V.Vinay
Raju, Jindal Global Business School, Sonipat, Haryana.
(E-mail: 12jgbs-vvraju@jgu.edu.in, Mobile:
+91 9050423191)
A supply chain is a grid
of facilities and distribution options of a firm that performs the tasks of raw
materials procurement, material transformations into finished products, and the
distribution of these finished products to customers [Ram, 1995]. Supply chains
exist in both service and manufacturing organizations, although the complexity
of the chain may vary greatly from industry to industry and firm to firm and it
connects an organization input to its output with additional challenges of
lowering cost, improving efficiency, ensuring definite time frame etc. The word
sustainability refers to the capacity or power to endure things through regular
maintenance, Nourishment, contrasting and development and it holds the same
meaning when assigned with the supply chain.
Eco awareness,
cooperative business relationships and applied sustainability concepts have
immediate business impacts and reduce business sustainability risks by creating
SCM alignment. Incorporating sustainability concepts into business
relationships creates at a minimum line of sight across the value chain. This
visibility provides a path to the greater value of alignment and
engagement [Julie, 2012].
The basic roadmap for
supply chain sustainability formulates as follows:
Evaluating
current supply chain – This forms the first and the major
action to be performed in an assessment of current supply chain in terms of
financial, social and environmental status and needs.
Developing
a vision - a long term vision should be attained for supply
chain sustainability. The manufacturing/production houses should know and
understand the current situation of sustainability initiatives and issues in
the entire supply chain.
Creating
a road-map – while creating this the company should focus on
making the basic compliance guidelines for their own facilities.
Execute
review and change – organization or a company should
understand the better impacts of decision on sustainability. They should review
and update them-self regularly. Since the decision taken today is right but may
be different tomorrow or the coming days.
Practice is an area and
art of boundary of it. One of the key aspects of it is the holistic view that
is applied in understanding the total impacts of products or service and
focusing improvements in areas with the most impact. This approach encompasses
both the entire life cycle of a product or service and the entire supply chain
of that service.
Supply chain sustainability
majorly consists of three factors, which is also called as triple bottom-line
for the supply chain sustainability.
1. Environmental Performance: Implementing
Green Supply chain and developing efficient economic methods by using control
mechanisms will help in enhancing industrial ecology performance through the
supply chain.
Figure 1:
Industrial ecology
2. Social performance: Domestic
suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, local retailers, consumers working in
feed forward and feed backward loop will enhance the social performance of
supply chain sustainability.
Figure 2:
Social co-existence aiding supply chain sustainability
3. Financial performance: Success
of Financial performance in supply chains primarily can be linked to currency
fluctuations, raw material sourcing. Hedging the risks associated with them
will help to ensure better financial performance.
Summary
The sustainability of
business and its impact on the supply chain has to be
well documented by creating alignment across the value chain. The implementation
of above said three sustainability factors helps to achieve operational
efficiency, reduce cost, and add value.
- Julie Urlaub, Thursday, December 23, 2010, CSR 2010: Emerging Career Choices in Supply Chain & Sustainability. Retrieved from http://blog.taigacompany.com/blog/sustainability-business-life-environment/csr-2010-emerging-career-choices-in-supply-chain-sustainability
- Kristine A. Wong, October 25, 2012, Wal-Mart commits to scale sustainability of global supply chain. Retrieved from http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2012/10/25/walmart-commits-scale-sustainability-global-supply-chain
- Mr. Craig R. Carter – International Journal of physical distribution and logistics distribution – a framework on of sustainable supply chain management.
- Mr. Gabrielle M. Blue – Inc.com – how to build your sustainability into your supply chain.
- Ram Ganeshan, Terry P. Harrison, 1995, An Introduction to Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from http://lcm.csa.iisc.ernet.in/scm/supply_chain_intro.html
- United Nations Global Compact – issue –supply chain sustainability resource and practice.
