SINGAPORE, 25 SEPTEMBER 2008 - Legislation is currently the main driver for manufacturing companies in the region to embrace sustainable manufacturing, according to a report by IDC research firm Manufacturing Insights Asia/Pacific.
Findings in the study The Compliance-Driven Supply Chain: Attitudes and Trends Toward the Greening of the Supply Chain in the Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Region show that 67 per cent of companies expect legislation to increase over the next two years.
China, India, Singapore and Taiwan are where companies expect the importance of legislation to have the greatest increase. In countries where legislation is not in place, customer requirements is ranked second most important driver.
Enterprise confusion
"Moving beyond pure compliance, there is still much confusion among organisations in the region on how to organise and implement green initiatives," said Dr Christopher Holmes, Vice President of Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Insights.
The report also list two factors that would influence companies when they embark on green supply chains.
Firstly, the study points out that going green should start at the design phase of the product. The use of IT applications, such as product life-cycle management (PLM), assists companies to design green products and green manufacturing operations; helps them provide design for compliance guidelines; and, to manage trade-offs in product life-cycle decisions.
The role of the supplier will increase in importance as they need to adopt similar processes to ensure that the whole supply chain is operating in an environmentally friendly way. Manufacturing companies is also expected to invest in procurement and supplier relationship management (SRM) systems to assist in the management of suppliers. These systems will assist in the management of the suppliers ‘green scorecard,’ providing analysis into the supply chain to understand the history of the parts or product they are buying.
Internal recycling
Secondly, the report list internal recycling as the most widely adopted green initiative across manufacturing companies in the region, followed by energy efficiency tracking and packaging redesign. The area that companies are showing the greatest interest is in the use of renewable energy sources. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is ranked second in terms of interest for the next two years.
“We are seeing a trend where companies are combining their green initiatives with continuous improvement initiatives, such as lean manufacturing, both within their own operations and across their supply chains. This will assist organisations as they come to grips with sustainable manufacturing,” added Dr Holmes.
