry collaborations, which can be focused in one industry or across sectors, focus on sharing knowledge about approaches and tools that companies have found to be successful in their individual supply chain sustainability programmes. These groups often also create tools together that reflect the direction of their programmes, although typically participants to this type of collaboration are not required to use the tools or to meet any other standards for participation. 2. Joint Standards and Implementation. These collaborations are typically focused within one sector and aim to create consistency among companies’ expectations and supply chain sustainability programmes. As described briefly in Chapter 5, compliance-based approaches to supplier monitoring are frequently characterized by inconsistency, duplication and inefficiency among companies. For suppliers that work with multiple customers that each have their own code, and approach for monitoring and remediation, unaligned supply chain sustainability programmes can create a significant burden and divert resources from compliance and continuous improvement efforts. For this reason, many groups have come together to create shared codes of conduct, which participating companies may or may not be required to adopt, and they work to engage suppliers on the shared code together through joint assessments and auditing. Many of these groups also conduct joint capability building for suppliers.
Example: Through the Sustainable Water Group, a partnership of companies committed to managing water use and wastewater discharge in global textile supply chains, Gap Inc. has established a Clean Water Programme to monitor denim laundries’ wastewater discharge and require them to meet the Sustainable Water Quality Guidelines. This project allowed Gap to encourage peers in the industry to adopt similar wastewater procedures into their supply chains.
Opportunities and Risks of Industry Collaboration
Industry collaboration can create significant efficiencies for suppliers and companies, but it also comes with some risks. You should consider both as you determine whether and on what elements of your programme you want to collaborate with other companies. In addition to the benefits that industry collaboration can create for suppliers discussed above, the opportunities for companies are significant: • Leverage with Suppliers. Partnering with peers on supply chain sustainability can boost your company’s leverage with direct as well as sub-tier suppliers. By collaborating with peers, your expectations and engagement approaches are not only more aligned, but your voice to direct and sub tier suppliers will be much louder. • Credibility with stakeholders. Participating in industry collaborations can demonstrate your company’s awareness of the challenges in supply chain sustainability and help boost your credibility with external stakeholders. Industry collaborations can also provide an opportunity to discuss controversial topics with external stakeholders that your company may not be comfortable addressing one on one. • Resource sharing. The processes outlined in this Guide all require resource investment, and particularly for smaller companies or companies with recent commitments, the time and money necessary to implement a strong supply chain sustainability programme can be significant barriers. Industry collaboration can help companies pool their resources and share the expenses of establishing expectations and engaging with suppliers. Risks There are also some risks to industry collaboration that you should consider: • Internal commitment. Industry collaboration can be challenging for some companies and could threaten your ability to get internal commitment to supply chain sustainability, particularly if potential partners in industry collaboration are seen as competitors or at markedly different stages of supply chain sustainability. To ensure buy-in, you should get a clear understanding of which companies you will be partnering with and what their expectations are. • Resource draining. While industry collaborations have the potential to create cost and time efficiencies for participants, they also require investment, and may not always deliver results. For example, initiating shared action with partners and agreeing to common expectations and engagement processes can be quite time intensive, and these efforts may take significant amounts of time to mature and create substantial impact. • Unwillingness to change course. For collaborative efforts that are more established, there is a possibility that other participants in the collaboration will be unwilling to change approaches to get alignment with your company.
Example: De Beers, a diamond mining company based in Luxembourg, works with other companies in the industry to address a range of historical challenges including conflict diamonds, a lack of commercial transparency and poor working conditions in factories in major cutting and polishing centres like Surat in India. Although the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and the World Diamond Council System of Warranties were launched in 2003 to address the issue of conflict diamonds, no single standard existed to verify full ethical practices throughout the diamond pipeline addressing social, employment, business, health and safety, and environmental issues. De Beers saw an opportunity to leverage its leadership position in the diamond pipeline to establish a benchmark for best practice not only within the diamond mining sector, but also through the cutting, polishing, and jewellery manufacturing pipeline. To this end, De Beers launched the Best Practice Principles (BPP) Assurance Programme in 2005 and made compliance to the standard a contractual condition of supply to De Beers customers and a requirement for all entities within the De Beers Group.
Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships
In addition to collaborating with industry peers, many companies are recognizing the value of working with a broader range of stakeholders. Chapter 2 described a range of stakeholder groups that could provide input on your company’s supply chain sustainability strategy, including national and local governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, nongovernmental organizations, advocacy and activist organizations, academic and issue experts and community groups. In recent years, more and more stakeholder groups have demonstrated willingness to partner with companies. Many of these stakeholder groups are knowledgeable about sustainability issues and can be useful partners, beyond just sharing perspective and advice, by working closely to address supply chain challenges. They can assist with understanding the context for sustainability challenges, help with designing effective responses, and acting as local implementing partners. In addition, they can bring resources and legitimacy to supply chain sustainability efforts. Business can also work with local authorities to support local efforts and improve capacity to address the root causes for sustainability challenges that business experience in supply chains.
Example: Many companies have created cost efficiencies by undertaking efforts to reduce accidents and illnesses and improve the overall health of workers in their supply chains. Levi Strauss & Co., a U.S.-based apparel company, has implemented a number of worker rights and responsibilities and health education training programmes at suppliers’ factories, working in partnership with civil society organizations, to improve worker well-being, ensure worker rights are respected and achieve savings through increased productivity and reduced absenteeism. The company places an emphasis on building the capabilities of these civil society organizations to provide expanded services to workers and factories.
Tracking Performance
While it is important to establish clear roles for key functions throughout the company, it is equally important to set comprehensive performance goals. Explicit objectives for supply chain sustainability will provide individuals with direction in their tasks and will also help your company evaluate the impact and success of your programme.
The Process of Goal Setting
Goal setting should be a collaborative process that involves leadership from each of the functions that will have responsibility for meeting established objectives. It’s also important to ensure sustainable supply chain objectives are aligned with business needs. Review your company’s business strategy and objectives and identify places where the supply chain objectives you have defined support the company’s overall business objectives. Each supply chain objective should support at least one business objective, and your company’s executive leadership should endorse the goals. Performance against goals will need to be tracked year after year as part of a measurable business objective. While this seems obvious, it requires companies to go through the challenging process of defining what the desired and realistic goals are and how and when that goal should be met. Defining and tracking progress towards goals demonstrates the value of the work that is done to meet the goal. Although goals are usually designed at a high-level for the entire business, these objectives need to be translated into actionable targets for managers across all functions in an integrated and coherent manner. Only in this way can they be rolled out throughout the company. For example, a goal on the number of suppliers that attend sustainability trainings can be translated into a target for individual supply management professionals within each sourcing group that manages supplier relationships. Similarly, more microlevel targets that can be rolled up provide a picture of overall performance against goals.
Goals for Impact
Based on your company’s vision for supply chain sustainability, objectives for business impact should be fairly straightforward. These can include meeting customer and other stakeholder expectations, reducing costs and expanding into new markets. It’s also important to establish objectives for the societal and environmental impacts of your company’s supply chain sustainability efforts. While some stakeholders are interested in understanding the processes through which companies meet their supply chain sustainability commitments, many are more concerned with the value created. Suppliers also seek to understand the value created for their businesses through meeting responsible sourcing requirements. Companies may in some cases consider setting objectives related to suppliers’ establishing their own sustainability management systems, effects on the environment such as greenhouse gas emissions and waste and effects on workers and communities. These may include workplace injury and illness rates, total wages paid, training and skills developed, and impact on communities and local development such as number of jobs created, income generated, and infrastructure developed.
Goals for Supplier Performance
As discussed in Chapter 5, there are many mechanisms you can use to track performance of individual suppliers and encourage supplier ownership. However, it is important that companies set objectives for overall supplier performance, which can be revised at later dates with supplier input. Goals for suppliers should be formulated with inputs from management across functions, especially procurement, to ensure broad commitment and realistic goals. They should establish objectives for overall supplier performance against the expectations set by your company. For example, companies often set goals for the number of suppliers completing corrective action plans after they’ve been audited. Companies should also set goals for performance in specific areas such as human rights, labour, environment, ethics and supplier management systems.
Goals for Internal Performance
One of the most persistent obstacles that companies face in meeting their impact objectives and supporting suppliers to meet supplier performance objectives is the unresolved tension between supply management professionals’ commercial objectives and their desire to ensure fair working conditions and environmentally friendly practices. To support increased attention from supply management professionals on sustainability issues, companies should consult with leaders from supply management and other functions to set objectives for internal implementation of supply chain sustainability. Goals for internal performance should provide guidance on expectations for how sustainability will be integrated into supply management decisions. For example, some companies establish goals related to placing a specific percentage of their spend (or volume) with the highest performing suppliers, while others emphasize setting goals that make sustainability a key factor alongside other commercial and technical criteria, to be used in making decisions about supply. Another goal would be the percentage of supply management professionals receiving training in sustainability issues.
Processes & Practices
Processes and Practices In order to evaluate performance against your company’s supply chain sustainability goals, you will need to collect and track performance data over time. Much of this data, and the processes and practices around it, will also be critical to the implementation of aspects of your company’s supply chain sustainability programme already covered in this guide.
What data to collect
Companies will need to collect data on both supplier and supply management professionals’ performance. Metrics need to be designed to allow for straightforward evaluation of the company’s progress on its goals. Much of this data will likely overlap with the data that supply management professionals will collect as part of evaluating suppliers, and that other functions, such as Environment, Health, and Safety, may also capture. You should begin by analysing the breadth and quality of all existing metrics and data. As a next step, you will probably need to spend some time standardizing metrics so that if different parts of the company are collecting information on the same topics it is captured in a unified way.
How to collect data
Data collection can be challenging given the vast number of suppliers that your company may be evaluating and the number of sources that data can originate from. In addition, there are many examples of suppliers that keep double books, coach workers to respond falsely to worker interviews during audits, bribe inspectors and find other ways to mask the real situation in their company. This makes methods of ensuring the integrity of data critically important to decision making.
In addition, transparency of supplier information across functional and organizational boundaries is often limited, and companies often struggle with a lack of effective communication and understanding between companies and their suppliers on the information they need to exchange. Many companies are exploring information technology platforms that will enable comprehensive data collection and management. Cross-functional business managers can be helpful in aligning internal systems and processes. Collaboration with suppliers may also be useful since they will be inputting data and may be more inclined to engage with your programme if they feel that they’ve had a hand in shaping it.
There are a number of data sharing platforms that can help collect and manage supplier information about sustainability performance. These include Sedex, EcoVadis, e-Tasc and Fair Factories Clearinghouse. There are also many information technology companies that provide this type of resource as well.
How to use data
Finally, you need to plan for how data will be used. As data is collected over time, your company’s executive leadership should receive regular updates on progress. Supply management professionals in particular will use much of the data on supplier performance in decision-making.
Example: Johnson Controls Inc., an American instrumentation company, established a supplier sustainability rating system to assess and rank suppliers based on whether they are meeting the expectations expressed in the company’s ethics policy. Suppliers use a web-based self-assessment to communicate the status of their environmental, human rights, social and governance programmes. The questionnaire, which is completely electronic and resides on a public web site so that all suppliers have easy access to it, contains questions related to human rights, working conditions, employee safety and energy management. Because energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions management is a critical part of Johnson Controls’ business, the questionnaire asks if the supplier is publicly reporting its greenhouse gas emissions, and specifically asks if the supplier is reporting to the Carbon Disclosure Project. Once a supplier completes the questionnaire, the respective procurement managers are provided the results and they determine the ranking of the suppliers, and as appropriate, work with the supplier to ensure they are fully compliant with expectations.
Communicating Progress
Communicating progress and reporting public reporting can be a tool to stimulate and enhance sustainability and transparency in the supply chain. It also demonstrates the management of environmental and social impacts and the assurance of good governance in the supply chain to both internal and external stakeholders. Global Compact signatories are required to publicly communicate with stakeholders on an annual basis on their progress in implementing the ten principles. This annual communication, or Communication on Progress (COP) is an important demonstration of the company’s commitment to the Global Compact and its principles. Beyond the COP, sustainability reporting is the most common way for companies to communicate progress with stakeholders. While the practice is evolving to include stand-alone reports, online reporting, and integrated sustainability and financial reports, the objectives are to measure and disclose organizational performance towards the goal of sustainable development. Sustainability reporting is a logical last step after having implemented a supply chain sustainability approach and, as the process requires companies to consider their progress against goals and to be transparent to internal and external stakeholders, will help to improve it continuously.
Reports can be used for the following purposes, among others: • Source of best practices that can inspire others and provide a benchmark for analysis of sustainability performance. • Self-evaluation and continuous improvement in the process of implementing the principles, including in the supply chain. • Benchmarking and assessing sustainability performance with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards, and voluntary initiatives; • Demonstrating how the organization influences and is influenced by expectations about sustainable development; and • Comparing performance within an organization and between different organizations over time.
Example: Timberland, an American footwear company, has created a “Green Index” environmental rating system that measures and communicates critical aspects of environmental performance in a simple format to inform both product design and consumer choices. The Green Index rating system drives alignment of product design and development with Timberland’s corporate environmental strategy. The company aims to reduce impacts in three broad areas: climate, chemical use and resource consumption. By providing clear environmental measures in these areas, product creation teams can choose processes that require less harmful chemicals and increase the use of less carbon-intensive materials, as well as recycled, organic, and renewable materials. Applying the Green Index rating and label across Timberland’s entire footwear line (100 per cent of line to be rated by end 2011) Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) GRI is the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework. The GRI sets out principles and indicators that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental and social performance. GRI is also the recommended reporting language for Global Compact companies to communicate with stakeholders on their progress in implementing the Global Compact principles. The GRI has formed a multi-stakeholder Working Group to develop recommendations on how to enhance the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to improve the quality of disclosure on performance with respect to supply chains.
Curriculum
Supply-Chain Sustainability – Workshop 3
- Part 1 Developing Business Case
- Part 2 Establishing Expectations
- Part 3 Determining Scope
- Part 4 Engaging Suppliers
- Part 5 Roles & Responsibilities
- Part 6 Industry Collaboration
- Part 7 Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships
- Part 8 Tracking Performance
- Part 9 Process & Practices
- Part 10 Communicating Progress
- Part 11 Course Manuals
- Part 12 Project Study
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Global Supply Chain Development (GSCD) 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 (GSCD) 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 labours 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 (GSCD) 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 (GSCD) 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 (GSCD) 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
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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 (GSCD) 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 (GSCD) – 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
Supply-Chain Sustainability
It would help if program students spent some time researching Supply-Chain Sustainability, before their 3rd Workshop Development Process (WDP3), in order to establish an understanding of the purpose and benefits of this process, providing an educational foundation to build upon.
More and more companies are extending their commitment to responsible business practices to their value chains, from subsidiaries to suppliers. They do so not only because of the inherent social and environmental risks and the governance challenges the supply chain poses, but also because of the many rewards supply chain sustainability can deliver. Indeed, sustainable supply chain management can be a strong driver of value and success – for business as much as for society. By spreading good business practices around the globe, it has enormous potential to contribute to more inclusive markets and advance sustainable development in the spirit of the United Nations’ mission. Today, UN Global Compact participants around the world are demonstrating leadership by applying the ten principles in their supply chains. However, developing sustainable supply chain programmes that encompass all of the Global Compact’s four issue areas – human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption – remains a daunting challenge for many.
The Supply Chain Sustainability workshop is a practical guide to continuous improvement and can help companies overcome challenges by offering practical guidance on how to develop a sustainable supply chain process, based on the values and principles of the Global Compact. Featuring numerous examples of good corporate practice, the workshop will assist companies in setting priorities for action that will lead to continuous performance improvement. We hope this workshop will encourage more businesses to embark on the journey towards more sustainable supply chains, thereby delivering tangible and lasting benefits to business, the environment and societies everywhere.
It is more evident than ever that making Global Supply Chain Sustainability a reality requires collaboration across the supply chains that define global business in the 21st century. Many companies most significant impacts on the environment and society occur in their supply chains, and as these networks have grown in scale and complexity over the past 25 years, so too have the opportunities for companies to promote human rights, improve labour conditions, protect the environment and support ethical business conduct. By working together, buyers and suppliers can not only ensure a baseline standard of business conduct is met but also collaborate to improve the impact of business on society and the environment around the world.
We want to encourage companies to apply the Global Compact’s ten principles throughout global supply chains. Joining forces with the extensive network of UN Global Compact signatories across the globe represents a great opportunity to increase the Global Compact’s impact. We hope that this workshop makes a contribution to advance fair and sustainable working conditions for entire industries, geographies and market segments by: • Extending sustainability to small and medium-sized enterprises • Creating better connections to firms in developing countries on key social and environmental issues • Supporting good governance and business ethics as a key pillar of well-functioning markets. This workshop is designed to help companies initiate and advance their supply chain sustainability efforts, but it should also be used to broaden impact and enlist collective action for sustainability.
Course Manuals
Course Manual – Customer Service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. The importance of customer service may vary by product or service, industry and customer. The perception of success of such interactions will be dependent on employees “who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest,” according to Micah Solomon. From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organization’s ability to generate income and revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. A customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer has of the organization. Some have argued that the quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years, and that this can be attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the executive and middle management levels of a corporation and/or a customer service policy. To address this argument, many organizations have employed a variety of methods to improve their customer satisfaction levels, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). Good customer service involves developing bonds with customers, hopefully leading to long term relationships. It creates advantages for both customers and the business alike. Customers benefit because the business is providing a service that meets their needs. The business benefits because satisfied customers are likely to be repeat customers. They will stay with the business. However, good customer service is not easily achieved. It takes time to establish. It requires investment to deliver consistent standards. A large part of customer service success is creating a seamless experience. Customer needs are anticipated; systems are in place; employees are trained. The company runs like a well-oiled machine. But what happens when the unexpected happens? Customers have an unusual request or they simply don’t know the rules of the system? The unexpected, provides the opportunity to stretch the system, improve the system, or even forget the system and impress a customer.
Consistently deliver upon promises
Customers are more likely to feel loyalty towards a company if they can be sure they are going to get exactly what they need from the company without any delays or problems. The company should not make promises that they cannot keep as this may damage their reputation.
Focus in detail
Very often it is the little things that make customers feel valued by a company and therefore they are likely to remain loyal. Small touches such as addressing customers by their name and showing a genuine interest in the customers can make all the difference.
Providing value
If customers know they can rely on the product or service and it is going to serve their needs then they will continue to use it. The company may need to adapt the product or service as required in order for it to continue to meet customer needs.
Customer loyalty
Reward loyal customers by letting them become the first to know about any upcoming offers or promotions that the company is offering. This can be extended by making special deals available to selected customers before they are rolled out to everyone.
Exceed expectations
Exceptional customer service is a great way for a company to earn loyalty from its customers. Customers will remember your brand when you go out of your way to help them. It is this kind of experience that customers will share with others.
Problem resolution
Experiencing problems with a product that customers have purchased from a company may not in itself be a disaster, especially if the customer is loyal and has had no previous problems with the company. What can cause a problem though is if the customer finds it difficult or time consuming to rectify the issue.
Incentive schemes
A loyalty program where the customer can accumulate points which can be redeemed for money off purchases can be the difference if the customer is choosing between two similar businesses. Customers like to feel rewarded for their loyalty. This kind of program can also be used as a marketing strategy.
Employee loyalty
Customers can tell if an employee is really dedicated to the company they work for or whether they are only there for the money. An employee’s enthusiasm for the company and for the products or services they offer can be infectious. This will create a more enjoyable experience for the customers and make them more likely to return.
Customer feedback
This will serve two purposes. Firstly it will make the customers feel engaged with the company which will enhance their feelings of loyalty. Secondly it can give the company the chance to see what they are doing right and if there are any areas where they can improve.
Companies spend a lot of money on marketing in order to devise strategies that will attract new customers. While these strategies are important, then remember that they will be most effective when they are implemented with the needs of the customers in mind. As much effort should be put into retaining existing, loyal customers as there is in attracting new ones.
Supply-Chain Sustainability
The core objective of this section of the course manual is to enable the Head of the Customer Service Department to implement a process within their own department, with a view towards undertaking a detailed analysis into how supply chain sustainability will directly impact upon their department.
Supply-Chain Sustainability
Developing the Business Case
The first steps in developing a supply chain sustainability program are to evaluate the business case for action and understand the external landscape. These efforts will help identify the highest priority supply chain issues for your company, evaluate risks and opportunities and build the internal support to move forward.
There are many compelling reasons for taking action to improve social and environmental impacts throughout the supply chain. Many companies are driven by their corporate values and culture to address sustainability issues. For these companies, the fact that supply chain sustainability is the right thing to do and is a driver of social development and environmental protection helps create internal buy-in and commitment. Many companies also identify specific business drivers for supply chain sustainability. The business case for a particular company depends on a variety of issues including industry sector, supply chain footprint, stakeholder expectations, business strategy and organizational culture. Supply chain sustainability management practices that respond to multiple drivers can maximize the value to business.
Managing Risk
Companies can protect themselves from potential supply chain interruptions or delays associated with suppliers’ human rights, labor, environmental and governance practices by ensuring suppliers have effective compliance programmes and robust management systems covering all the areas of the Global Compact Principles. For companies who have a single source for key inputs, managing risks is also critical to ensuring continued access to those resources. Increasingly, customer and investor expectations are driving companies toward more responsible supply chain management. Strong management of social and environmental issues can help companies address reputational risks. Finally, companies also use supply chain sustainability to ensure that their suppliers can adapt to anticipated strengthening of environmental regulations, extended product responsibility legislation and to reduce potential future liability.
Example: Westpac, an Australian bank, has used advertising campaigns and sponsorships to link the company’s brand to social engagement, environmental protection and sustainability. Westpac recognizes that many of its social, ethical and environmental impacts reside as much in its supplier relationships (or the ‘supply chain’) as in its own activities, and that managing supply chain sustainability is important to protect the company’s reputation and brand value. Risks associated with supply management include negative publicity, damage to a company’s reputation and actual losses of customer base. Westpac carefully manages these risks through a defined supply chain management practice.
Realizing Efficiencies
A focus on realizing efficiencies in the supply chain can reduce your company’s supply costs while also reducing the environmental footprint of your supply chain, including energy, water and natural and synthetic material use, as well as improving worker health and, motivation, and productivity. Benefits include:
• Strong labour and health and safety practices which may result in cost efficiency and improved productivity
• Increased understanding of key processes in the supply chain, including natural resource management and extraction, logistics and manufacturing, which enables better management and stewardship of resources
• More efficiently designed processes and systems which reduce required inputs and lower costs
Productivity and efficiency initiatives require a full understanding of the different steps of the supply chain and the key social and environmental impacts and cost drivers. By addressing the root causes of issues through strong communication capabilities, in-depth understanding of business drivers and sustainability trends and shared assessments and priorities for improvement, companies can drive improvements and derive the benefits.
Creating Sustainable Products
Collaboration with suppliers on sustainability issues can foster product innovation. Companies embarking on such initiatives have added new features and performance characteristics to existing products and even generated new products. For example, sustainable products may result in fewer negative environmental impacts than traditional products or have improved end of life collection and disposal options. It is also possible for the sustainability of products to be a differentiating factor and to lead to increased sales for some companies.
Example: Ahlstrom Osnabrück, a Finnish wallpaper company, began to develop products based on the Forest Stewardship Council’s standard in the late 1990’s after a large customer in the United Kingdom announced its commitment to source products that adhered to the FSC standard. By 2010, all of Ahlstrom Osnabrück’s pulp suppliers were certified to either the FSC or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) standards, and the company has 12 manufacturing sites with FSC Chain-of-Custody certification, allowing the company to meet increased marketplace demand for certified sustainable forest products.
Establishing Expectations
Companies should also invest in understanding the expectations of their stakeholders including national and local governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), advocacy and activist organizations, academic and issue experts and community groups, as well as suppliers themselves.
Moreover, companies can also benefit from seeking input from customers and investors. Customer and investor demand is a primary driver for many supply chain sustainability programmes, and insights from these stakeholders can help shape programmes to ensure that they create the maximum return for the company. Engaging stakeholders early and regularly in the process of designing a programme can help companies identify relevant standards and approaches to sustainable supply chain management. Some stakeholders are knowledgeable about, and sometimes even involved in the development of, different codes of conduct and certifications for suppliers. Examples include the Kimberly Process for jewellery, Forest Stewardship Council Certification for wood and paper products and the SA8000 for responsible labour practices across industries.
They can help you evaluate the credibility of different options and identify which might be relevant inputs for your company’s programme. Emerging risks and opportunities in supply chains. From customers and employees to activists and NGOs, stakeholders are often the first to identify emerging environmental, social and economic issues in the supply chain. Companies who engage early and regularly with stakeholders have the opportunity to take a proactive approach to these issues and to partner with stakeholders rather than discovering the issues through an activist campaign. Early identification of issues through stakeholder engagement can also help companies take early leadership in comparison to peers. See Chapter 8 for more detail on multi-stakeholder collaboration.