Supporting Sustainability Throughout Your Supply Chain

Supporting Sustainability Throughout Your Supply Chain

From Inbound Logistics:

Companies can support sustainability throughout their supply chains with many different approaches. Reducing paper by automating manual business processes, optimizing shipments and loads with end-to-end visibility, saving fuel and lowering emissions by avoiding supply chain disruptions, and sourcing materials from suppliers with like-minded sustainability goals are just a few examples.

Here are 10 tips offered in this article:

1. Empower trading partners. Collaboration and communications designed to facilitate real-time and accurate information exchange help create efficiencies and remove waste.

2. Ugrade for efficiency. Redesign your supply chain network to shorten the supply chain where it makes sense reducing mileage to saving fuel and minimizing risk.

3. Be proactive. Include tracking and monitoring of material flows as they happen. Incorporate analytics to identify patterns as they develop for data-driven, proactive action.

4. Optimize transportation processes. Carrier collaboration and automated processes reduce mileage and carbon emissions. Ensure orders are shipped on time, to the right location, and in the right quantities for successful first-time deliveries.

5. Use slot-booking applications. Look for an application that allows you to schedule appointments, ensure the distribution center has the right team and equipment to facilitate loading and unloading to reduce wait times and idling.

6. Prepare for interruptions. To avoid expedited shipments to meet customer service deliveries, which can impact transportation spend and the environment.

7. Develop flexibility. Build flexibility into supply chain processes that  allows minimum impact on the environment.

8. Reduce excess inventories. Contributes negatively to the environment by unnecessary energy and resource consumption during manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing.

9. Optimize material flows. Collaborate with suppliers for accurate inbound flow of materials and services, reducing the unnecessary waste of resources.

10. Automate manual processes. Save trees and other resources by automating procurement, sourcing, inventory, logistics, and order management.

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