Drivers of Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Drivers of Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Introduction

            Sustainability in all operations of a business is a contemporary issue that ensures firms gain competitive advantage. Supply chain management is a discipline dealing with the reorganization of a firm's extra-supply activities to achieve a competitive edge in the market and take advantage of customer value. It is also concerned with the suppliers attempt to establish and effect supply chains which are both efficient and economical for them. An organization’s supply chain is a multidimensional activity covering most aspects ranging from manufacturing, to goods and services development, and the information systems.

The drivers of a sustainable supply chain management can be either internal or external. Internal sustainability drivers include internal business processes while the external are legislation, environmental drivers, customers, and social drivers (Hanuv 35).

            Legal requirements compliance is a fundamental drive in achieving a sustainable supply chain management. It is the starting point because failure to comply to regulations implies that the business is illegal (Cohen 80).

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Regulatory issues include general environmental laws that may give direction to products disposal and recycling. Compliance to the law enhances the supply chain and hence making it sustainable.

            Financial drivers are also vital for a sustainable supply chain management. Sustainable supply chain management leads to efficiency and effectiveness in business operations that result to good financial performance. This is brought by reversed logistics that result to cost minimization and saving.

            Sustainability is also driven by internal business processes such as offering warrants, product leases, and replacements. These activities enhance effectiveness in production to minimize replacements and hence in the long run a business attains a sustainable supply chain.

            Customers are the most important stakeholders to any business and they greatly drive firms into adopting sustainable supply chain management (Hugos 56). The clients have large number of substitute goods at their disposal, which gives them the driving force to impact the operations a firm. As firms work to accumulate customer’s pressure such as buying from companies with green image, they end up attaining sustainable supply chain management.

References

Cohen, Shoshanah. "Contemporary Supply Chain Management." Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Disciplines for Top Performance:2nd Revised Edition. New York: Mcgraw-hill Professional, 2013. 80-132. Print.

Hanuv, Mann. Drivers of Sustainable Supply Chain Management. The IUP Journal of Operations Management. Vol. IX. No. 4(2010): 1-58

Hugos, Michael H. "Sustainability in Supply Chain Management." Essentials of Supply Chain Management. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2011. 56-124. Print.

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