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Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain - Essay Example

Summary
This work called "Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain" describes a lot of evidence that illustrates the linkages and relationships that exist between sustainability and resiliency in the ecological-economic systems. The author outlines an important normative concept, whereas resilience is being regarded as a kind of descriptive concept.  …
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Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain
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Extract of sample "Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain"

Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain Introduction Authors Thesis In the recent past, many organizations have devised various ways of managing their supply chain networks in the process of creating and consolidating on their competitive advantages. In the process of creating effective and reliable production and distribution systems, the idea of having reliable supply chains cannot be underestimated. This has seen sustainable supply chains network design develop to become a very rich area as far as academic research is concerned. However, it is important to recognize the fact that this area is still in its stages of infancy with the potential to wholesomely affect the performance of supply chains. Increasing regulations and policies for waste management and carbon are making many firms to make a consideration of their respective supply chains from the social and ecological objectives. However, in actual sense, the facilities and links which connect them are often disrupted occasionally because of poor weather, manmade and natural disasters or an effective combination of the both factors. Effective systems for supply chain often drop their objectives for sustainability in the process of coping with the different unexpected disruptions. In this regard, the challenges for managers in charge of supply chains is to establish and effective and efficient supply chain network, which can be very resilient in bouncing back from any kinds of disruptions and having enough vigilant to offer sustainability in such contexts. Sonia, Young & Muhammad (2004), in their article, focuses on various ways of ecological sustainability, which arises from the fact that environmental focus for supply chain systems is essential and joins other pillars of the respective sustainability. The importance of the above development stems from the fact that products are supposed to be developed in the firm, packed in the most effective way and distributed to different regions in the most ethical fashions for the consumers to purchase and use them, being final users in the supply chain. In such a way, it is expected that supply process will not bring harm to the social balance as well as the environment. Following the significance of this considered issue, this article by Sonia, Young & Muhammad (2004), makes efforts towards introducing an effective network optimization model, which is the model for a resilient and sustainable supply chain network, which is achieved in two main ways; first, through incorporation of sustainability through carbon emission as well as embodied carbon footprints. Secondly, the resilience is achieved through incorporation of various location-specific risks. In this regard, the goal programming (GP) model as proposed by Sonia, Young & Muhammad (2004), makes an optimization of the total costs, in the process of considering the sustainability and resilience of the respective supply chain networks. The Facts In modern times, supply chain management has emerged as a new dimension for having sustainability being its fundamental focus. However, in actual sense, links and facilities that connect them are often disrupted occasionally because of poor weather, manmade and natural disasters or combinations of all these factors. In the same way, large corporations around the world have started showing interest and acceptance for broader responsibility when it comes to different of environmental and social impacts for their respective supply chains. However, it is important to note that supply chain systems often drop their sustainability objectives in the process of coping with the respective unexpected disruptions. From the above analysis, it is now evident that supply chain managers in different firms, according to Sonia, Young & Muhammad (2004), are beginning to establish trade-offs between sustainable systems and disruptions that emerge in the particular supply chains. In this regard, resilience is being viewed as an approach that is new towards the process of designing different business processes and supply chains. These perspectives are being derived from studies about resilience in the different biological systems that contain varieties of different mechanisms for sensing and giving response to the threats and disturbances that continue to emerge. Whereas sustainability has had important consideration in the past as an effective way of managing the various logistics of supply chains, the existing networks for effective supply chains seems to consider issues of sustainability as their main area of primary focus. The existing supply chains seem to realize the significance of developing other sustainable networks and make efforts for concentrating more on issues of social and environmental concerns towards making more transparent and effective networks for sustainable supply chains. Strengths /weaknesses/discussion to the profession One of the strengths to be appreciated from the article by Sonia, Young & Muhammad (2004), is the contributions that these insights make towards understanding the approaches being made in the developing of new supply chain networks. It is important to acknowledge the practical and research applications for effective supply chain management, which in the past, have been receive due recognition, leading to their steady and continuous growth in the recent years. This article provides three main pillars for effective sustainability, which include ecology, economy and the larger society. The article has given focus on the various issues of ecological sustainability since many of the environmental issues tend to focus on various systems of supply chains in different organizations. Focusing on environmental factors as far as supply chain management is concerned is very important since it links with different pillars which are also important in the process of enabling firms develop their competitive advantages. One of the main reasons why there is need to have such a focus stems from the fact that products developed in the firm need to be packed and distributed to their respective centers effectively under ethical standards that are not supposed to bring harm to the environment as well as the existing social balance. Is there bias or faulty reasoning? This question has been raised following many of the social and environmental issues that have been raised in this article. Actually, many considers have often considered various issues of sustainable procurement in the process of ensuring minimum embodiment of carbon footprints as well as sustainable transportation as far as supply chains are concerned. Therefore, there may not be any fault in the reasoning advanced by Sonia, Young & Muhammad (2004). However, it is also important to realize that in actual sense, discussions around ecological sustainability seem to have moved away from the local and domestic optimizations towards the larger supply chain. So far, few articles have been generated that give consideration to sustainability factors as far as the larger supply chain issue is concerned, in this understanding all the activities that range from the procurement of raw materials all the way to distribution of different kinds of finished goods need to make a consideration of the sustainable factors. Conclusion In conclusion, it is imperative to appreciate the efforts being done by supply chain managers in the process of developing sustainable chain networks that emphasize on various aspects of social and environmental factors. By taking this approach, firms can effectively develop their competitive advantages by establishing various reliable systems for achieving their goals in product development and distribution to places of convenience for their consumers. So far, a lot of evidence has been made, which illustrates the linkages and relationships that exist between sustainability and resiliency in the ecological-economic systems. One of the important things to appreciate as far as sustainable supply chain networks in firms is concerned is that supply chain managers have been considering the idea of sustainability as an important normative concept, whereas resilience is being regarded as a kind of descriptive concept. References Sonia I, M, Young H, L & Muhammad S, M. (2014), Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain Network Design under Disruption Risks. Sustainability. 10(3): 6666-6686. Read More

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