Many shades of green: Vendors offer a wide range of eco-friendly solutions
Julie Fraser, Cambashi, Inc. -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/19/2008 12:34:00 PM MDT
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How can a company gain sustainability and fight energy costs? This question has put a focus on supply chain management for several years. However, within the supply chain, there are many opportunities for lowering energy, materials, and fuel consumption and generating a more sustainable and eco-friendly operating stance. A few examples follow.
Transportation management: Many companies have purchased transportation planning, execution, settlement, and analytics from companies such as RedPrairie, Infor, HighJump, Manhattan, Ramco, JDA, i2 Technologies, Intuitive Information Systems, and Sterling.
Supply chain network design: All of the major supply chain management providers and some ERP companies such as Infor have some of this capability, along with specialists Barlow World Optimus and Llamasoft. Llamasoft provides optimization and simulation for greenhouse gas emissions modelling across the network.
Demand planning: Demand planning is the foundation for nearly every other decision in the supply chain realm. So getting an accurate view of demand at a detailed level can help to lower inventory levels and all of the movement associated with it. Suppliers of advanced demand planning are offering an increasing ability for fine-grained views.
S&OP: One of the major sources of mismatched inventory and wasted effort is disconnected planning. Several suppliers provide support for the sales and operations planning process including IBM’s Cognos, Kinaxis, Supply Chain Consultants, JustEnough, Steelwedge, DemandWorks and most major supply chain management providers.
Planning & Scheduling: scheduling company Optessa making hay with green recently. Certainly putting products through production in the right sequence can save energy and materials. (See column January 2008 for providers.)
Warehouse management: Transportation between warehouses is one aspect, but efficient equipment and paths for inventory and forklifts inside the warehouse also can save energy. Some of the leading providers feeding this aspect of green are Logility, High Jump, Apriso, IntelliTrack, Manhattan, Tecsys, and many of the ERP providers such as Epicor, JDA, Infor, QAD, SAP and Oracle.
Strategic sourcing & Supplier management: Sourcing applications from companies such as Procuri, Ariba, Zycus, Epiq, and B2B industry portals have connect suppliers in low-cost countries to buyers. Now manufacturers must consider shipping costs, time, and flexibility also. Many ERP and SCM systems also include supplier relationship management that can include metrics on suppliers’ energy efficiency or carbon footprint.
International Trade Management: In the global economy, it is critical to get materials to flow across country borders smoothly. In addition to fuel costs, manufacturers that automate with software from RedPrairie, Ross, Tradebeam, Solarsoft, Deacom, Descartes, Management Dynamics and others will find enormous savings in time and paper.
Those are just some of the traditional supply chain management disciplines involved. Plant floor, product engineering, remote conferencing, analytical software, and many other solutions can all help make a company lean and green. We must learn to see green through fly’s eyes. Companies not moving on all facets may find they can be killed by a good swat from a competitor or a stiff economic wind.
Julie Fraser is Principal Industry Analyst at Cambashi, and has been an industry analyst, consultant and marketer for over 20 years, specializing in manufacturing value network processes and systems. She can be reached through Manufacturing Business Technology.
