Supply Chain Principles - Article Example

Supply Chain Principles Exam- Critical Review Name Professor Institution Course Date Supply Chain Principles Exam- Critical Review Review of the Article: Pagell, M., & Shevchenko, A. (2014). Why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 50(1), 44-55. There are various issues that can be assumed to be supporting the argument that research that are conducted in attempt to investigate sustainable supply chain management has no future. The fundamental argument that can be used to present the claim that sustainable supply chain is hard to attain is that the previous studies that have been done have not been successful in attainment of sustainable supply chain (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). Sustainability in supply chain management is significant in improvement of supply and delivery services that are connected to varied operations within a business or institutions (Golicic & Smith, 2013: 78-95). There are several theories that have been developed in line with sustainable supply chain management, and the main focus of these theories is to create a clear understanding of the essence of development of reliable and dependable supply chain management strategies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). The article clearly presents the chronological development of supply chain management, and the establishing of the concept of sustainability in the supply chain management (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). The author explicitly describes the creation of speculations that reveals the importance of incorporating various measures to ensure that sustainability is attain in supply chain management. Additionally, the issues that limit attainment of sustainability in supply chain management led to establishment of the principles of supply chain management which aid greatly in achievement of sustainable supply chain. According to Carroll (1979, pp. 497-505), sustainable supply chain management is understood to be the management of information, commodity or equipment and capital flow (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). It also integrates cooperation among the organizations that are participating in the supply chain, and addresses the goals from all firms in three dimensions that are emphasized by sustainable development (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). These dimensions include economic dimension, environmental dimension and social dimension (Wu & Pagell, 2011: 577-90). This implies that in establishment of sustainable supply chain management in any organization, the management needs to consider measures that are directed to enhancement of economic sector, the social development and more importantly the environmental aspect. On the other hand, the article clearly presented the understanding of sustainable supply chain management from Pagell and Wu (2009, p. 38) as: To be truly sustainable a supply chain would at worst do no net harm to natural or social systems while still producing a profit over an extended period of time; a truly sustainable supply chain could, customers willing, continue to do business forever (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 38). This is an indication that for sustainability in supply chain management to be established clearly, the processes involved should not negatively affect the environment and the surrounding. Additionally, the supply chain processes should not alter the normal functionality of the social systems within the organizations or the surrounding (Carter & Rogers, 2008: 360-385). The economic flow of capital and resources should also be positively enhanced by the operations and processes integrated in supply chain management of the organizations or institutions involved in the processes of supplying, distributing and delivery of commodities or capital (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). Although the article does not present clear definition of Supply Chain Management (SCM), it is essential to understand that SCM is the supervision of the flow of commodities in the sense that it involves transfer and storage of raw materials and finished products from the production point to regions where targeted consumers are readily available (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). Supply chain management integrates the interconnected channels that are incorporated in provision of commodities needed by the final consumers in a supply chain (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). However, the authors of the articles are evident to mention that supply chain management includes activities such as designing, planning, executing and controlling of the supply chain practices. Additionally, they presents the claim that activities such as monitoring the processes of supply chain with the focus of establishing a defined net value and development of competitive infrastructure is another obligation of supply chain managers (Wu & Pagell, 2011: 577-90). The article is evident to make clear understanding of sustainable supply chain management, where the authors present the claim that it involves representation of the efforts by the suppliers to establish and implement supply chains that are effective, reliable, efficient and more significantly economical (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), according to the article integrates all activities and processes that are executed from production of the products or services, through development of the product and the development of reliable information systems to delivery of the enterprises (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). SSCM is understood to be based on the idea that almost all products or services that are availed to the markets are as a results of the contributions and efforts of several organizations through adherence to the principles of supply chain (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). The supply chains have existed for several decades but according to the article, very little concerns have been directed to their effectiveness, efficiency and more importantly the sustainability of these supply chains. The researches that have been conducted on supply chain management have not been considering the element of sustainability in supply chain management, and this has consequently led to reduced confidence on its sustainability in real life situations. It has been observed, as described in the article that the previous studies have been focusing on the economic performance of supply chains at the expense of social performance and environmental performance (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). This is an indication that the supply chain managers did not consider the three dimensions of supply chain management, implying that it was hard to attain sustainability in supply chain management (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). In their research, Pagell and Shevchenko focused at investigating strategies that can be used to ensure that all the three dimensions of supply chain management have been attained in terms of performance. Attainment of social performance, environmental performance and economic performance guarantees an organization or organizations that the supply chains that they integrate in their management are sustainable, effective and efficient (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). The article integrates appropriate approach of investigation in the sense that it starts from general understanding of sustainable supply chain management to specific understanding, which consequently leads to establishment of the problem underlying supply chain management. One of the issues that have been described in the material that limits attainment of sustainable supply chain management is that most researches have been focusing on establishment of strategies that can be used to reduce the challenges linked to SCM instead of concentrating on those measures that can be used to eliminate the challenges (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). The authors argued that “Harm Reduction is not Harm Elimination”, implying that for a problem to be dealt with, people need to seek for strategies that can completely eliminate the problems rather than reducing the problem (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014). From the understanding drawn from the material, it can be argued that once the supply chain managers realize the problems that hinder them from attaining effectiveness and efficiency in their operations, they need to establish measures that will address the hindering issues completely (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). This implies that they need to concentrate in development of long-term solutions to the challenges rather than short-term solutions. The other issue considered to be known regarding sustainable supply chain management is the limited view that stakeholders have towards issues that need to be implemented to attain sustainability in supply chain management. According to the argument presented in the material, most managers concentrate on increasing the returns made by their organizations without minding the impacts of their operations on the social and environmental segments (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). The stakeholders need to understand the social and environmental implications associated with SSCM as a way of ensuring these issues positively impact on supply chain. Most companies are observed to emphasize more on the economic dimension, and this is to the sense that they concentrate on measures that enable them make positive returns at the end of the trading process. This implies that they do not reflect on the implications of their deeds, operations and practices on the social surroundings and the environmental sectors (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). According to the material, people have less understanding towards the impacts of supply chains on the social and environmental aspects of life. The authors are observed to have made deep research on the issue of performance of private and public organizations on the sustainable supply chain management, and they observed that public organizations are less concerned with social and environmental performance of supply chain management as compared to the private organizations (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). This observation can be considered to be as a result of the awareness that the private supply chain managers have on the need to meet the corporate social responsibilities that are in line with social and environmental dimensions. Sustainable Supply Chain Management requires the players to focus on the familiar issues that they perceive to be having undefined impacts on SSCM. This implies that they first need to address the problems or factors that have direct impacts on the performances of social, environmental and economical dimensions of SSCM. They need to have a defined approach of investigating the existing practices in SCM and the impacts the capability of indefensible supply chains to become less productive through improvement of new supply chain forms (Wu & Pagell, 2011: 577-90). The limits of empiricism as a way of finding out the evidence-based approaches that can be used to eliminate the harms associated with factors that hinder effective attainment of sustainable supply chain management. The issue of measuring supply chain impacts is a challenge to many organizations, and it is considered to be one of the limiting factors that hinder these firms form attaining competence and proficient in their supply chain management (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). According to the material, the previous studies have found out that managers focused on profitability for their organizations which is aligning the economic performance without considering the social and environmental dimensions (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). This is an indication that the efforts of most supply chain managers are driven towards increasing the productivity of their organizations in terms of increasing the returns at the expense of the impacts of their activities to the community and other parties who are directly or indirectly affected by supply chains. In development of appropriate solutions towards attainment of sustainability in supply chain management, the authors proposed remedies that require changes in norms, dimension, methods and hypothesis. Adapting supply chains that favor the consumers’ needs is considered as one of the most appropriate remedy to attainment of sustainability and competence in supply chain management (Pullman, Maloni & Carter, 2009). As mentioned in the article among other articles and books that address supply chain management, the suppliers and producers need to be trained on the customers’ needs as the understanding drawn helps them to devise appropriate trade channels that favor both parties (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). For instance, the suppliers and producers can strategize on segmentation and product differentiation as a way of meeting the expectations of customers and the society at large. The other solution emphasized by the authors of attaining sustainability in supply chain management of organizations is through customizing logistics networks (Wu & Pagell, 2011: 577-90). This is to the understanding that when the suppliers segment a consumer based on the service or product needs there are various logistic networks that need to be devised to meet the needs. Aligning demand planning across the supply chain is considered as another remedy to attainment of sustainable supply chain management (Carroll, 1979: 497-505). The participants in a supply chain are advised to share the basic demand data with other partners to ensure that there are no unnecessary stocks from either party. It has been observed that differentiating products close to customers is a positive move of ensuring that investors, suppliers and other intermediaries attain satisfactory (Wu & Pagell, 2011: 577-90). According to various studies that focus on sustainability in the supply chain management, outsourcing strategically is a significant move of ensuring that competency is attained in the SCM. In addition, the material presents the argument that development of Information Technology that supports multi-level decision making is an appropriate measure of attaining sustainable supply chain management (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). In the main, the article is informative and relevant to readers and researchers investigating the importance of sustainability in supply chain management. The methodology that the author integrated in their study is evidence-based and verifiable because it involves the use of new norms and measurements (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). It includes the use of research questions which focus on investigating the issues that hinder attainment of sustainability in supply chain management, the impacts of unsustainable SCM and more importantly the solutions to the challenges linked to establishment of sustainability of supply chain management (Seuring & Muller, 2008: 1699-1710). Therefore, the study by Pagell and Shevchenko can be considered to be educative in the sense that it outlines various issues that need to be addressed for attainment of sustainability in the supply chain management. The authors brings clear argument on why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future, and these are with inclusion of the attribute of researchers investigating on ways that reduce the factors that hinder attainment of sustainability instead of investigating measures that completely eliminate these hindering factors among others (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014: 44-55). The material is instructive, educational, and enlightening to future researchers on the sustainability of supply chain management. References Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of Management Review, 4, 497–505 Carter, C. R., & Rogers, D. S. (2008). A framework of sustainable supply chain management: Moving toward new theory. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 38 (5), 360–387 Golicic, S. L., & Smith, C. D. (2013). A meta-analysis of environmentally sustainable supply chain management practices and firm performance. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 49, 78–95 Pagell, M. & Shevchenko, A. (2014). Why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 50(1), 44-55 Pullman, M. E., Maloni, M. J., & Carter, C. R. (2009). Food for thought: Social versus environmental sustainability practices and performance out-comes. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 45 (4), 38–54 Seuring, S. & Muller, M. (2008). From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16, 1699–1710 Wu, Z., & Pagell, M. (2011). Balancing priorities: Decision-making in sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Operations Management, 29, 577–590 Read More