Manufacturing and supply of products are often a part of the value chain that has a significant sustainability impact and every so often has inherent risks. Risks of non-compliance with legal and other requirements, risks that worker’s health and safety aren’t respected, that harmful chemicals are in use or discharged to the surrounding environment, that energy consumption is beyond acceptable levels, or other risks, are imminent. Furthermore, labor conditions in many countries with a high intensity of manufacturing may need additional monitoring and control. Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management is at the core of risk management in many corporations.
Creating an Assessment
A thorough assessment of impacts, risks and opportunities for the entire manufacturing or supply chain landscape is a challenging task. Most often the level of information, especially for suppliers further upstream in the supply chain, is not sufficient. You may not even have the full visibility of the suppliers that produce your products at any stage in the supply chain. Nevertheless, a good understanding of the situation is important to manage risks and benefit from opportunities. We support you in mapping your supply chain and developing the assessment.
Developing a Sustainable Supply Chain Strategy
Based on the assessment of the sustainable manufacturing and supply chain management landscape, region by region or country by country, a Manufacturing / Sustainable Supply Chain Strategy can be developed. You can also use an assessment to create a supporting Business Case. Some of the problems that will occur often arise during the strategy development phase. Issues like setting goals for a supply chain, understanding ambition levels, determining and setting an operations pace, knowing the most significant topics in the areas that are most relevant, or determining the best outcome for the investment happen at this stage. Knowing that these challenges will occur helps to plan for them when they arise. Leadership & Sustainability can help you define the right strategy for your organization, and we can help develop the business case for it as well.
We help you create the program to implement your Manufacturing / Sustainable Supply Chain Strategy. Goals and action plans; methods and tools, as well as the organizational set-up you need to succeed. We support you in identifying the best energy savings approach and program, chemicals management program and much more.
Ancillary Support Programs and Supply Chain Partners
Healthy and safe workers are a must and health & safety is often a critical area, depending on the manufacturing processes in place. There is much to gain, however, and we can support you in developing an adequate program for your manufacturing or your supply chain. Your manufacturing employees and your suppliers are partners. We help you set up the awareness, engagement and training program that fits your goals. We also offer training programs for your monitoring partners and auditors.
The on-site work with your manufacturing sites and your suppliers, for example, when performing monitoring, verification or audit work, needs to be tailored to your program and standards. We help you set up the right verification and audit program and tools, and we can conduct verification visits and audits for you. If you wish to outsource these activities, then we can support you with guidance on how to do that.
Chemicals management is an important area throughout any supply chain. In some sectors, the chemicals management related to manufacturing is a relatively new topic. We can support you in understanding the challenges and how to tackle them, for the apparel and footwear sector (ZDHC, Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) or other sectors.
The apparel and footwear sector has a specific tool to measure the members’ sustainability performance, the so-called Higg Index. The Higg Index covers the sustainability activities at the brand level, at facilities (suppliers) and at the product level. Get to know the Higg Index, employ it and adopt it. It’s possible to adopt the Higg Index to other sectors, and we are in a position to support you in this process.
Finally, mapping of the supply chain and traceability in the supply chain are topics that are getting an increasing attention. There are different ways to approach these topics depending on the needs and requirements. Let’s discuss your specific needs!
Your benefits are for example reduced compliance risks, reduced environmental and labor risks, reduced reputation risks, reduced costs, improved operational efficiency, decreased supplier turnover, reduced costs of goods sold.
Read more about supply chain management here.
Read more about our supply chain software offerings.
Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Consulting Services:
- Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Risk and Opportunity Analysis
- Sustainable Manufacturing / Sustainable Supply Chain Strategy & Business
- Implementation of Sustainability Programs in Manufacturing and the Supply Chain
- Water-, Waste-, Energy-, and Chemicals Management in Manufacturing and the Supply Chain
- Health & Safety in Manufacturing and the Supply Chain
- Employee / Supplier Engagement
- Training / Supervision of auditors on site
- Audits
- Audits and Verification projects
- Audit coordination
- Management of Audit Programs
- Chemical Compliance & ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals)
- MRSL (Manufacturing Restricted Substances List) Implementation Approach
- SAC (Sustainable Apparel Coalition) & Higg Index
- Traceability
