VOL. 11, NO. 12, JUNE 2016 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
© 2006-2016 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.
www.arpnjournals.com
7534
SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY: METHODOLOGY OF DEVELOPING
THE SCORE METRICS
Mohd Faiz Mokhtar, Badrul Omar, Nik Hisyamudin Muhd Nor and Wan Azlinda Wan Mohamed
Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing, University of Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
E-Mail: hd120141@siswa.uthm.edu.my
ABSTRACT
In this paper, a framework was developed which will support the development of score metric for supply chain
sustainability in design phase. The framework will be used to consolidate the information of sustainability issues involving
environmental, social and economic by integrating the design stage and supply chain activities. A list of the current
sustainability issues in supply chain, from 2014, will be extracted from five companies namely Apple, Panasonic, Sime
Darby, IKEA and Sony. Hence, the current sustainable issue was identified and the proposed framework developed will
guide the development of a score metric for sustainable supply chain in the design phase.
Keywords: supply chain, design phase, sustainability, score metric.
INTRODUCTION
The product development process moves very
rapidly nowadays and hence new tools and techniques are
needed to enhance this process. The tools and techniques
were developed in order to meet customer and technical
requirements. Through this, the product time to market can
be further reduced by not sacrificing the quality of the
product.
Currently, sustainability becomes the issue that
may affect the cost and time needed in product
development especially in the operational stage.
Sustainability calls for three pillars whuch are profit,
planet and people, which is also known as the triple
bottom line (TBL). The environmental, social and
economics are the TBL issues.
Supply chain is one of the process in the
development of new product. It involves partners such as
supplier, manufacturer, distributor, retailer and customer.
In order to develop a new product, the design stage play an
important role to make sure it can be considered in any
other stages in product lifecycle. As supply chain generate
the systematic flow of product lifecycle, it needs some
effort in the design stage by introducing a new type of
assessment so that it can be use to satisfy the whole
process of supply chain to manage to optimise the cost and
time needed.
Environmental issues are obviously important for
human life especially for the future generation. Because of
that, engineering activities totally need to work
simultaneously with prevention/reduction of negative
effect on ecosystem. This effort is the responsibility of
everyone involved in product development starting from
pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, product in-use and
product recovery stages. In this case, the effect on the
environment from these activities must be considered and
kept in mind.
Through the process of supply chain the
information flow can be managed in the best way in order
to connect the various stages involved in product
development. This paper will discuss further about
specific factors of sustainability effect on supply chain.
Next, the methodology framework of developing the score
metric for sustainability supply chain will be proposed.
PRODUCT DESIGN AND SUPPLY CHAIN
SUSTAINABILITY
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the
process involving the various types of stages. In this
context, the process provides the product flow from stage
to stage. Through various stages, the information
management is most important part to connect the strategy
and operation in order to produce product which satisfy
the customer needs. Product design, manufacturing
process and supply chain activities must be link in similar
direction so that the capabilities and the competencies can
be flexible, advance process technologies and
collaborative supplier practices (Marsillac AND Roh
2014).
In order to achieve that, the alignment product
design with supply chain performance must be improved
so that it can be responsive (Khan et al. 2012). In design
stage, there are many design tools which are not only
capable to do the design work but can also be used to
define the further stages of product lifecycle including
manufacturing, logistic, product in-use and product
recovery. Because of that, there are a lot of interest in
developing new tools which can help the designer in order
to consider/identify some aspect of product chain. The
tools developed can be used to reduce the cost of
production with the time-to-market can be minimize and
the product quality can be remain.
Day by day, the request for product in the market
increase inline with the increase of users/consumers. This
make the industry players compete rigorously with
different types of techniques and systems. Industry must
adapt in these situation so that the demand by
users/consumers can be met.
Design stage
Design stage can provide a lot of data about the
product development. This is because the process in this
stage will consider a lot of information which will give an