An Integrated Framework of Green Supply Chain Management Implementation

Topic:        An Integrated Framework of Green Supply Chain Management Implementation

SUMMARY

        Supply Chain Management (SCM) plays an important role to benefits all parties in the supply chain in terms of cost, performance and production. However the typical life cycle of supply chain contribute to the negative production impacts towards the environment. This situation has driven to the greening of SCM which attracting the industry’s attention and creates the interest among the society in general. This paper is then to provide a concise framework of GSCM implementation to help academicians, researchers and practitioners in understanding GSCM from a holistic perspective.  

        An interactive framework of GSCM consists of five main activities or components in sequence which is Green Product Design, Green Material Management, Green Manufacturing Process, Green Distribution and Marketing and Reverse Logistic. In this framework, green product design includes Environmentally Conscious Design (ECD) and Life Cycle Analysis / Assessment (LCA) of the product. Companies may use LCA to improve their product development in order to reduce negative environmental impact. It is because LCA is concerned with the process for evaluating the environmental, occupational health and resource consequences of a product through it all phases of its life. Besides, ECD which is also known as Design for Environment (DFE) responsible to transfers information given by the LCA to the initial design of new product by using Designing for Disassembly (DFD) where companies try to identify the design specifications of the product to minimize its complexity of the structure or using Design for Recycling (DFR) to make better choices for material selection. For green material management, the process of green material selection and green material sourcing are the most important actions to identify and to replace a potentially hazardous material or process by one that appears less problematic. The third activity which is green manufacturing process consists of resource consumption reduction, waste reduction, and emission reduction. One of the main objectives of this process is reduced use of virgin material and other resources or energies as it indirectly reduces the amount of waste at manufacturing stage. In turn, green marketing and distribution comprise of product modification, packaging changes, modifying advertising with clearly addresses the relationship between product or service and the biophysical environment, and use the transportation service that has lesser negative impact on human health and the natural environment. The last important component in this framework is reverse logistic which closes the loop of generic supply chain and includes reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling of materials into new materials or other products with value in the marketplace.