Becoming a Sustainable Enterprise - Sustainable Supply Chains

Linear supply chains can't deal with scarcity of resources, a new approach is needed in order to optimize supply chains for the circular economy...

Companies must optimize their supply chain to focus on reuse and other waste-reducing practices in order to support a true circular economy

Recent events have shown that global supply chains are not truly optimized for unpredictable events. Fluctuating product demand, production plant shutdowns, disruption in distribution channels and the lack of skilled staff have shown the limits - we still sense the consequences today and will do tomorrow. Today’s supply chains are designed to serve a linear economy which assumes a constant supply of resources. This results in a take-make-waste business model with heavy impact on extraction of resources, manufacturing of goods and services and disposal of waste. So companies must rethink product design and distribution channels and then optimize the supply chain accordingly to support a circular economy business model. This is not something that can be achieved over night, it is an optimization process which includes change management in various business areas. But in order to become a resilient business, companies must build more solid supply chains that help to mitigate scarcity of resources through reuse and other waste-reducing practices.

Sustainable Digitalization of the whole supply chain starts with optimizing the sourcing process to make sure that raw materials and semi-finished products are only obtained through transparent, responsible and sustainable channels. Then transportation of material and goods must be optimized in order to have less impact on the environment. Leverage local partners to shorten transportation routes. Adopt sustainability in the design of the vehicle fleet (share, rent, etc.). In the warehouse optimize pick/pack/load/ship processes through Machine Learning methods. Internet of Things (IoT) can be leveraged to proactively optimize energy use (warehouse) and equipment quality (to optimize maintenance processes) to prevent bad maintained equipment to pollute the environment. Industrial organizations must start to leverage smart technology in the supply chain and start to digitalize the relevant process in the supply chain to support the circular economy practices - this will have a huge positive impact on the environment - step by step.

🌎 Map your product and services to a circular business model and understand the changes needed

🌎 Assess your current supply chain and discover the potential for improvement for a circular business model

🌎 Constantly control the impact of your supply chain operations on the environment, your business networks, local communities and consumers

I believe it is time to revolutionize the way we do business. It is time for a Purpose-driven Wellbeing Economy. But to achieve this goal companies must adopt a circular business model, optimize products and services and build resilient supply chains which contribute to the wellbeing of all beings. What do you think?