Project Analysis : Supply Chain Industry

The conduct or the operation of any business anywhere in the world brings with it a number of environmental concerns. These range from the emission of harmful gases, such as carbon (VI) oxide, into the environment and contributions to the depletion of the ozone layer, thus furthering global warming. It is however impossible to exist in this modern world without industries and business, as many would be unemployed and further lack various necessities due to a lack of industries and businesses (Forbes, 2011). Therefore, sustainability should be considered with regard for the environment in that actions should not adversely affect the environment to the extent that future generations will find it unlivable . Many of the leading organizations

Many companies are now transitioning to the sustainability model because this model provides different business opportunities but also helps in possibly reducing the operational cost by introducing LEAN processes as well as may protect business from market and consumer backlash. This is an important reason for sustainability gaining popularity and is the reason for us picking this topic for our research [2].

Sustainability and business are not always looked as a good functioning pair. Businesses often struggle to implement sustainability measures, as they think that it is costing money to shareholders/investors. However, due to increasing pressure from the public, businesses are being forced to reconsidering at adopting sustainability and good business practice. In today's interconnected global economy, the long-term goals and success of business are inevitably connected by embedding the environmental, social and governance issues into corporate management, operations and supply chain. While corporate sustainability recognizes that, though the corporate growth and profitability are vital, it also requires the corporation to pursue societal goals, particularly those relating to sustainable development like; safeguarding environmental, social equality and economic development.

This development in interest in sustainability in business practices and its growing awareness creates a both side happy for business and humanity. (Hopwood, Mellor, & O 'Brien, 2005). Traditionally, most businesses had strong focus on factors that are directly effecting their economic performance. This was often examined by their overheads such as material costs, amount of sale and profit margin, which most Businesses did not consider the long term impacts. In fact, it is some sense true for short term aspect, however in contemporary society, companies play a vital role and should approach as it is also their responsibility to contribute to society and the environment also referred to as a planet, people and profit the triple bottom line. (Elkington 1997) and at the end every single investment business contributed will return in value to the business. (Kuehn, K. 2014). The Economic impact is not solely internally about local wage, jobs opportunities, investment in the economy but also looks at externally at suppliers to ensure they are involved in company’s similar practices and value. This will eventually lead to a healthier future for business while boosting its economy and local economy likewise economic component is the driver behind a company’s activity aimed at supporting business sustainability. (Svensson, Göran; Wagner,

(1) The supply chain managers should address the sustainability issues and should look at the entire supply

Environmental sustainability has been receiving immense academic and industry attention in recent years. Increasing carbon emissions and the associated global warming have been raising numerous questions on the efforts required to make businesses more sustainable environmentally. In a globalized world, where manufacturing is increasingly getting concentrated, transportation of products over long distances is a reality. Increasing consumption, richer lifestyles and supply chain issues such as higher levels of logistics and transportation coordination have led to higher carbon emissions thereby raising important questions on environmental sustainability. On a parallel basis, customers are becoming more environmentally conscious and are

I have chosen to do the assignment on comparing these retail giants over their purchase and supply chain management and its key issues. I was working for a firm in india which is indulged in day to day purchase and supply and was not much effective. It was the main reason to do a research on these firms and to discover how do they handle such an effective supply chain management. Researching on key issues like sustainabillity, global sourcing and ethics and risk involved in supply chain management. The study found that these firms have started to take sustainabillity as a major area of concern in corporate responsibillity through integrating

Arraigning main activities of supply chains; Borade, A, Bonsad SV (2008) exploring the domain of supply chain management. Environmental ethics for sustainable supply Beamon, Benita M., 2005. chain management. SC network configuration for Product Beamon, Benita M. and Farnandes recovery ,2004

In contemporary society, the importance of sustainability has aroused public attention and debate. This is because pollution is growing day-by-day with every second that time passes. It is like a bad dream that not only destroys our environment but also ruins our ecosystem and life cycle. Every single living, as well as the non-living creature, is affected by pollution. Therefore, due to increasing community concern firms are constantly in search of solutions to the existing environmental issues on sustainability management. They achieve this using economic incentives as well as partnerships with various organizations (Wright 83). Businesses claim sustainability as a means of improvement for both the organization and its stakeholders. It can be achieved by the government, corporation and society working together to achieve long-term goals.

Environmental issues influence all human activities and even more influent the business, especially true in marketing. As society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businesses have begun to modify their behavior in an attempt to address society 's new concerns, which is the global warming. Some businesses have been quick to accept concepts like environmental management systems and waste minimization, and have integrated environmental issues into all organizational activities. We also

The supply chain management basically involves processes and activities which are involved in the planning, organising, controlling and implementing the cost effective flow of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. The whole process will have different players like the supplier, manufacturer, distributor, retailers and the customers themselves as the end point of consumption. The supply chain has changed drastically over the years. This days they are very global in nature. Involving various complex interactions and flow of goods, data and funds between companies which are situated in different countries and continents. Even though the companies are spread across the world the manufacturing plants generally follow a similar structure which normally comprises of the suppliers, manufacturing plants, distributors, retailers, inbound and outbound logistics providers. There were a lot of challenges which arose because of the competition which made the companies to rethink their strategies in order to get the product to the right place at the right time at the lowest cost possible. The companies should always look at improving the whole supply chain and every player in the chain should coordinate with one another if they want to increase the efficiency. The organisation should realise the strategic importance of supply chain as it is a key to building a sustainable competitive edge. (Li, Ragu-Nathan, Ragu-Nathan, & Rao, 2006).

In the traditional concept of supply chain, for instance, a paper retailer buys paper from its wholesale supplier. Then this paper company sells them in its retail store. Or a paper manufacturer buys raw stocks from raw stocks suppliers, then turns raw stocks into paper and sells it to others. While, Extended supply chain tends to include the factories where the paper are made, the company that sells the paper, the mill where that supplier buys their raw materials, and other related segment units in this supply chain. Thus, paper retailers may not know very much about which companies originally made the paper, where the paper came from, and how it was transported to the wholesalers, what does the warehouses that store various paper look like. In this supply chain system, retailers may not be capable of reaching Tier-1 suppliers directly.

Today, companies and organizations are aware of their sustainability as it is an important part of their establishment. Not only for the company 's image, but for the savings they can make, and for their employee’s safety.

manufacturers have to go beyond the boundary of their companies to implement green supply chain management (GSCM), that is, integrating environmental struggle into their SCM (Zhu et al., 2007). Leading firms in developed countries such as Japan are always proactive to environmental requirements, implementing inventive GSCM practices before and beyond regulatory requirements (Hosogai et al., 2009). For example, leading Japanese manufacturers implement GSCM at a upper level than Chinese manufacturers, and therefore bring more enactment improvement, especially for economic performance

Dukovska-Popovska I., Bertoni M., Hvolby H, Turner P. and Steger-Jensen K. (2011) “Sustainable Supply Chain Management”, Information Resource Management Association (ed.), Green technologies; concepts, methodologies, tools and applications, Information Science Reference, Portland, pp. 136-152