SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Introduction

Present essay focuses on the analysis of SDG goals 11 and 12 with the help of collaborative transformation measures. SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) is an agenda or a plan of action incorporated for universal peace on the aspect of planet, prosperity and people.

The SDG goals are significant for every company operating irrespective of their industries and are aimed to meet by the end of 2030. There are a total of 17 SDG goals focused on the betterment of the environment to reduce pollution and restrict climate change along with changing the current situation related to poverty. The essay will focus on collaborative transportation systems and how it helps to meet 11th and 12th goals in SDG.

Discussion

SDG 11 & 12

SDG goals are one of the most significant attempts to reduce pollution and poverty and to decrease the rate of climate change. SDG goals are mostly directed towards retracting ecological balance in the world.

As per the study by Nilsson et al. (2016), SDG goals are created in the year 2015 by the United Nations. Based on a study by Hák et al. (2016), it is important to ensure that each and every person must be able to afford housing facilities.

Proportion of the urban population must decrease along with safe living standards to be provided to women and children along with people with disabilities. It has been significant for any company to meet at these two of the SDGs in order to qualify for sustainable development.

Goal 11 of the UN SDG states Sustainable Cities and Communities; this is directly aimed at reducing the number of people living in urban areas (SDG, 2020). There are a huge amount of people living in slums and congested areas, it has been estimated that more than a billion people throughout the USA live in such conditions.

History

There are several targets which are directed towards the achievement of this goal. There is a huge amount of the population, almost 20% in the US that are unemployed. People living in slums are surviving with the help of charitable trusts and governments. This is largely due to domination of large industries and their supply chain management activities. The companies are inclined towards individual work which reduces the chances for normal people to get employment.

The 12th SDG is related to Responsible Consumption and Production. Based on the reports by the World Health Organization (2016), it has been largely found out that the worldwide consumption of materials per capita has gone up by a huge margin. Worldwide material consumption in respect to materials has gone up to 92.1 billion tons from 87 billion tons in a span of two years from 2015 to 2017. The rate has increased more than 4 times since 2000.

As per the report by SDG (2020), 71 counties have implemented measures to control the worldwide consumption; it has been found out that a specific part of society is the result of such huge consumption. Industries are growing at a rapid rate resulting in less opportunity for the poor and uneducated people.

However, in order to solve the problem of such rapid consumption, collaborative management is required. It has been identified that the supply chain management industry is among the largest in the world. Each and every industry incorporates its supply chain medium.

Largest consumption of fossil fuel happens in the case of such an industry. As per the reports by Gupta and Vegelin (2016), the main target behind 12th SDG is to reduce the overall consumption of material and to promote material consumption per capita. This will directly result in improving the economic condition of numerous people who are below the poverty line index.

Importance of SDG

Sustainability is one of the significant aspects of today’s generation. It is directly aligned with the operations of industry 4.0. Current situation of the world critically reflects that economic conditions of third world countries are diminishing whereas, in case of the first world countries, it is rising.

SDGs are critically aimed at reducing such differences among the world by providing a better life for each and every person. Another major concern for SDG is the rising pollution level which is causing rapid climate change all around.

Based on a study by Biermann (2017), increase in climate change is potentially harming the environment as well as several industries all around. The introduction of industry 4.0 techniques is hampered by increasing climate change as automation cannot be implemented in the USA.

Climate change is affecting people living in slums and urban areas since there are no specific measures for protection. As per the study by Okdinawati et al. (2017), increase in climate warmth and frequent monsoons are troubling people living in slums. Extra consumption of materials is resulting in exhaustion of necessary items for poor and disabled people.

Collaborative Transportation

One of the largest industry functions all over the world and the USA is supply chain management. It is widely known that the impact of supply chain management on sustainability and pollution is huge. Based on the study by Tagliabue et al. (2017), more than 70% of the entire US transportation system runs for supply chain works.

The US is among the busiest countries in the world, and huge names across supply chain industries exist in the country. The country deals with extensive import and export. Technology and fashion goods are among the top-rated and business industries in the US. Supply chain operations are mostly covered by road transport in the country.

It has been found out that a huge amount of truck miles are wasted in supply chain operations. Suppliers and retailers all across America are indulging in collaborative transportation systems in order to save huge amounts of fuel that is wasted.

As per the study by Gansterer and Hartl (2018), meeting the SDG requires restriction of high CO2 emissions and wastage of empty miles. CHEP is a company which provides collaborative transportation systems in the US; the company has more than 23000 unique driving lanes and 14000 manufacturer actions across the country that helps other third party companies to deliver logistics.

The introduction of this company has helped in management of reverse logistics which was a key problem in sustainability. The introduction of CHEP helps in cutting down cost by reducing the distance between manufacturer and supplier in the country.

Distinct opinion of collaborative Transportation

It is widely debated that collaborative transportation results in adding value toward sustainability goals. As mentioned by Guajardo and Rönnqvist (2016), collaborative transportation increases the risk of failure for a particular company.

Such supply chain activity required building trust on third party companies which partners, in order to delivery logistics. This can be risky for a large company dealing with expensive logistics as the potential for mishandling increases.

Another major risk of companies is related to security where third party companies cannot provide on-road security for materials. In case of additional security while on-road transportation, truck miles are usually wasted since the requirement of additional security requires patrolling cars.

Collaborative transportation systems even reduce the chance of success for a particular company inside national borders since the cost is compromised. Many small companies and SMEs throughout the country can take significant advantage of this situation.

However, it is widely considered that collaborative transport is helping to inhale the world from pollution and poverty. As mentioned by Stafford-Smith et al. (2017), collaborative transportation is providing an extensive opportunity to individuals, especially the deprived class of people in the US to move out of their comfort zone and work.

This is helping in improving the economy of below poverty line people who live in slums and urban areas of the society. It is directly involved with the improvement of the economy along with decreasing pollution levels.

Reduction of pollution level in society is one of the major triggering points of collaborative transportation. The US is among the largest countries in the world and supply chain management operations cover the entire country. The use of such measures is directly reducing the operations related to coverage of truck miles.

Conclusion

Based on the above analysis, it can be concluded that SDGs are created for the betterment of society. Improvement of economic and climate conditions can be done by meeting the SDG. 11th and 12th goals of sustainable development help to focus on major areas of economy and climate change. It has been found out that a large chunk of the population in the US is affected by overhead material consumption.

Supply chain management operations are scattered all over the country and waste of fossil fuel is huge as trucks and cars work for a single country. Decreasing the wastage of truck miles can be done by a collaborative transportation system.

However, the use of such systems can increase risks related to suppliers and companies’ products. Major advantage in case of using collaborative transportation is it helps in saving the use of overhead materials which directly results in meeting SDG 11 and 12.

References

Biermann, F., Kanie, N. and Kim, R.E., 2017. Global governance by goal-setting: the novel approach of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 26, pp.26-31.

Gansterer, M. and Hartl, R.F., 2018. Centralized bundle generation in auction-based collaborative transportation. Or Spectrum, 40(3), pp.613-635.

Guajardo, M. and Rönnqvist, M., 2016. A review on cost allocation methods in collaborative transportation. International transactions in operational research, 23(3), pp.371-392.

Gupta, J. and Vegelin, C., 2016. Sustainable development goals and inclusive development. International environmental agreements: Politics, law and economics, 16(3), pp.433-448.

Hák, T., Janoušková, S. and Moldan, B., 2016. Sustainable Development Goals: A need for relevant indicators. Ecological Indicators, 60, pp.565-573.

Nilsson, M., Griggs, D. and Visbeck, M., 2016. Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals. Nature, 534(7607), pp.320-322.

Okdinawati, L., Simatupang, T.M. and Sunitiyoso, Y., 2017. Multi-agent reinforcement learning for value co-creation of Collaborative Transportation Management (CTM). International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management (IJISSCM), 10(3), pp.84-95.

SDG, 2020, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 11, SDG, Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11 [Accessed on 20th April, 2020]

SDG, 2020, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 12, SDG, Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg12 [Accessed on 20th April, 2020]

Stafford-Smith, M., Griggs, D., Gaffney, O., Ullah, F., Reyers, B., Kanie, N., Stigson, B., Shrivastava, P., Leach, M. and O’Connell, D., 2017. Integration: the key to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability Science, 12(6), pp.911-919.

Tagliabue, A., Kamel, M., Verling, S., Siegwart, R. and Nieto, J., 2017, May. Collaborative transportation using mavs via passive force control. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 5766-5773). IEEE.

World Health Organization, 2016. World health statistics 2016: monitoring health for the SDGs sustainable development goals. World Health Organization.