SUSTAINABILITY
Adoption considerations When considering the adoption of sustainable technologies in supply chains , Michael emphasises the importance of taking a holistic approach .
“ Sustainability should be considered in both the organisation ’ s materials sourcing and procurement and also in its physical logistics ,” he says .
The first step , according to Michael , is understanding customer needs and expectations , including the product range and service levels needed to satisfy them .
Then , he advises mapping the end-to -end supply chain in detail , from upstream to downstream – even if each stage is outside the direct scope or influence of the organisation .
This comprehensive mapping should take into account stages from product design and raw material extraction , all the way through to product use and disposal or recycling .
Michael goes on to stress that technologies should be considered for addressing a number of purposes :
• Collection , storage and interrogation of data for informed decision making
• Instrumentation along the supply chain to monitor supply chain activities and harvest data
• Clean and renewable energy sources for powering vehicles , facilities and automation
• Automation and energy-efficient vehicles , facilities , materials handling equipment , plants and machinery
• Intelligent systems to continuously analyse performance and monitor efficiency of processes such as vehicle routing , vehicle capacity utilisation , warehouse cooling and heating and production planning .
Red Sea Global ’ s supply chain lead points out , however , that the adoption of sustainable technologies requires careful change management if it is to be successful .
“ Often , new technologies require the collaboration of multiple internal silos as well as external stakeholders ,” Michael says .
144 December 2024