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Challenges and opportunities for effective operational management in contemporary organizations to have long-term sustainability.

Corporate sustainability assessment will allow the firms to implement sustainable plans in the operational processes ensuring that their supply chains are executed in a socially responsible manner (Reisberg,2011). Contemporary firms must prioritize the environmental aspect of sustainability to maintain its effectiveness and viability. According to Bhagat and Black (2014), companies must try to move with cutting-edge technologies to grow the economy and adhere to environmental codes of practice while protecting the local ecosystem to positively impact its sustainability on operational management mainly improving productivity and performance. As outlined by Wittington (2011), modern firms must face key productivity challenges for operational management including the ever-increasing price of raw materials, scarcity of materials and energy, increasing cost of labor and issues with working capital management. However, there are a lot of opportunities are emerging due to technological advancement and increasing consumer power where consumers looking for eco-friendly biodegradable and decomposable products while encouraging e-commerce rather than physical shopping. According to Johnson et al. (2011), to improve the productivity and performance of organizations, the operational strategy should be implemented by mainly focusing on market requirement and resources perspective by applying innovation cycle and supply chain network to build the entire value chain of the firm. As stated in Heizer et al. (2017), product and process innovation are the first process where a firm should look to improve productivity under the operational management to become sustainable in the business. It is required to analyze how to design products and processes that will consume fewer materials and energy while focusing on involving low labor involvement while moving for automation. This is supported by Spitzech (2019) which elaborates that, most contemporary organizations focus on green concepts in product design to ensure minimum wastage, less material consumption with ecofriendly nature with less impact to the environment cycling.

Design Products for Sustainability with green concepts

During product or packaging design with green concepts, its impact on the ecosystem should be evaluated at every stage of the product life cycle starting from raw material extraction. Carbon Footprinting or Life-Cycle Analysis are the main approaches that allow the measure firms' reactions towards the environment and therefore they are main indicators of sustainability (Fahr, 2016). As per the studies of Cadbury (2020), various tools and techniques which allow designing products and process while making the firm more sustainable where the most appropriate techniques for a firm will depend on the aims and objectives of the company. As outlines by Gramsci (2017), moving to green product design will lead to having straight bottom-line advantages to having enhanced product with less cost where it allows to attain higher market share. Furthermore, it will allow the firm to access broader global markets while improving relations with the community and global markets and thus leading to sustainability. As per the researches on green product design concepts, Alvarado (2017) has outlined below benefits for the organizations. •Product design considering environmental parameters leads to improve profits by cutting down material costs while boosting product life cycles. •Design with the purpose of recycling and recovery will have a positive influence on product bottom-line manufacturing cost. •Decrease the production time due to the recyclability will allow designing products with quick blueprints and a smaller number of parts and thus it will boost the operation while improving labor productivity with less time for marketing. •Reduce the impact to the ecosystem by involving suppliers in the design table while taking their inputs for the green concepts. •Overall quality of the product and performance will be increased by green concepts will allow improve customer satisfaction and thus increase sales.

Packaging eco-design techniques can be done as follows:

•Design for embedded carbon – consider materials used for packaging by reducing the percentage of embedded carbon •Design for recyclability – Evaluate recyclability of materials and try to move to the single material product as far as possible while including more recycled content by informing suppliers which allows saving costs. •Design for bio-degradability- Moving to biodegradable packaging encourage consumers to compost the packaging at the end. •Design for fast transportation - Design packaging as stacks with the plan to fitting more products together which allows moving more products at one time.

Product eco-design techniques

•Design for concentration – In the case of products such as drinks and paints, reduce the water level and concentration can be increased which allows having smaller packing with lower storage and transport costs. •Design for longevity – Looking for designing products to last long life which reduces returns and services. •Design for energy efficiency – Understand regulations for eco-design requirements to deal with energy efficiency in utilization. Under the operational management, sustainable environmental processes can be integrated into each node of traditional supply chain mechanism which has processes in purchasing material, product manufacturing, product manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life management and reverses logistics towards eco-friendly techniques which leads to reducing and controlling the harmful impacts of the supply chain (Bergsteiner, 2011). Tansik et al. (2011), have identified three critical success factors which lead to having better environmental sustainability by practicing a green supply chain for the firm’s value chain. •Ethical management- Motivating from the leadership is a key factor for enterprises to adopt green practices while encouraging to minimize environmental risks. •Customer management - Modern companies are forced by customers to adopt green practices in the operations and supplying the customer demand will allow gaining competitive advantage. •Supplier Management-Strong collaboration with suppliers is essential to adopt green SCM practices while it will boost to development of new eco-friendly concepts of the firm. Environmental performance can be achieved by green partnership agreements with the supplier base (Aquilano, 2017).

Inbound GSCM

Green purchasing of raw material from suppliers that support waste reduction while improving recycling and as per the studies of Seilius (2014), firms which successfully adopted such eco-friendly purchasing strategy, can produce goods with a cost-effective way to attain both environmental performance and financial performance while gaining a positive image and reputation in the market. Moreover, Tansik and Chase (2019), emphasize the significance of providing awareness workshops for suppliers and contractors to guide them to develop their own ecological procedures which lead to reducing emissions, solid or liquid wastes and energy, and also the consumption of toxic materials.

Green manufacturing

According to Werner (2014), firm manufacturing department should optimize their process to reduce solid waste, air emission, and noise while Pullman et al. (2009) argue that process should be integrated with the latest technologies to make saving on energy and water while automating practices to reduce labor cost and this will leads to Increased efficiency. Moreover, Prochazkova (2014) has elaborated that, green manufacturing processes should socially and environmentally accountable to mitigate the harmful effects during the process while maximizing the utilization of the green resources which allows improving production quality with reduced cost that indirectly leads the firm towards competitive advantage. This is supported by Haines et al. (2011) which highlighted the benefits of green practices in production processes using empirical evidence where it leads to having sustainable business with improved operational, economic, and environmental performance.

Outbound GSCM

According to Boeva (2011), this stage covers the pick and place of product and final delivery where environment-friendly packaging, distribution should be done with green concepts while encouraging low-density and bio-degradable packing with efficient transport mechanisms which low energy and labor consumption. Mason and Simmons (2014) have suggested that green distribution and warehousing play a key part to reduce energy consumption while adding value to the products in the warehouse to improve the corporate image with superior economic and environmental performance.

Green marketing

The goal of green marketing should be implemented with a wide range of marketing activities considering 4Ps or 7ps to mitigate the harmful effects of the product on the environment while promoting those products in an environmentally friendly manner that can satisfy human desires (Clarke, 2007). As per the Harvard Business Review, •Companies can use a range of logos and insignias for the marketing campaigns of the green products by using them in the company advertising, website, marketing materials, business cards, packings, and vehicles. •Encourage printing on marketing brochures, flyers, or business cards on inexpensive recycled papers. •Firms should focus on digital e-marketing concepts which are more environmentally friendly than mails or printed advertising which also a cheaper way where the online banner is always cost-effective. •Social media marketing and search engine optimization marketing also low-cost alternative which produce zero impact to the environment which allows reaching customer base efficiently. •Involve more on green CSR also an indirect way of marketing the product where firms should try to join more for environmental donations and charities.

Reverse logistics

Reverse logistics is the end loop of the supply chain which mainly aims at reusing, recycling, and remanufacturing where it will allow producing goods that can be used again. This is supported by Vince (2014) who suggested that firms can gain a competitive advantage through uneconomic recycling, refurbishing, re-manufacturing as it will reduce the cost for disposal of rejected products, wastes, and hazardous items.

In conclusion, to achieve sustainable development, firms should adopt green practices in their innovation cycle and supply chain network to enhance their productivity and operational performance due to increased product quality and service. Initiatives such as reduction in carbon emissions while enhancing recycling and remanufacturing techniques to improve ecological performance. Furthermore, firms can earn good profits by saving the cost of products, materials, and labor while enhancing production activity and quality.