Exploring the Framework of Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Traditionally, businesses and professional consulting firms have focused procurement and supply chain management efforts to reduce costs and improve process efficiencies. While these practices provide great insight into spend control, the next generation of business sustainability organizations is integrating sustainability concepts into their supply chains to evaluate risk and promote value through sustainable development opportunities.

Our sustainability consulting considers risk along with other categorization methodologies, including spend classification and functional categorization, to be a framework from which an organization can create sustainable value within the supply chain. A traditional category management plan is an all encompassing analysis, with several major components:

•    Commercial Strategy
•    Supplier/Contract Management Plans
•    Demand Management Plan
•    Communication/Change Management Plan
•    Continuous Improvement Process

The next generation of sustainable category management is just beginning to see the value and now including a new level of responsibility across all activities. We believe successful implementation requires visibility, engagement, and stakeholder alignment to address new supply questions:

•    What is the source of our materials and manner in which it is obtained?
•    What are the business practices and standards by which our supply partners conduct their business?
•    What are the environmental and social impacts of our supplier’s operations?
•    What are the environmental and social impacts of our supplier’s supply chain?

Leading supply chain focused organizations define visibility and categorization as a critical first step in managing a sustainable supply chain. We find that these companies are leveraging defined business sustainability practices to create a new set of supplier performance measures and category management strategies.

Building of a comprehensive business sustainability plan includes incorporating sustainability concepts in the supply chain. Our sustainability consulting and small business resources provide information and tools to clients seeking to define, frame, and sustainably manage their supply.

Comments for Exploring the Framework of Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Thursday, September 16, 2010 by Henk Hadders:: Good post and it makes you wonder what a sustainable supply chain looks like and how to measure and report the sustainability performance of a supply chain. Suppose my company X has two organizations Y and Z as it suppliers in the supply chain. (BTW it's rather funny that we always seem to look downstream and seldom upstream to other organizations and ultimately to consumers, to consider the sustainability of a supply chain). The sustainability report of my company X shows that the ecological and social impact of my organizational activities has been positive and therefore that the outcomes are sustainable. The same is true for organization Y, but organization Z is both ecological and social unsustainable. Some may say that organization X should also report and include the performance outcomes of Y and Z in its report, but that's not how I see it. Each organization should measure and report about the outcomes of its own processes, its own contributions,as one is not responsible for the outcomes of the activities by others in this world. But I would say that the supply chain -in this example- as a whole is unsustainable, as long as there is still one organization present in the chain with a negative impact on ecological and social areas of impact. As I said a good post, it really makes you think and wonder.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by desha:: The most important question to ask on the job is not "What am I getting?" The most important question to ask on the job is "What am I becoming?"
--Jim Rohn