Assignment Sample on M25294 Operations Management
Introduction
Knowledge about supply chain management is necessary for every industry especially in the manufacturing and production industry where a strong supply chain is necessary for the both supply of raw materials and finished products. Hence sustainability in supply chain management is necessary for the industry for their operational excellence and market performance. This study will be discussed about the sustainability of supply chain management in any industry. This study will be discussed about the role of operation management to maintain a sustainable supply chain of any industry. This study includes what initiatives should be taken by the company for maintaining a sustainable supply chain.
Literature review
Sustainability is defined as maintaining growth and expansion and retaining it for a long period in any industry or organization. As cited by Shashi et al. (2018), sustainability in business is related to environmental degradation, physical or natural resources, and social resources. Sustainability in any business is mainly focused on maintaining societal and environmental values with business practice. It is one of the most important factors in maintaining an eco-friendly business practice to maintain long term sustainability in business. Sustainability is very important in generating revenue and profit in any business. In recent years governments put pressure on corporate organizations to take social responsibilities and create environmentally friendly products. To maintain this guideline implemented by the government sustainable growth and operation are necessary for every corporate organization. CAFEPOD Coffee co. set an example in sustainable supply chain management in the production and distribution of coffee.
Research studies about sustainable supply chain management become necessary for the industry to reduce unnecessary waste in both supplies of raw materials to the industry and supply of finished products from the manufacturing unit to the market. As cited by de Godoy Tominaga et al. (2020), supply chain management has a significant role in the long-term prospects of any company. A strong supply chain helps a company in reducing both transportation and manufacturing costs and both of which determine the prices of any single unit of products. Hence strong supply chain increases effectiveness in the production and selling of any products in CAFEPOD Coffee company. Sustainable supply chain management also helps a company in measuring the societal and environmental impact of their products from starting production to selling through the market.
A sustainable supply chain is defined as the effort and effectiveness of both management professional and lower-level workers in a chain from collecting raw materials, production with good quality ingredients, finished products, storage, and transport to the market. Effective supply chain managements are very beneficial for the CAFEPOD Coffee company to maintain organization performance and at the same time to retain customer satisfaction on their brands. Only a sustainable supply chain helps CAFEPOD Coffee companies to minimize their cost in every sector of the supply chain mentioned above.
The cost of every sector of a product from raw materials to finished products selling in the market is added to every single unit of products. One of the main objectives of sustainable supply chain management is to minimize the harmful impact on the environment by minimizing water consumption, energy used, and waste production. As cited by Katiyar et al. (2018), in the study of sustainable supply chain management it is necessary to study operation management because the operation of any industry has a direct impact on people and communities around their industry. The wrong operation of any industry can create environmental degradation and cause several kinds of diseases, health problems, and epidemics if the people live in the nearest localities of any industry.
Sustainable supply chain management is a practice of supply of raw materials, production, packaging, and storage of products, transportation of the products to the distributors and sellers without disturbing environmental order as well as generating revenue and profit. As per the view of Centobelli Cerchione & Esposito (2018). Sustainable supply chain management gives more focus on production cost, production speed, product quality, and relatable operation of production to keep upholding the societal and environmental values. Effective supply chain managements are essential for CAFEPOD Coffee company to maintain continuity in their internal process and solve issues raised due to internal issues (Rezaee, 2018). Supply chain management also gives focus on global issues that arise in recent times related to the environment including global warming, climate change, deforestation, water security, food security, fair labor practice, human rights, and corruption.
Unsustainable supply chain management practices for a long time creates major problems in the environment which are mentioned above. After a long time, corporates or business merchants realized that effective and organized supply chain management is necessary for reducing production costs and saving time. In a survey, it was found that the supply chain is mainly responsible for the many companies in the bulk of environments.
Sustainable supply chain management also helps companies in energy-intensive production and reduce transportation costs which are important for minimizing the pricing of products. As per the view of Kusi-Sarpong, Gupta & Sarkis (2019), only maintaining environmental balance is not the objective of sustainable supply chain management. Also generating profit and revenue is the goal of it. Any company cannot survive without revenue or profit in any industry especially in the manufacturing industry where competition is too high.
Effective operation management is also necessary for maintaining balance among different sectors in any supply chain. As cited by Rezaee (2018), sustainability in the supply chain has many factors including demands, societal risk, environmental impact, progress, and data analysis. Too many problems or challenges faced by any supply chain become harmful for the production of any company and may become the main causes of the shutdown of any industry.
Company application
Cofepod coffee company is one of the largest manufacturers of coffee in the UK market. They maintain their production and retain their reputation in the coffee industry by practicing sustainable supply chain management. As cited by Shibin et al. (2018), the balance between environmental issues and revenue or profit is necessary for supply chain management sustainability in the coffee industry. Sustainability is necessary for a supply chain of the coffee industry to produce a higher quality coffee which is important for retaining and increasing targeted customers.
CAFEPOD Coffee Co is one of the most reputed companies in the UK coffee industry mainly focus on customer retention and satisfaction by maintaining good relationship with suppliers and distributer which are associates with their business. The organisation uses different initiatives to improve either sustainability such as they reduce the use of plastic. Instead of this, they use paper cups for maintaining their sales percentage and this ability to improve their goodwill in the market. Therefore, this company focused on implementing new technologies such as AI technologies and block chain technology process in their business procedure (Kutsaev, 2021). This hep they to boost the performance of their employees as well as they are able to improve their waste management procedure. These technologies help to find the errors and the risk factors in employee performance. The management team are able to inform about those factors to their employees and the employees focus on developing those skills and improving their organisation performance.
In this scenario, advanced technologies play an important role in case of increasing the sustainability of CAFEPOD Coffee Co. Other than this, the organisation is able to increase its customer base by improving its sustainability. Using more technologically advanced machinery helps CAFEPOD Coffee Co to maintaining their operational excellence and increase productivity which is key components of more profits and revenues (Sueyoshi & Yuan, 2018). Therefore, the company take several initiatives for developing an environment and social work. This helps to attract more customers towards the organisational products. Other than this, these organisations maintain the products quality and try to fulfil the demand of their customers. Therefore, being a food and beverage organisation, fulfilment of their customer demands the prime task of the organisation. This process helps them to increase their sales percentage and help to boost their growth in this competitive market.
Other than this, the organisation uses innovative ideas and planning procedure to attract their customer and is able to understand the demand of their customers for which they are able to improve business procedures. CAFEPOD Coffee company gives full freedom to their employees and innovative and creative thinking which boost their business. More innovative ideas help them to make proper and unique strategy for their operational process which helps them to get more competitive advantage from the markets. The company focus on developing the sustainability of the organisation and making it the principal of their business (Sueyoshi & Yuan, 2018). This is the reason why the management team develop their organisational strategy based on improving their organisational sustainability. Therefore, the organisation participates in different environmental inaugurations that and help people to develop the environmental process.
CAFEPOD Coffee company introduce training facilities for their employees which makes them to get a large number of skilled and trained workforce for their organization. A large number of trained and skilled workforce increases efficiency in internal process and boost productivity (Shashi et al. 2018). In this scenario, the employees focus on their skill development and they are able to lower the percentage of their waste materials. It also helps the sustainability of this company and is able to improve its financial stability. This process help to expand their business in the meantime and the organisation improve either business infrastructure and business procedure.
References
Centobelli, P., Cerchione, R., & Esposito, E. (2018). Environmental sustainability and energy-efficient supply chain management: A review of research trends and proposed guidelines. Energies, 11(2), 275. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/2/275/pdf
de Godoy Tominaga, L. K., Martins, V. W. B., Rampasso, I. S., Anholon, R., Silva, D., Pinto, J. S., … & Junior, F. R. L. (2020). Critical analysis of engineering education focused on sustainability in supply chain management: an overview of Brazilian higher education institutions. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/627234/1/Deposit.Critical%20analysis%20of%20engineering%20education%20focused%20on%20sustainability%20in%20supply%20chain%20management.pdf
Katiyar, R., Meena, P. L., Barua, M. K., Tibrewala, R., & Kumar, G. (2018). Impact of sustainability and manufacturing practices on supply chain performance: Findings from an emerging economy. International Journal of Production Economics, 197, 303-316. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Purushottam-Meena/publication/321716482_Impact_of_Sustainability_and_Manufacturing_Practices_on_Supply_Chain_Performance_Findings_from_an_Emerging_Economy/links/5a31e4bca6fdcc9b2d9c6ac1/Impact-of-Sustainability-and-Manufacturing-Practices-on-Supply-Chain-Performance-Findings-from-an-Emerging-Economy.pdf
Kusi-Sarpong, S., Gupta, H., & Sarkis, J. (2019). A supply chain sustainability innovation framework and evaluation methodology. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), 1990-2008. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/files/11737630/KUSI_SARPONG_2018_cright_IJPR_A_supply_chain_sustainability_innovation_framework_and_evaluation_methodology.pdf
Kutsaev, S. V. (2021). Advanced technologies for applied particle accelerators and examples of their use. Technical Physics, 66(2), 161-195. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sergey-Kutsaev/publication/348576192_Advanced_Technologies_for_Applied_Particle_Accelerators_and_Examples_of_Their_Use_Review/links/6005b43045851553a053a587/Advanced-Technologies-for-Applied-Particle-Accelerators-and-Examples-of-Their-Use-Review.pdf
Rezaee, Z. (2018). Supply chain management and business sustainability synergy: A theoretical and integrated perspective. Sustainability, 10(1), 275. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/275/pdf
Shashi, S., Cerchione, R., Centobelli, P., & Shabani, A. (2018). Sustainability orientation, supply chain integration, and SMEs performance: A causal analysis. Benchmarking: An International Journal. Retrieved from: https://research.vu.nl/files/105033184/Sustainability_orientation_supply_chain_integration_and_SMEs_performance_a_causal_analysis.pdf
Shibin, K. T., Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Luo, Z., Papadopoulos, T., & Roubaud, D. (2018). Frugal innovation for supply chain sustainability in SMEs: multi-method research design. Production Planning & Control, 29(11), 908-927. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/67373/1/Frugal%20Innovation%20for%20Supply%20Chain%20Sustainability%20in%20SMEs.pdf
Sueyoshi, T., & Yuan, Y. (2018). Measuring energy usage and sustainability development in Asian nations by DEA intermediate approach. Journal of Economic Structures, 7(1), 1-18. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40008-017-0100-0
