Supply chain is the systematic process involving individuals, information, activities, and resources that are all used to move a finished product from the supplier to the final consumer. Supply chain management in the 21st century, requires companies to introduce green supply chains and sustainable logistics. Rapidly depleting economic resources put immense pressure on suppliers to make use of ‘environment friendly’ supply and distribution channels.
Taking initiatives for greening the supply chains can have a large impact on both economic and transport growth. However, various measures must be taken to decouple both, so that there is no conflict between the two. Economic growth is measured in terms of output produced by a nation annually and it is reflected through GDP. Increasing economic growth means that more transportation of goods and services will be required; hence different ways must be sought in order to separate the two and make each one efficient.
This can be achieved by redesigning the supply chains and distribution networks, finding out more environment friendly modes of transportation, such as hybrid fuel vehicles and using sea shipping as an alternative to land transport which is mostly congested. Such measures can significantly reduce transport costs, increase efficiency and are less time consuming.
The distribution networks may also be reconfigured so that small deliveries are directed to all final customers, and larger orders can be delivered to hubs from where end customers can retrieve their consignments.
Other ways of making the transport system efficient is by making use of the GPS systems for vehicle routing. In addition to the above mentioned initiatives, more efficient ways of packing and loading vehicles must be sought so as to reduce damage and increase capacity and improved methods for increasing vehicle operating efficiency should be researched and worked upon.
