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Words from the Head of the Department

Prof S N Rao is Professor of Finance at Shailesh J. Mehta

School of Management, IIT Bombay. He has been a core
faculty member at many premier institutes across the
country. His publications appeared in Eurasian Review of
Economics and Finance, Vikalpa, Decision, ICFAI
Journal of Applied Finance and other leading professional
journals He presented research papers in annual
conferences across countries like Canada, USA,
Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Malaysia, Australia
and Japan.

Prof. S. N. Rao, Head, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

Dear Readers,
Greetings from the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay!
We present to you the Autumn Issue of Magister Operandi: Bi-annual Operations magazine by Opera, The
Operations and Supply Chain club of the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSoM), IIT Bombay.
The vision of the club is to impart knowledge and guidance in the domain of operations and supply chain
management to all the budding managers. The club serves as a platform for the students, faculty members, and
industry practitioners for sharing knowledge in the field of operations and supply chain management.
The magazine brings out various perspectives that everyone has about the world around them when observed
through the operations lens. The articles in this issue will give you the usual flavour of operations, but with a
lot of focus on incremental and radical change that innovations in this field can bring in our day to day lives.
You will find some suggestions, some critics, and many insights on the way it can happen.
Theme: Evolving Supply Chain Landscape
Sub-Themes:
1. Supply Chain Management as a Service
2. IoT and Industry 4.0 in Supply Chain Management
3. Smart logistics in Supply Chain Management
4. Leveraging Demand Sensing for resilient Supply Chains
5. Procurement: Emerging Darkhorse in a post-COVID world
6. Designing the Next Generation of Quality Management Systems
7. Start-up Culture and transforming Supply Chains
8. Supply chain's new world order - Era of Supply Chain Nationalism
I hope that the magazine will help you gain more insights into the developments in the field of operations
across the world. I also take this opportunity to congratulate Opera club members for their efforts in coming
out of this magazine and to everyone who contributed to it.
Finally, it’s a turbulent time for all of us. Stay safe and wishing for your good health.
With best wishes
Prof. S. N. Rao
Head Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management,
IIT Bombay
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Words from the Faculty Coordinator
Dear Readers ,
I am pleased to present to you the Magister Operandi -
Autumn 2021 edition. SJMSOM’s Opera Magazine, with
its collection of timely and thoughtful articles on
Operations & Supply Chain Management (OSCM), aims
to invigorate the thoughts of students and readers in
response to the current trends in the field. The magazine
covers a wide array of insightful articles from the young
minds, the budding Operations Managers of the future.

The topics reflect some of the significant trends in the

field. Although OM as a management function has
reached a certain level of sophistication and rigor that can
be the inspiration for many other parts, it has kept itself
agile and adaptable to changes happening in the outside
Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee, Faculty Coordinator, world. Moreover, services dominate today’s economy,
Opera Club and the importance of service OM is only going to
increase in the coming years. It is in this spirit that the students are taught various OSCM models and novel
applications/cases of the same in service or manufacturing industries. Learning these traditional and well-proven
models can help future managers to make better decisions. Finally, this edition of the magazine includes articles
from the
Theme: Evolving Supply Chain Landscape
Sub-Themes:
1. Supply Chain Management as a Service
2. IoT and Industry 4.0 in Supply Chain Management
3. Smart logistics in Supply Chain Management
4. Leveraging Demand Sensing for resilient Supply Chains
5. Procurement: Emerging Darkhorse in a post-COVID world
6. Designing the Next Generation of Quality Management Systems
7. Start-up Culture and transforming Supply Chains
8. Supply chain's new world order - Era of Supply Chain Nationalism
The magazine also includes articles on the impact of COVID on various industries like auto, e-commerce,
FMCG, and pharma.
OSCM within SJMSOM continues to grow from strength to strength. The specific heartening changes that I see
happening are increased research and project collaborations between faculty and industry practitioners. Over the
years, I see our Master's students increasing interest in working on faculty research projects in the OSCM area. I
hope this edition of Opera will generate some buzz in that direction.
Finally, in these trying times, please take good care of yourself and your family.
With best wishes,
Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee,
Professor (Operations Management Group)
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

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 About SJMSOM

The School Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), established in 1995, as an academic unit of IIT
Bombay, has its unique place as a national and global business management school. SJMSOM offers post-
graduate [Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) and Ph.D programme in management and recently, has
launched an Executive MBA, in association with the Washington University at St. Louise, USA.

SJMSOM has experienced and young full time core faculty in all functional areas of management , who are
engaged in teaching, research, and outreach activities. The School also has many Associate Faculties from other
departments, schools, interdisciplinary groups, and visiting faculties from the industry that add value to our
programs. The expertise of faculty is the main strength of our school that facilitates us to have a distinctive
global professional standing.

As a B- School, SJMSOM has always tried to maintain an updated curriculum and train students to prepare them
to meet the challenges they face ahead in their professional life after graduating from IIT Bombay. In addition to
the regular academic curriculum, the emphasis is given on the overall development of a students’ personality. For
this, SOM boasts of the best industry exposure with continuous industry through:
• “Continuum” the rolling seminar series by eminent speakers from business and academia
• “Diksha,” a series of talks conducted by prominent speakers from the corporate world.

As a part of the IIT System, SJMSOM imbibes the value of student driven activities, which is an essential part of
the IIT culture. Budding entrepreneurs would know that SJMSOM is one of the five select founding member
institutes of the National Entrepreneurship network (NEN). Also SJMSOM provides the opportunity to be in
touch with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), which offers an opportunity to all the
stakeholders of IIT B to learn from the experiences of budding ventures.

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“Avenues,” the International Business festival of IIT Bombay, is an event organized entirely by students with an
objective of learning combined with fun. All prominent B-Schools of India participate in this festival. The
flagship event of Avenues is “Alankar.” It is a leadership lecture series where people from different walks of life
share their life experiences and success mantra. Over the years, we have hosted speakers like—Dr. Subramanian
Swamy, Debarati Sen, Harsha Bhogle, Kamal Hasan, Suresh Prabhu, Anjum Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapoor,
Raveena Tandon, and Rajdeep Sardesai.

All the activities at SJMSOM are student-driven with the expert guidance of the faculty. The club activities are
organized by the various clubs of SJMSOM, focusing on Consulting, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Systems,
Human Resource, and Entrepreneurship, to promote peer-to-peer learning through multiple activities. It is a
platform for like-minded students to come together and organize events around the year.

The institute not only gives you a platform to enhance your functional knowledge but also provides one with an
opportunity to pursue their hobbies, like sports, dance, music, etc. We have access to one of the best sports
facilities, from swimming pools to football fields, tennis courts, badminton courts, etc. SPIKE (the sports club)
organized inter-B school sports fest “Prithvi,” which was conducted alongside Avenues. All around the year, the
students of SJMSOM, in association with IIT B, organizes various cultural and sports events like the SOM
league, PG Cult, PAF, etc.

Some other activities which are a part of SJMSOM include: -

• Study tours
• Student exchanges
• Live projects
• Summer internships and much more

Apart from this, students at SJMSOM take on a huge amount of extra-curricular activities in IIT Bombay, which
are part of their learning process.

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 About Opera
Opera, the Operations Club, is the flagship club of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. The club strives to increase the
functional knowledge of the students in the field of operations and supply chain management. It provides a pedestal
for like-minded people to come and share their knowledge in the concerned area. The club also conducts various
activities and sessions which aim at improving the understanding of the students and equipping them with the
necessary skillset to excel.
The club is guided by one of the best operations faculties, Prof. Indrajit Mukherjee, under whose expert guidance
various events are conducted throughout the year. In the present world, where innovations in technology are
continuously disrupting every facet of doing business and shaping the future, the club also takes the responsibility
of keeping the student abreast of all such relevant changes.

Students have shown interest in multiple certifications like Six-sigma Green Belt, CII0-SCMPro, ISCEA,
APICS-CPIM/CSCP, which is an indication of the interest in the operation field in the batch. To provide the
students with practical know-how and to give them hands-on experience about how production and
forecasting work, the club organized a BEER game simulation challenge. The event saw substantial
participation from the batch with students working in teams to achieve the highest profit.

Opera ’21 has tried to keep up with the legacy of providing the students with the best of operations
knowledge through myriads of events and opportunities. The club will strive to function for the benefit of the
batch and continue to come up with novel avenues.

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q AGRITECH STARTUPS – eliminating the middleman 8
and bridging gaps by supply chain as a service (SAAS)

q Impact of design and project management on quality 18

q IOT, Visibility and Cold Chain Logistics 20

q Smart logistics in Supply Chain Management 24

q Transforming Smart Logistics using IOT and Blockchain 28

Technology

q Green Logistics 33

q Green and Sustainable Supply Chain 37

q SCaaS – Supply Chain Management as a Service 40

q Sustainable Supply Chain – The circular way 43

q Green and Sustainable Supply Chain Management 46

q Smart Logistics In Supply Chain Management 51

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 AGRITECH STARTUPS-ELIMINATING THE MIDDLEMEN
AGRITECH
SMART
& BRIDGING LOGISTICS
GAPS STARTUPS-ELIMINATING
BY IN SUPPLY
SUPPLY CHAIN
CHAIN AS THE
MANAGEMENT
A SERVICE MIDDLEMEN
(SCaaS) &
By: Shokhi
BRIDGING GAPS BY SUPPLY CHAIN AS A Shreya (IIM
SERVICE Rohtak)
(SCaaS)
By: Segu Raghava (MBA in Agri Business Management 2019-21)

Starting from the 1960s with green revolution the face of

Indian agriculture keeps on changing along with other
historical reforms & revolutions. Most of those are
focused on attaining self-sufficiency, production and
protecting the farmers & consumers, and achieved few
of them but didn’t help in terms to increase percentage
share in consumer price due to inefficiencies in the
supply chain, lack of transparent and fair pricing and
proper market information .
Now the scenario is changing by the transformation in
Agri-food supply chain (AFSC) with improved
coordination between players. New-age entrepreneurs
are bringing technological innovation to address these
challenges and to unlock value across the supply chain.
Indian Agri start-up ecosystem is mushrooming with
450+ start-ups that are currently operational, and over
50% focused on making the supply chain more efficient
by improving market linkages .

At:
Pre-harvest stage (i.e. by creating access to quality fertilizers, seeds, equipment etc.)
Post-harvest stage (by establishing seamless connections with marketplaces, retailers etc.)

INPUT SUPPLY CHAIN

Inputs play a critical role in extracting higher yields. Existing input and service delivery system is not
appropriate due to improper supply, absence of subsidies, poor infrastructure, lack of farm credit, and poor
delivery systems.
In typical existing/traditional input supply chain, input provider collaborates with other input providers to
aggregate the supply and deliver the product through distributor and retailer. Here all players can effectively
utilize synergies.

8
Other existing models:

Concerns in existing models:

•More middlemen’s in the supply chain resulting in the high cost of input purchase
•Uncertainty of price, quality and availability
•Misguiding about the right variety and type of input
•No accountability reliable channel for crop advisory

How start-up’s filling the concerns & gaps in Agri input supply chain?

Start-ups are acting as digital aggregators by building m-commerce platforms (mobile-led Agri market
place) where farmers can place orders and delivering to farmer’s doorsteps by eliminating the middlemen
and gaining cost-benefit in its markets place. And building intelligent farming platform by leveraging
technologies like data analytics, AI, image recognition, geo-mapping and other social media platforms for
providing customized agro advisory, soil-based crop and fertilizers recommendations and tracking farmer
crop-cycle through interactions via call centres and other social media platforms.

9
But in existing Agri input supply, most of the
players follows Go-to-Market approach, but with
the rise of digitalisation start-up’s providing a
wide variety of services beyond traditional ones
and moving towards the customer-centric
approach .
Coming to the revenue model, the transaction-
based margin is followed for utilizing the m-
commerce platform and subscription model is
followed for advisory and other miscellaneous
services .
Few start-ups are concentrated on building a
hybrid model for providing pre & post-harvest
services and other companies outsourcing the m-
commerce platform for traders and merchants for
providing superior services to their customers
.

Before and after entering the e-commerce model in Input sector

http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---27418.htm

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 Elimination of middlemen

Start-up’s working in input supply chain

OUTPUT SUPPLY CHAIN

The Output supply chain (OSCM) in India is facing with challenges stemming from the inherent issues like the
dominance of small/ marginal farmers, fragmented supply chains, absence of scale economies, low level of
processing/value addition, the inadequacy of marketing infrastructure etc.
India's supply chain is one of the most fragmented and inefficient ones in the world resulting in 25-30 % wastage of
food grains, vegetables & fruits before they come to the market. This means farmers and consumers bear the costs of
the wastage.

Existing output supply chain models:

i. Traditional Model:
Traditional Agri Supply Chain, with much non-value-adding intermediaries, who add cost to the goods in the form of
profit margins, inventory and logistics. Inefficiencies lead to lower price-realization for farmers and high pricing for the
customers.

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ii .APMC model:
Here, the number of intermediates involved in the supply chain will be reduced compared to the traditional system
and in every state APMC's (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) will be there, where all aggregators and farmers
meet and whole supply chain transactions will happen within the premises.

New Age Models:

I Hub and Spoke Model:

Most of the organized retailers like Future Retail, Spencer's Retail and More Retail are adopting 'Hub and
Spoke'. Only a few players are engaged in this model like farmers, organized retailers, wholesalers and
customers. In this model, buying centres (hub) and stores (spoke) are operational units.

II Value Chain Model:

Currently, only a few organized retail players like Reliance Fresh & others following this model. Procurement of
F&V will be done directly from farmers either through contract or by taking the farm on lease and sell to
customers without any intermediaries.

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Concerns in existing models:
i.Unorganized fragmented supply chain
ii.Ill-equipped &miss management and low access to market yards
iii.More no. of intermediaries resulting in pushing up prices through commissions
iv.Lack of warehouses and cold chain
v.No proper standardization, packing and labelling
vi.Food safety is a major concern: Hygiene and pesticide MRL not monitored
vii.Improper supply-demand and price information

How start-up’s filling the concerns & gaps in Agri output supply chain?
Using new-age technologies like ML, AI IoT and block chain, start-ups are bringing new shape to Agri
supply chain. Start-ups directly procuring from farm gates by directly contracting the farmers produce
and supplying to retailers and HoReCa’s. Through this B2B, model start-ups are eliminating 4
middlemen's compare to the traditional model and able to supply within 12hrs, reducing post-harvest
wastage by 20-30% and able to offer a fair price for both retailer and consumers.

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Start-ups working in the output supply chain:
At every node of chain firms using different technologies,

•For determining the best route: proprietary algorithms

•Supply and demand: price prediction engine and data intelligence
•Product quality and decreasing wastage: end-to-end traceability & RFID
•Farmer and customer relationships: CRM tools

Elimination of middlemen
Before

After

Start-ups working in the output supply chain:

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Start-Up Model Service During pandemic

AgroStar Direct to M-commerce platform for farm Tied up with BAYER, and they saw the
Farmer inputs, having a strong network of revenue generated through its app triple within
last-mile delivery 3 months
partners.
DeHatt Seed to Provides market linkages as well as Seen a 3X spike for digital advisory services
Market advisory and inputs to farmers and a ~3.5 X jump in overall demand
Ninjacart Farmers to Agri-marketing platform Initiated “Harvest the Farms” and identified
Buyers connecting vegetables and fruits more than 150 farmers who are suffering to sell
farmers directly with businesses their produce due to supply chain disruptions,
liquidated their produce by offering nominal
market price to farmers. Seen a 20% rise in
their app-based ordering patterns
Bijak Traders to Bringing in the digitisation of Increase in no. of customers due to shutdown
Buyers physical mandis, artiyas, loaders, and of physical mandis and deregulation of Agri
processors by providing them with an market reforms added advantage
online interface
WayCool “Phy-gital” The tech-enabled supply chain Partnered with last-mile delivery partners like
business approach, utilizes robotic process Zomato, Swiggy, FreshCura, Dunzo, Meesho
model automation, AI, and ML to provide to boost individual customer outreach
value to suppliers and clients
Big Buyers To Online grocery delivery Seen an increase of customer base by 84%
Basket Consumer service post-covid-19 lockdown compared to pre-
covid.

Conclusion
There is a clear change in Agri supply chain after the introduction of tech-enabled farm to fork model by start-ups. Both
in the number of start-ups working and investments made are high in Agri supply chain out of which output supply chain
share a higher percentage than the input supply chain. Recent agricultural reforms also added benefit to agritech players
where the government has taken steps on eliminating the middlemen and increasing supply efficiency in the nation
through one national-one market. Further start-ups are concentrated on adding other features end to end food footprint
traceability, live price - demand forecasting, and warehouse availability etc

15
 References

•Agritech - towards transforming Indian agriculture-EY: https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey- sites/ey-

com/en_in/topics/start-ups/2020/09/ey-agritech-towards-transforming-indian- agriculture.pdf?download
•Indian Agri-Business – Cultivating future opportunities, BCG
report:
•http://media- publications.bcg.com/Indian-Agribusiness.pdf
•http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---27418.htm
•https://agribusinessmatters.substack.com/p/when-bayer-met-agrostar
•https://indifoodbev.com/agriculture/agri-tech-startups-bridge-the-agri-retail-supply-chain/
•https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/inc42-epaper-
inc/agritech+startups+on+the+new+models+opportunities+in+the+wake+of+the+farm+reform+ bills-newsid-
n217716398
•https://yourstory.com/2018/04/startup-market-agriculture-profit-business-farmers
•https://analyticsindiamag.com/5-tech-startups-in-india-working-to-weed-out-middlemen-from- agriculture-
supply-chain/

Profile: Basically an Agricultural Graduate, more

enthusiastic to do exploratory studies& getting
self- awareness on current happenings. Short
term goal is to get into a standard job in well-
known firms. Long term goal is to become a
market research analyst in agriculture sector.

Name: Segu Raghava

MBA in Agri Business Management
Batch: 2019-21
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Email id:
seguraghava44@gmail.com
Phone No: 8106002880

16
 What is Industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0 focuses on the end-to-end digitization of all physical assets and integration into digital ecosystems
with value chain partners. Industry 4.0 have been transforming manufacturing and Supply chain operations
and revolutionizing the way industry operates.
1.0 - Industry has been through several levels of transformation. It started from 18th century when industries
experienced the rise of motorization that helped majorly the agriculture industry. This ear was also defined has
Steam revolution era as people started using coal engines for various operations, changing the era of manual
operations
2.0 – This era of change begun in 19th century when people discovered “Oil and gas” as the source of power. The
technological advanced of combustion engine was setting the tone for technologies advancements of the future.
The manufacturing industries experienced a boom of technological advancement in the era of Industry 2.0 with
mass production of chemical based products. In the end, this industrial change also experienced the emergence of
automobiles, planes and other modes of transportation which made the world a different place
3.0 – This began at the end of 20th Century when industry discovered a new source of energy called “Nuclear
energy” which suppressed all the other advancement till now. This Industrial revolution brought people and
industries around the world closer to each other with the evolution of Computers and mobile phones. This era of
Industrialization opened a lot of doors for the industries to manufacture in a flexible way and helped the world to
move towards Globalization
4.0 - Emergence of High-speed internet and Internet of things powered the start of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is
different from other Industrial revolutions because it directs us towards Digitization unlike other which were
focused on new types of energy. This is also a step towards greener sources of energy such as sun, wind and
geothermal.

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 IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON QUALITY
IMPACTLOGISTICS
SMART OF DESIGNINAND
SUPPLY
PROCESS
CHAIN MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY By: Shokhi Shreya (IIM Rohtak)

Peter ducker ,who was an influential thinker on management once said “quality in a service or product is not what
you put into it .It is what the client or customer gets out of it”.
Quality is obtained when product meet the requirements of customer and offer a satisfaction by fulfilling their
expectation.Product quality depends upon various aspects such as
performance,durability,safety,evaluation,reliability,aesthetics.Consequence of poor quality are losing
revenue,losing customers,damaged brand,lower profits,lesser productivity,increased cost.To produce a quality
product ,all areas of an organization should constantly strive for new changes and improvements.There are two
types of customers in the market,one which sees quality in respect to the value of the product and others sees
quality with respect to performance that is offered by the product with respect to contemporaries in the market
and thus the need for quality improvement becomes important to satisfy different types of customers.Total quality
management (TQM) is implemented by companies to improve quality and achieve long term satisfaction of
customers.Total quality management is a participative & systematic approach to planning and implementing
constant organizational improvement process .Its elements include (1) Benchmarking (2) Customer satisfaction
(3) Preventing rather than detecting defect (4) Measurement of quality (5) Continuous improvement.TQM
increases productivity,eliminates defects and waste,reduce reapir cost ,increases profit.Design management and
process management are one of the key aspects of TQM.

Design management focusses mainly on ways to develop and implement design strategies, while process
management focusses on ways to define ,visualize ,measure,monitor and optimize the manufacturing techniques
and procceses.Both design and process management needs different plan of action ,A good quality product needs
the support of both design and process management.Product quality represents the product’s ability to meet
customer standards .Higher quality product result in lesser customer complaints ,lesser returns and high selling
and high growth to the company.Design management gives organization a space for innovation in their existing
products as well as the upcoming products .It also helps a company to differentiate itself from its competitors by
providing new changes and modifications in the product.In design management ,the inputs of various fields in a
organization such as designers,product engineers,marketing and sales team,supply chain team,brand
manager,product development manager,user experience manager,visual information specialist,design
researcher,design director,chief innovation officer,innovation consultant is taken to achieve the goal of quality
product with the help of collaboration.we should now look at the evolution of design management from 20th
century to 21st century.In 1955 and before that,design management in a company was only responsible for the
aesthetics in product.Then in 1960 kaoru ishikawa,the then head of Japanese union of scientist and engineers
decided to implement continuous improvement approaches with the introduction of seven quality control (7QC)
tools.These tools were used to analyse the production process,identify major problems,control fluctuations of
product quality and to avoid future defects. The 7QC tools were check sheet, pareto chart, cause and effect
diagram, histogram, scatter. diagram,graphs,control charts.

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These tools used statistical techniques to collect data and analyse them.Thus in 1960’s quality control tools
became more reliable.Then after that the objective of design management was to ensure quality products and
to secure design design as a strategic asset.Nowadays the focus of design management is more on
innovation and quality control.This is how design management evolved.Design management is important in
today’s world because more and more companies want to innovate their product so as to differentiate itself
from competitors.Design management helps company in following ways :- design when correctly applied to
certain products ensures to make a differentiator in customer’s eyes,design management either increases
sales or reduce cost and cutting out waste.

Process management is strategy in which management does activities as a set of processes to achieve
organization goals.Process management involve (1) process definition,which is describing the existing
process. (2) process development or design , where invention of new processes takes place. (3)process
documentation (4) process analysis and control and (5) process improvement.In process definition, question
are to be asked like what should be done?,who knows how to do it ?,when should it be done?,where can it
be done?,what constraints are involved?,in this way the existing process is defined.In process development a
series of events is to be arranged to complete and develop a process.In process documentation,the process is
documented so that there is uniformity and consistency when applied.Documentation can be done in writing
or video format.In process analysis and control,outputs of process is measured and monitored.Then the
process output is compared or benchmarked with standard process.In process improvement, changes and
modification in done in the process chain as per the recommendation of design management team to
increase performance and quality .Process management methods are important to attain both internal and
external quality.Now here internal quality means quality of finished products assessed before shipping and
associated product quality,while external quality means quality of finished products from customers
viewpoint upon field usage.

Design management efforts are done in the background while process management activities are usually in
forefront of quality efforts.But both are critically important to attain excellent external quality and internal
quality.There should be a complete balance between design management and process management’s efforts
in a company.Firms should implement concurrent engineering model or integrated product development in
which different departments of firm such as management team,operation and support team,product design
team,manufacturing team,finance and legal team,marketing and sales team work on different stages of
product development simultaneously .It increases the efficiency of product development and considerably
reduce time and lowers overall manufacturing cost with improved final quality.A streamline approach
should be adopted in the firm,that is where process management comes into play.Similarly cross functional
teams can be made to optimize use of time,money and effort to improve customer satisfaction while
achieving the organizational goals.Also quality functional deployment can be used in which different tools
are used to effectively define customer requirements and convert them into detailed engineering
specifications and plans to produce the product that fulfills those requirements.Designing efforts should be
improved in a firm as it influence the visible product changes by good aesthetics quality.The final words are
design management and process management goes hand in hand or support each other to produce a superior
quality product.

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 IOT, Visibility and Cold Chain Logistics

By: Supratik Sinha XLRI Jamshedpur Business Management 2022

Introduction
The last decade or so saw a tremendous rise in the complexity of global supply chains with the rapid advent
of highly responsive E-commerce companies making it a point to ship products at even the remotest of
locations. Digital Giants like Amazon played a pivotal role in this transformation of the next generation
supply chains with the introduction of direct to home and anticipatory shipping. This led to an increase in
the gross volume of the packages being shipped to a humongous value of 85 billion by 2018. It was
thought that this number would double every four years, but an unforeseen pandemic brought the growth
rate to a screeching halt.

Criticality of Supply Chain Visibility

Today as the major Industries are emerging from the aftershocks of COVID-19, there is a need for them to
reinvent their supply chain to mitigate the risk exposure in the future.
Here, digital technologies would be at the centre of the revolution. So, let us try to demystify digital
technologies in the context of supply chains.
In simple terms, the digital supply chain can be thought of as a parallel digital journey analogous to the
physical journey from the source to the point of consumption. So, for example, if a consignment of COVID-
19 Vaccine originating from a Pune based manufacturer undertakes a cross country journey to a Vaccination
centre in the UK, a parallel digital journey would involve a similar journey right from the manufacturer to
the distributor, wholesaler, pharmacy and eventually the patient. Today, the visibility of different players in
this digital chain has different degrees of maturity across industries.
Governments and businesses both have a lot to gain with a standardised and trustworthy visible supply
chain.

Top Technology Trends

The top technology trends which would shape the next generation supply chains are expected to originate
both in the end consumer demand as well as supply-side business use cases. Successful digitally robust
supply chains in a post-pandemic world would involve some or all the following elements:

1. Blockchain: Though the most popular use case of blockchain in the public eye has been in the field of
cryptocurrencies, but a more succinct shift has gradually occurred in business applications facilitated by
blockchain technologies. Conceptually Digital Ledger Technology (DLT) involves the creation and up-
gradation of data records in a decentralised manner with a shared consensus. This makes the data immutable
to change, even by the people originating the data in the first place. In the supply chain context, this would
involve the storage of product journey information to increase visibility and trust in the supply chain. In
the case of a cold supply chain for vaccines, temperature monitoring at each intermediate point could be
done using blockchain-enabled technologies.

20
2. Artificial Intelligence Technologies: AI technologies are rapidly developing by leveraging some of the
following trends:

Augmented Intelligence- Automation of repetitive tasks to improve operational efficiency.

Machine Learning- Self-learning machines that get better at performing certain tasks with experience.
Smart Technologies- Combination of AI with other technologies like Blockchain, IOT etc., for a more integrated
holistic smart solution.

In the Supply Chain Context, all three aspects of AI intertwine with each other for a combined effect. AI
machines with greater real-time ability to analyse and predict demand data would help manufacturers achieve
the goals of lean and JIT production, making the supply chains efficient. In the vaccine example, AI would
enable vaccine manufacturers to analyse consumption trends at the point of consumption in the UK and
accordingly reroute consignments from areas of abundance to areas of scarcity, preventing the possibility of
both wastages of life-saving vaccines as well as stock out.

Use Cases for IoT in Cold Chain Vaccine Logistics

Let us take the vaccine example forward and see how technologies like IOT could help streamline the cold
chain logistics process since vaccines need to be maintained within a specified temperature range for optimal
efficacy.

•Temperature monitoring
The implementation of IoT enabled sensors would enable businesses to monitor the temperature of the
vaccine shipment at every point, which is arguably the most critical parameter in cold chains. The sensors
could be used for every mode of transportation and would collect data in real-time. This improves the
possibility of such critical items staying within the optimal temperature range, thereby increasing their
longevity. IoT enabled actuators can calibrate the temperature of cold storage facilities to meet the desired
temperatures in case there are any discrepancies. Thus, IoT provides both visibility and control.

•Real-time data access

The ability of IoT sensors to provide access to real-time data enables businesses to carry out corrective actions
in real-time in case a problem arises at any stage in the supply chain, particularly in road transit. The cost and
scarcity of these vaccines necessitate that businesses take every stop to prevent wastage, both from an ethical
as well as a financial perspective.

•Automated reports
We have already covered certain aspects of machine learning in supply chain applications. To make machine
learning algorithms robust, businesses need a lot of data. IoT devices are also about the hardware and not only
the software. Data collected by the IoT devices could be used by advanced artificial intelligence software to
weed out any inefficiencies in the current logistics process and derive actionable insights from data from
automated reports.

21
§Shipment tracking
Another application of IoT in cold chain supply chains lies in the supply chain coordination aspect. With real-time
monitoring, dynamic scheduling of shipments could be more effectively managed if the supply chain is moving
at a sub-optimal rate. This helps to reduce the time lost in planning and schedule modification, which is mostly
the case if tracking data is not available.

Need for immediate adoption of digital technology in the supply chain:

The consumer of the 21st Century is much more aware of issues pertaining to safety, ethical sourcing from
suppliers, climate change and sustainability. With this viewpoint in mind, there has been a growing demand for
the inclusion of provenance tracking in supply chains, with many world governments working together to achieve
the same. US DSCSA (Drug Supply Chain Security Act) and European FMD (Falsified Medicines Directive)
have been the flag bearers of regulatory changes in this regard. The objective of these acts is to ensure stringent
guidelines for the supply and distribution of healthcare supplies within their respective territories. Circular
economy, health care waste management and dynamic rerouting of essential medical supplies are some of the
other applications where technology could turn out to be the game-changer. Thus, a combination of blockchain
and AI could unlock the potential to a world where end-to-end visibility of every step in the product journey is
possible, and the first movers who adopt these technologies in their supply chain could create significant
differentiation and lead to possible simple-to- implement use cases, thereby democratising technology usage.

22
Did you know?
q"Industry 4.0" was first used in a German Government strategy document on implementing
computer systems for manufacturing which later on termed as “Industrial revolution 4.0”

qBefore Industry 4.0, only 1% of the data collected by companies was used for analysis and this
percentage will exponentially increase after Industry 4.0implementation

qIndustry 4.0 and analytics systems are evolving together in increasing planning and production
efficiencies.

qMore than 95% business leaders in manufacturing express security concerns regarding IOT

qIn 2020, 97.2% organizations are investing in big data and AI

qIn 2020, each person has generated around 1.7 megabytes data per second

qNorth America is way ahead of the world in adopting Industry 4.0 as they have already captured
highest adoption rate ~35-40%

qJohnson & Johnson (J&J) is one of the most successful implementers of Industry 4.0
technologies with their multiple M&As such as with Apple to use Apply watch technology, Auris
Health to promote robotic surgery and Neutrogena Skin360 app to measure skin health

qVolkswagen joined forces with Microsoft to develop a cloud network, the “Volkswagen
Automotive Cloud” offering connected cars including smart home connectivity, a personal digital
assistant, predictive maintenance service, media streaming and updates.

qBosch is combining IOT and Big Data recipe Bosch to drive the digital transformation of its
Bosch Automotive Diesel System factory

23
 SMART LOGISTICS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
SMART LOGISTICS IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
By: Shokhi
By: Shokhi Shreya
Shreya (IIM (IIM Rohtak)
Rohtak)

Smart technologies can help to get a clear data of the condition, location, and environment of goods, and
processes at anytime, anywhere, also to make intelligent decisions and take corrective actions so that the
supply chain can run more efficiently.
Introduction
Logistics is one of the critical elements of supply chain management; the primary goal of logistics is to manage
the flow of goods, services, and information efficiently and effectively at the right time and correct quantity at
the right place with proper devices to satisfy customers. A supply chain complexity is revealed by some
characteristics such as the number of supply chain entities where the supply chain system should consider all
the different involved entities of a supply chain, Interdependence between products, items, and supply chain
partners.
Thus, supply chains face many challenges, including complexity, uncertainty, cost, and vulnerable problems.
Logistics and Supply Chains should be smart enough to overcome these problems.

Smart Technologies
One of the most potential areas that have benefited from the innovation of the smart technologies is supply
chain management through smart technologies like sensors, data analytics, and decision-making tools. These
tools have the potential to allow users to share information across the supply chain.
Digitalization in logistics and supply chain management is growing dynamic due to increasing customer
demand. This digitalization offers easy access to customer needs through adequately sharing the tracking
information of the product and service deliveries. Digitization makes supply chain management effective by
collaborating complex supplier networks and responsive by sharing information. A digital supply chain is an
intelligent value driven-network that uses new procedures and techniques with information analytics and
technology to make value. It has technologies that monitor real-time provider locations, inventory levels, and
customer interactions with items. Today, technologies like RFID, wireless sensors networks, and location-
based information have enabled organizations to switch their existing hybrid supply chain structures into
greater collaborative digital models, flexible, open, and agile.

A. Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is Internet-based computing, where shared information, data, and resources are offered to
computers and other devices on demand. Cloud Computing allows users to migrate applications and their data
towards the cloud. Cloud computing technology provides efficient solutions for companies.
The concept of Cloud Computing can make a practical impact in supply chain management by simplifying the
cooperation between the supply chain stakeholders through the integration of supply chain and logistics
activities, mainly inventory, warehouse, transportation, forecasting and planning, and sourcing and
procurement. Critical benefits are flexibility, cost efficiency, simplicity, system scalability, in addition to time
visibility.
.

24
 Fig.1. The Cloud Supply Chain

Big Data Analytics

Big Data has become a matter of great interest, both from the scientific and business sectors. Big Data
Analytics shows a technique of collecting, managing, and analysing vast amounts of data.
Big Data Analytics plays a vital role in the logistics and supply chain management industry by improving
distributing and delivering and sharing the required information, increasing productivity and profit. The data
accumulated by supply chains contains information from the key entities such as manufacturing, retail, and
logistics. The use of Big Data Analytics on a collection of such data sets can enhance the decision-making
approach for forecasting risks and main opportunities in supply chains. The use of Big Data provides a
significant value in areas such as market demand predictions, supplying decisions, product development,
distribution, customer feedback, and optimization. By utilizing Big Data and Big Data Analytics, supply
chains should improve areas such as forecasting customer needs, evaluating supply chains, the efficiency of
the overall supply chains, reaction time, and risk assessment.

Fig.2. The use of Big Data in SCM: Top Supply Chain Managment Sofware Suppliers

C. Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to internetworked devices such as radio frequency identification (RFID)
tags, actuators, sensors, mobile phone, etc., each with the ability to gather information from and even
perform actions in the real world. An IoT system is a network of networks that connects many things,
objects, devices, and sensors through communications and information infrastructure to stipulate value-
added services through intelligent data processing and management for diversified applications

25
 Fig.3. IoT Ecosystem in SCM
IoT implementation helps organizations enhance their capabilities to integrate the suppliers, customers, and
intra- organizational logistics processes. The growing IoT paradigm may play a considerable role in the retail
industry to manage supply networks in response to customer demands.
D. Blockchain Technology (BCT)
Blockchain enables transparency and trust across businesses; it opens up new opportunities for business and
economic environments with secure transactions. Blockchain bridges the trust gap in business networks. The
elements of Blockchain technology drive this disruption are transparency, immutability, security, consensus, and
smart contracts. Figure 4 shows the processes of creating transactions, creating, verifying blocks, and
transferring blocks to the Blockchain.

Fig.4. Blockchain Operation

Blockchain Technology could be implemented in supply chain management in three compelling aspects:
disintermediation, smart contracts and as a solution to information asymmetries. The benefits that businesses can
reap from BCT include privacy immutability of data, public accessibility of records, dealing with supply chain
information more efficiently without being excessively concerned about securing them appropriately, and access
for various populations and locations.
An Ideal Smart Supply Chain Model
A smart supply chain model that integrates Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and
Blockchain for supply chain management is considered, the smart supply chain model is shown in Figure 5.

26
 Fig.5. An ideal Smart Supply Chain Model

The integrated smart solutions will improve the supply chain management efficiency as follows:
Cloud Computing: Improves the overall performance through efficient resources utilization, cost
efficiency; simplicity, flexibility, and system scalability.
Big Bata Analytics: Abstract valuable knowledge from massive amounts of data; facilitate data-
driven decision- making, predict key opportunities and risks in supply chain. IoT: Enables tracking
and sharing real time information on the products’ motion along the supply chain.
Blockchain Technology: Creates a decentralized ledger of all transactions in a supply chain network
to increase security and transparency, minimize cost, and lessen transaction time.
Conclusion
Smart solutions offer effective share of tracking information such as condition, location, and environment of
goods, and processes at anytime, anywhere, it helps to obtain valuable knowledge from enormous amounts of
data, facilitating data-driven decision-making, also helps to provide extended customer value, transparency,
cost reduction, acceleration of transactions and enhanced service network in SCM.

References
McCrea, B. (n.d.). 6 ways big data is enhancing the global supply chain - Supply chain 24/7. Welcome to
SupplyChain 24/7.
https://www.supplychain247.com/article/6_ways_big_data_is_enhancing_the_global_supply
_chain/Big_Data (n.d.). International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE).
https://www.ijrte.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/v8i4/D7374118419.pdf
Luenendonk, M. (2019, September 19). How to optimize supply chain management with big data. Cleverism.
https://www.cleverism.com/how-to-optimize-supply-chain-management- big-data/
Logistics 4.0 and smart supply chain management in industry 4.0. (2021, June 21). i-SCOOP. https://www.i-
scoop.eu/industry-4-0/supply-chain-management-scm-logistics/

27
 Transforming Smart Logistics using IoT and Blockchain Technology
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY Monil Shah, KJ Somaiya Institute of Management

Introduction
In recent decades, rapid development and the use of sensing, computing and communicating devices have
revolutionized the field of logistics and transportation. IoT has had a huge impact on logistics by
overcoming the recurring problems of traffic congestion, accident detection, and limited car parking (1).
These devices possess the ability to transfer data over a network. In a simple way, IoT devices have the
ability to sense and collect data and transfer it through the Internet

Figure 1: Smart transportation and logistics.

Blockchain-based approaches provide decentralized privacy and security mechanisms using sufficient
energy and computational overhead devices that are not suitable for resource-constrained IoT devices (2).
Blockchain is a peer-to-peer distributed and decentralized technology which can be utilized in any form
of transaction. Together with IoT, Blockchain has made the system of logistics easy and transparent. It
provides scalable, and trustworthy data across the logistics system, which helps in tracking and
authentication (3).

Figure 2: Working of Blockchain Technology

In practice, the focus of smart transportation and logistics is on developing new resources and increasing the
use of IoT devices. However, mere technologies are not enough, unless the intermediaries involved in the
transaction are trustworthy and secure. There is a need to provide a secure and trusted architecture in order
to realize the smooth, accurate and intermediary free flow of information. Some frameworks exist, as
proposed by researchers (4) (5), which describe the role of Blockchain technology in transportation and
smart city. However, the existing frameworks target either transportation or logistics. As transportation and
logistics are both equally important for any country, to fill the gap we provide a framework that integrates
IoT and Blockchain technology to make transportation and logistics more convenient and transparent. These
devices possess the ability to transfer data over a network. In a simple way, IoT devices have the ability to
sense and collect data and transfer it through the Internet.

28
IntegratIon of Iot and Blockchain for Smart Logistics
Various transportation companies are investing a great deal in technology to meet people’s increasing demands.
However, the rapidly increasing demands of citizens to send data securely and rapidly is not only possible by
merely implementing IoT infrastructure. Blockchain technology, together with IoT, is a solution toward this end.
In Blockchain technology architecture, all client nodes are connected with peer-to-peer networks. Once data is
sent, it is received and encrypted using various hashing techniques and is broadcast. Only the legitimate person
will receive the broadcast transaction, and this is only possible due to Blockchain enabled IoT sensors.
Combining Blockchain with IoT provides various incentives to logistics. These include reduced cost, fast
transactions and trustworthiness. Similarly, effective integration of IoT and Blockchain ensures safe delivery of
perishable goods by taking care of the temperature during the overall transportation process (6). Some of the
key benefits achieved through the integration of IoT and Blockchain include freight tracking, temperature
control, carrier authentication, fast delivery through continuous monitoring and readjustment of routes, delivery
receipts and payments and vehicle authentication.

Blockchain and IoT Framework for Smart Logistics (BIFSL)

Physical Layer: The lowest layer of the BIFSL is a physical layer that encapsulates various devices. The devices
in this layer collect data and forward it to the upper layer for validation. IoT plays the main role in this layer by
providing massive interconnectivity of devices. Sensors at this layer provide various functions, including
temperature monitoring, traffic data collection, light, pressure monitoring, etc. Further, Blockchain-based sensor
devices enhance data security and privacy. A large amount of data is collected through these sensors and is
stored in decentralized Blockchain ledgers.

Data Layer: This layer consists of chained data blocks and related hashing techniques, including time stamping,
encryption and various hash algorithms for data validation. Blockchain is integrated at this layer to ensure
security for the data to be transferred, and it follows a decentralized approach in which a consensus mechanism
is used for data transfer. The node that wins the consensus creates a block of data. This block of data is packaged
with all the required information and is hashed into a hashed tree. A block is like a file that holds all the records
of valid crypto-currency transactions and each block also holds the data of its previous block, except for the first
block which has no predecessor. Owing to crypto currency transactions, Blockchain is considered the most
secure mechanism, because hacking a crypto currency is almost impossible.

Network Layer: This layer is responsible for transferring data. Blockchain uses a P2P network of devices
instead of a middleman and transmits blocks through consensus. Once a block is created, it is broadcast on the
P2P network and is verified by each node according to the predefined specifications. Each node discards invalid
data and passes the valid data to its neighbouring node. Thus, Blockchain data is verified by multiple nodes and
then finally appended into a Blockchain. If a node forwards invalid data to its neighboring node, it is
disconnected from the P2P network for a specific period of time. Therefore, only valid data are transmitted over
the network.

Application Layer: This is the topmost layer of the Blockchain- based IoT infrastructure of smart transportation
and logistics that is responsible for validating freight information. In short, this layer is responsible for delivering
services to the end-user, who directly interacts with this layer.

29
 Figure 3: Blockchain and IoT framework for Smart Logistics

Comparison with Existing Framework

Researchers have proposed a seven-layer framework regarding a Blockchain-based transportation system (4).
The framework is well structured, and researchers have discussed all its layers in detail. However, it is
specifically for transportation only. The role of logistics is equally important for the development of society
and proposing different frameworks, for both of these will open new doors for questions. Therefore, the
proposed model provides a simple and reliable architecture that fits both transportation and logistics. The
authors (5) have also proposed a framework for securing smart cities using Blockchain technology. The smart
city is a vast term, including smart government, energy, transportation, smart parking, smart lighting and
almost everything from trash bins to vehicles to be smart. Therefore, a single model is not enough to cover all
the possible dimensions of a smart city. Considering the importance of logistics and transportation, there is a
need to develop a complete and coherent model for it. To fill the gap, this article proposes layered architecture
that best fits the need for smart transportation and logistics.

Features of the Blockchain and IoT framework for Smart Logistics

The proposed framework integrates Blockchain technology with IoT to make the transportation and logistics
system secure and efficient. Below are some features of the proposed framework.

Smart Pay: Blockchain technology uses smart contracts to make the payment process fast, accurate and
secure. A smart contract is a computer program that runs on the Blockchain and it helps to facilitate
negotiations, verify terms and conditions, and handles all the delivery and cost settlements between buyer and
seller. Blockchain technology provides the benefit of low cost by cutting the need for service providers. Freight
can be tracked and traced while moving through different locations, making the delivery process more
transparent.

Real-Time Information Sharing: Integrating Blockchain technology with IoT provides trusted identity, smart
accounting, smart contracts, and payment details into a transaction for all parties who are involved in the
transaction so that they can get all the information in real-time. Furthermore, it shows the location of products
in real-time, which is visible to all the parties involved.

Distributed Operation: Blockchain is a distributed database that involves various independent nodes;
therefore, it is also considered as distributed ledger technology (DLT). In Blockchain technology, the
Blockchain keeps records of all transactions during an operation to make the process more efficient and
transparent. Each block in the Blockchain is linked to the previous blocks and the header of each block
includes the previous block’s hash, which is generated from the information of the previous block by applying
hash functions.

30
Privacy and Security: Transaction privacy and security are the key features of Blockchain technology. It uses
asymmetric cryptography for secure transaction by generating private and public keys. These keys are
randomly generated strings of numbers and are cryptographically related, and it is very difficult to guess the
private key of another user. This makes the transaction secure. Privacy and security are considered as
primary goals.

Fault Tolerance: One of the benefits that can be gained when integrating Blockchain technology with IoT is to
achieve reliability through proper fault tolerance mechanisms. In Blockchain, consensus mechanism a
solution toward fault tolerance, it prevents dishonest nodes from writing invalid information. Further, all
nodes in the network have a similar copy of ledger, which ensures that the transactions are up to date.

Conclusion
Transportation and logistics management play a vital role in the development of a country. With the
advancement of IoT devices, smart transportation is becoming a reality. This research proposes a layered
framework BIFSL that integrates IoT and Blockchain in transportation and logistics to make it efficient and
resilient against several security attacks. IoT is the heart of smart transportation and logistics. However, these
massive interconnected IoT devices have fewer storage capabilities and lower computing power, due to
which they become an ideal target for hackers. On the other hand, Blockchain is a decentralized mechanism
that uses a P2P network. It consists of chain blocks; each block records a set of the transactions and keeps the
information about previous blocks and their hashing. The integration of the IoT and Blockchain technologies
improves transportation and logistics by providing a number of benefi ts, including smart pay, better fault
tolerance, real-time information sharing, privacy, and security. In addition, this research presented two real-
life IoT and Blockchain-based case studies to highlight the contribution of IoT and Blockchain in logistics and
transportation.

References
M. G. Speranza, “Trends in Transportation and Logistics,” European J. Operational Research, 2018, vol. 264,
no. 3, pp. 830–36.

Al-Dweik et al., “IoT-Based Multifunctional Scalable Real-Time Enhanced Road Side Unit for Intelligent
Transportation Systems,” 2017 IEEE 30th Canadian Conf. Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), 2017.

G. Rathee et al., “A Secure Communicating Things Network Framework for Industrial IoT Using Blockchain
Technology,” Ad Hoc Networks, 2019, p.101933.

A. Goudz and V. Steiner, “An Evaluation for the Use of Blockchain Technology in Logistics,” Complexity 1,
2019, vol. 4.

K. Biswas and V. Muthukkumarasamy, “Securing Smart Cities Using Blockchain Technology,” 2016 IEEE 18th
Int’l. Conf. High Performance Computing and Commun.; IEEE 14th Int’l. Conf. Smart City; IEEE 2nd Int’l. Conf.
Data Science and Systems (HPCC/SmartCity/DSS), 2016.

A. H. F. A. Hamid et al., “Smart Vehicle Monitoring and Analysis System with IoT Technology,” Int’l. J.
Integrated Engineering, 2019, vol. 11, no. 4.

31
 Scrambler Quiz

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32
 GREEN LOGISTICS
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY

Logistics means and includes all the activities involved in moving the goods from their points of origin to their
point of consumption or use. Increasing environmental awareness and ethical concerns have increased the
pressure on businesses to reimagine their supply chain management. Businesses across the globe are
restructuring and revamping their supply chains so as to reduce its detrimental impact on the environment.
Green Logistics means various endeavors of the company to reduce the damage its logistics operations cause to
the environment. It involves carrying out logistic activities in a sustainable manner. It can also be expected that
over time most countries would have legal provisions requiring the product's impact on the environment to be
disclosed on the product's package itself. Increasing environmental awareness would mean that consumers
would prefer products with minimum harmful impact over others. Even before such legal provisions are
enforced, rival firms may adopt sustainability of their products as a marketing strategy. Thus, it has become
imperative for companies to hasten the transition to green logistics.
Transportation
As transportation is a major component of logistics and vehicles are major emitters of carbon dioxide as well as
a source of significant noise pollution, it becomes imperative that actions be taken towards making
transportation sustainable and environment-friendly to achieve the goal of green logistics. Special care has, to be
taken while choosing mode of transport and the efficiency of loading and unloading activities because
transportation will affect the forward as well as reverse logistics.
This can be achieved through various ways some of which are listed below
Use of e-mobility/less polluting modes of transport . This solution is particularly feasible and attractive for urban
settings in those countries which have surplus electricity generation capacities. However, this electricity
generation should mostly, if not entirely, be from sustainable sources otherwise the entire purpose of
sustainability would be defeated. Smart Trucks were launched in Germany in 2010. A 15% reduction in the
number of miles and an 8% reduction in average route length were observed during the pilot stage of these
trucks. This reduced both emissions and costs. Also, transportation can be shifted to railways from roadways
because it not only minimizes costs but also reduces emissions. Boise Inc. underwent this transition through its
Carload Direct Initiative.
Mode Of CO2 CH4 N20 Total
Transport
Van 537.0 0.16 3.71 540.9
HGV 127.2 0.4 1.91 129.2
Rail 28.5 0.05 3.06 31.6
Sea(general cargo, 11.0 0.00 0.08 11.1
100+ TEU)
Air(long-haul) 610 0.00 10 610
Air (short haul) 1740 0.00 20 1760

Source: Defra(2011)
Note: All emissions are in gCO2e per tkm.

33
2. Usage of alternative Fuels and driver training. Fossil Fuels should be replaced by alternative fuels such as
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for generating
energy. At the same time drivers could be trained to adopt economic driving habits. Spanish Government
introduced Plan Movalt to promote purchase of EVs, CNG, LPG and LNG vehicles.

3. Pooled distribution- This involves various companies using the same vans to distribute their products. This
reduces congestion on roads, hastens travel, increases efficiency of vans and reduces costs. Green Transport
Culture was formed in Bulgaria to promote combined forms of transport.
4. Reducing delivery failures. Another cause of increased emissions during transportation is delivery failures.
Carriers usually require people to be at home to receive their delivery. Consequently, there are several instances
when the product is undelivered and this increases the transportation and warehousing costs and the emissions
caused by these logistic operations. A possible solution can be the compilation of data. The data which currently
exists in bits and prices as consumers knowing their schedules, sellers knowing their customers and the carriers
knowing their ability to deliver at a particular place at a particular time, needs to be integrated. Subsequently, an
opportunity needs to be provided for the sellers, customers and carriers to smoothly communicate with each
other during the whole delivery process.

Green Warehousing
Warehousing acts as the bridge between the production of goods and their sale. Thus, it is a critical component
of logistics. As per the United States Green Building Council, buildings in the US consume 41% of the energy.
Thus, it becomes very important for companies to make warehousing sustainable.
The framework for achieving sustainable warehousing can be subdivided into three parts
1. An energy efficient building having minimum requirements. This part involves reducing energy wastage in
terms of electricity, heating/cooling etc. to a bare minimum. An example can be using dock doors specially
designed to prevent loss of cool air from malls and warehouses. The LEED Initiative of the USA and the
BREAM Initiative of U. K. are some initiatives which seek to promote energy efficient buildings.
2. The second stage involves transition towards usage of green or sustainable energy in the warehouse such as
using hydrogen fuel cells as a source of power.
3. The third stage is one where the warehouse becomes entirely self-sufficient and sustainable by fulfilling its
energy needs by itself through sustainable means such as adoption of roof-top solar panels.
Green Packaging
While most materials used in packaging such as wood(mostly in the shipping industry), paper, cardboard,
glass(for soft drinks) , plastic(for consumables)etc. can be recycled, such a variety of packaging materials
require a robust and streamlined structure for recycling. Green Packaging (along with cost reduction) can be
achieved through various ways some of which are listed below
1. Removing unnecessary layers of packaging. This means that layers beyond those necessary to establish and
maintain acceptable hygiene and protection for the product may be done away with.
2. Reducing various aspects such as thickness of packaging material and adoption of environment friendly
packaging materials.
3. Reusing and recycling of packaging materials.
4. Designing and producing packaging in such a manner that the waste ending up in the landfill or being
incinerated is harmful and hazardous to the least possible extent.

34
Waste Management
Where it is not possible to avoid waste, it should be treated and recycled either directly or indirectly by putting it
back into the ecosystems in some or the other treated or modified form. However reusability means more reverse
logistics which can further cause more emissions. Thus, supply chains needs to use renewable energy so as to
mitigate damage to the environment. The overall impact of a product on the environment is ascertained by
considering the raw materials as well as all operations from its manufacturing to distribution and also the reverse
logistics, if any. Reverse logistics and green logistics sometimes tend to be used synonymously. However, they
are quite different from each other. Green Logistics’ primary motive is to reduce the detrimental impact of
logistics on environment and cost reduction is the secondary objective while in the case of reverse logistics, cost
savings is the main objective and environment protection is secondary. Green Logistics are forward looking
from the point of origin to the point of transfer to the buyers while reverse logistics are the logistics involved in
the reverse flow of goods from the customer back to the manufacturer.
A case in study as to how innovative ways can be used to manage ways can be
the eco-industrial parks such as the Nanhai National Demonstration EIP, Suzhou Industrial Park etc. established
by China under its Circular Economy Promotion Law Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) is a cluster of businesses (both
manufacturing and service) striving to achieve enhanced economic and environmental performance via
collaboration and cooperation. These businesses use shared infrastructures for the storage of common supplies
and the waste of one business is used, if possible, as the raw material for another business. Thus, sustainable
production is achieved at lower costs.
Logistics in itself is a complicated task involving dealing with and ensuring timely delivery of commodities of
both horizontal (shirts of different size, color) and vertical ( shirts, jeans, pants) product diversity. Thus,
reducing the detrimental impact of logistics would indeed be a challenging task. However, this transition has the
potential to not only confer to the company increased public goodwill, but also an overall cost reduction and
may also get the company benefits of various government schemes and subsidies which may be in force at the
given time. Moreover, all the aspects of logistics need to be given equal importance and dealt with
simultaneously. This is because they will more often than not be correlated. For example, an optimum
warehouse location which is closest to the potential market can reduce transportation costs and minimize the
emissions caused thereof but this wouldn’t be very effective in respect of reducing harmful impact to the
environment unless and until loading and unloading activities are also made less detrimental to the environment.
Also, cost increments arising due to a shift to sustainability may be made good from the subsequent cost
reductions in carrying out other activities. For example, as manufacturing of complex products became easier
and cheaper due to technological growth, production began to be done in bulk so as to achieve economies of
scale. Simultaneously, with the rise of efficient, cheaper and global transport, manufacturing of products were
eventually shifted to developing countries because of firstly, cheaper labor costs there and secondly, the
environmental laws were usually less stringent in the developing countries. As a result transportation distances
and emissions increased. It may be time to undo that up to a certain extent so as to reduce emissions. While this
might mean increased costs, it would also be concomitant with a more stable supply chain, lesser transportation
costs and a need to maintain reduced inventories and buffer stocks. Thus, we can conclude that while a transition
to green logistics may be a challenging task, it will nevertheless be rewarding and moreover, a necessity in the
times to come.

35
References
LogInGreen Best Practice; Training Green Logistics Managers to Avoid the Environmental Effects of Logistics,
2018.
Implications of Green Logistics Management on Sustainable Business and Supply Chain Performance: Evidence
from a Survey in the Greek Agri-Food Sector, by Panagiotis Trivellas ,Georgios Malindretos and Panagiotis
Rekliti. It was published on 15 December 2020 in Sustainability 2020.
https://www.absolutemarketsinsights.com/reports/Global-Green-Logistics-Market-2019-2027-445
International Journal of Business Quantitative Economics and Applied Management Research, Volume 1, Issue
7, December 2014.
Sustainable Principles and practices for sustainable Logistics and Supply Chain Management Principles and
practices for sustainable operations and management by David B Grant, Alexander Trautrims and Chee Yew
Wong( Second Edition).

Personal Details
Name – Sidharth Badlani
College – Ramjas College
Contact Number/Whatsapp Number- 8756110415
E-Mail ID- sidharthbadlani1111@gmail.com
Profile- I am a student of B.Com (H) in Ramjas College who loves writing articles, reading stuff and playing
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 Green and Sustainable Supply Chain
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY

In most sectors, product availability is the key for revenue growth. Hence Supply chain management is a tool
that gives competitive advantage to businesses.
What is meant by green and sustainable supply chain –
In 2015 the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, was adopted to establish a global
framework to minimize global warming and hence avoid the dangerous impacts of climate change to some
extent. In recent times, governments, investors and customers are expecting business to play an active role to
address the issue of climate change and commit to reduce ongoing emissions. Supply chain is an important
aspect for a company’s success. Green and sustainable supply chain is emerging as a competitive advantage to
companies. Green and Sustainable supply chains imply effectively managing environmental, social and
economic impacts throughout the life cycle of the product or service.
Importance and Implications of green and sustainable supply chains-
Modern global supply chains face a danger of disruption and physical and sustainable risk because of uncertain
regulations, regional macro-economic trends and changing political landscapes. Supply chains, being a
competitive advantage and point of differentiation for companies, need to adapt to make cost savings and
quality upgrades.
Brand image enhancement - Due to the rise of responsible and aware consumers, green and sustainable
supply chains are no longer good to have, but they are turning into way of business. Motivation for
organisations to move towards green and sustainable supply chains emerges from the customer’s willingness to
pay more for green and sustainable products. Organisations cannot afford to ignore the ill effects of inefficient
and not sustainable supply chains. Consumers are now demanding to know what organisations are doing to
help cope with issues related to climate changes, and businesses are adopting all sorts of environmental
initiatives to please the customers.
Corporate innovation - Sustainable supply chains are keenly carrying out audits at their supplier’s end, to
avoid risks and potential financial as well as reputational losses. New values and visions are being introduced
to bring in innovative culture where employees are motivated to explore innovative solutions considering green
and sustainable features in mind.
Increased Profitability - Green and sustainable supply chains are being adapted not just because they pose
social, environmental and governmental risks, but also because of the rewards they deliver –value to business
and sustainable development. Green and sustainable supply chains bring immediate advantages of increased
operational efficiency, and repo building among consumers, but there are more lucrative long-term benefits
such as improved relationship with the suppliers and hence material gains, as well.
Corporate Social Responsibility – Green and sustainable supply chains also include the social and economic
impacts, issues related to workers human rights, work environment, work life balance are also considered a
part of green and sustainable supply chains. Implementation of these ethical practices leads to investor
satisfaction and hence smooth and efficient running of business.

Challenges in implementing green and sustainable supply chains-

Organisations have realised that their supply chains can have significant impacts on the environmental and
societal changes. Organisations are working with stakeholders and suppliers to identify areas to promote green

37
and sustainable development. Organisations have realised that the biggest challenge to implement lies outside
their own offices and manufacturing plants. The next big challenge is the implementation part, identifying and
recognising environmental initiatives is one thing but ensuring that they are acted upon is the real deal. One
more challenge lies in fulfilling the huge demands that the implementation of green and sustainable supply
chain poses, however it is necessary to realise the equally huge rewards that it will generate.
Kelloggs, HP, Unilever are the big names who have proactively started implementing initiative towards green
and sustainable supply chains and they will reap the benefits of good business sense in near future. The
competitor companies should realise what impacts green and sustainable supply chains will make considering a
holistic and long-term approach.

Ways to implement green and sustainable supply chains –

Ethical Sourcing – The term implies that any product will be considered green and sustainable only when the
supplier has obtained the required material for the product after taking care of social and economic health of
the labours involved and respecting the natural resources. Suppliers can only get legal and safe materials and
no human rights violations for all the workers or labourers involved.
Green materials – The term refers to renewable materials. These materials limit resource depletion of
resources and minimize carbon emissions. The materials used should be safe to inhale or digest while working
for workers and while consuming for consumers. Materials can be detoxified to remove any harmful toxins
present in them and then make them green.
Reverse Logistics – This system addresses handling of used products. Green and sustainable supply chains
encourage use of recycling and reusing methods or proper disposal methods if recycling or reusing is not
possible. This is a closed loop system where materials once used come back and become a new item for reuse.
The ones that cannot be recycled are the classified as wastes which can further be put to use as nourishments to
plants and gardens.
Just-in-Time (JIT) – JIT as the name suggests, producing what is needed when needed and nothing more.
Anything over minimum is considered as a waste, so excess inventory is avoided. It is a pull system, where we
look only at the next stage of production and determine what is needed there, and then we produce only that. It
minimizes a lot of wastes and exposes problems that are otherwise hidden due to inventory. Managers are
required to forecast consumer demands for efficient functioning of JIT systems. JIT results in products made in
shortest times and highest quality.

Efficient Transportation – Transportation of goods through vehicles that run on fossil fuels contributes to a
large amount of green-house gas emissions. Green and sustainable supply chains encourage the use of
alternative fuels that minimize green house gas emissions. But employing transport that is alternative friendly
is a complex task as these are not yet widespread and easily accessible. The local governments can help solving
this issue by encouraging the use of green alternatives and helping them become widespread and readily
available. The other method could be to collaborate with local suppliers and manufacturers to eliminate the
need of transporting products to large distances.
Green Certification – Organisations need to be mandated to follow guidelines to show their commitment
towards green and sustainable development. Supply chain certifications should be mandated and only provided
when organisation adheres to sustainable practices.

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One of the approaches for green and sustainable supply chains could be to move towards digitized supply
chains. To digitize supply chains, it is needed to integrate leading technologies with revamped operations. The
transformation into a digital supply chain requires two key components – Capability in digitization and
innovative environment. Capabilities could be built in the organization or specialists in the field can be
recruited for the job. The innovative environment should be flexible enough to enable rapid cycles of
development, testing and implementation of solutions. Advances in digital technology in supply chains will
help companies to improve their decision making, planning and responding to issues and will generate new
business values throughout ultimately resulting in green and sustainable supply chains.

Green and sustainable supply chains will help in maintaining transparency and giving insights into day-to-day
operations, that can further be enhanced to create business value for the company. Many organisations are
becoming active contributors to environmental preservation through their green and sustainable supply chain
models. This has also resulted in increased profits for them, which they are again using to generate high
quality green and sustainable products. More and more organisations should follow green and sustainable
supply chain business models to become leaders in their respective industries.

39
 SCaaS – Supply Chain Management as a Service
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY

Context
Supply chains of many global companies are not prepared for the new era of digital transformation which the
world is entering into. These multinational companies engineered their Supply Chains meticulously, but they
are all centered around improving excellence in a labor-driven setup.
According to a case study by Mckinsey, in-order to withstand higher complexity, companies are now looking
forward towards fragmenting their monolithic supply chains into smaller yet more agile units. These higher
complexities are introduced due to rising consumer expectations for seamless service and multiple SKU
choices. These expectations are leading to product diversification which is resulting in the volatility of demand
for multiple SKUs and for overall volume of each SKU sold.
Based on this classification, supply chains are fragmented on the basis of high and low demand volatility
products and/or high and low demand volume products. This helps companies to become a differentiator in
terms of supply chain management in all the different product categories.
Such fragmentation is creating the need for intense planning and integration of the fragmented supply chain.
To integrate the supply chain, enterprises have to go the digital way to achieve end-to-end global electronic
connectivity, heightened flexibility and adaptability, and better asset management. Failure to make this
progression will result in a lack of competitiveness, market sustainability, and financial viability. Planning
solutions are thus required across the supply chain, right from Sales and Operations (S&OP) planning to
manufacturing schedule planning to logistics planning.
SCaaS – the concept, its need and the market scenario
Organizations currently lack in internal supply chain planning experts who can effectively manage the
complexities, end to end, and this is leading to the advent of Supply Chain Management as a Service. As per a
report from MarketsandMarkets Forecast, the expected growth of global Supply Chain Management market
size post-COVID 19 is at 10.3%, from USD 23.2 billion in 2020 to USD 41.7 billion by 2026.
Supply chain management as a service is about outsourcing SCM functions to third-party service providers so
that organizations focus on their core capabilities. Established vendors in this space focus on diverse aspects of
planning, like inventory planning, production planning, and schedule planning. They are now extending into
other areas of supply chain management with the power of AI, big data and analytics. They are helping
enterprises to streamline their supply chain networks through better collaboration, higher efficiency rate, cost
optimization, improved quality control, improved risk mitigation and improved cash flow. Organizations are
therefore venturing onto a journey of re-engineering their supply chain to increase the quality of their decision-
making involved in planning.
The ultimate goal is to become more responsive and agile by linking quality planning with strategy to meet the
business's end goals.
The key players in this market are companies like Accenture, TCS, FedEx and DHL. Newer SCaaS vendors
are trying to capture the market by addressing the issues of traditional, on- premises solutions like lack of
streamlined user experience, scalability challenges, and slow speed of deployment. SCaaS vendors collect
relevant data from organizations, clean and correct the data and feed it into sophisticated planning algorithms.
The reports thus generated are extracted and shared with the client. Vendors then help them

40
understand the crucial planning insights derived from these reports. SCaaS helps organizations save the hustle
on buying, maintaining and upgrading software solutions, planning implementation projects, and training
resources to use the advanced tools. They are able to realize a reduction in planning costs without long-term
software investments.

Services offered in SCaaS and the associated challenges

There are a variety of services offered by leading SCaaS companies across the globe. The offerings in these
domains are real-time monitoring of supply chain and operations to improve performance, management of
spend across key categories to drive sourcing savings and procurement efficiency, effective logistics
management, managing efficient use of energy across the supply chain, etc.

SCaaS - Services and Outcomes

One of the key emerging issues with SCaaS model is the data privacy concern as organizations outsource the
planning. PwC quotes in its report on Supply Chain Security 2030- “with electronic data exchange becoming
an ever more critical part of interlinked value chains, worries about data security and industrial espionage are
becoming more pronounced. No supply chain will ever be 100% secure – better technology and well-trained
people can make a big difference.”
Adequate data norms need to be implemented to ensure clients are not at risk of privacy breaches. These risks
make SCaaS a niche market for only trustworthy brand names. This is where service providers like Deloitte
come in, to offer Supply Chain Risk Management services where they anticipate emerging threats by using
market-leading technology to uncover possibilities of reputational and financial risks and failures. There are
also some best practices, that organizations must incorporate in their system to mitigate third-party risks, like
conducting vendor risk assessments, defining data ownership/stewardship requirements, defining regulatory
compliance requirements, and implementing threat intelligence.

Another key challenge this market faces is the scepticism around the capability of realizing the benefits that
SCaaS claims to deliver. SCaaS involves the adoption of a lot of new technologies. Whenever new
technologies hit the market, their use cases and benefits are mostly far-seeing and may sound futuristic. Only a
few innovative organizations boil their money onto new technologies to actually explore the potential benefits.
For gaining the confidence of the entire industry to move towards new technologies, there have to be enough
success stories and use cases for a consistent period of time. SCaaS industry is still at a stage where it is being
adopted in bits and pieces for particular units inside an organization and therefore needs time to be adopted at
scale.

41
The man vs. machine dilemma has also brought in hesitation in the “people” of the organization. People tend to
believe that implementing technology driven SCaaS systems could come at the cost of losing the control they
have in the organization and eventually lead to jeopardizing their own jobs. The tactical and strategic benefits
that outsourcing brings are mostly unaccounted for, and many organizations are still struggling to build their
strategy of identifying supply chain management as part of their core competency or not.

The way ahead

To address security issues, new technologies such as blockchain are coming up with the power to integrate
operations, handle data management and yet maintain end-to-end secure and trusted platforms. With the
increasing IT penetration, access to mobile devices and the internet, the data flow across all the supply chain
processes is increasing. This is in turn, is increasing the use cases of technology implementation by unleashing
the power of captured data through analytics.

As automation drives the industry, people will begin to witness that it does not necessarily replace humans. It
would lead to new employment opportunities for humans with more strategy-driven roles and skills. In the
days when computers had started disrupting the markets, people thought they would replace humans. They did,
but they also created innumerous new opportunities. This perspective will slowly change the human resistance
towards adopting new technologies.

Outsourcing in supply chain was rare before the 1990s. Now, businesses have realized that if they handle their
own warehousing and fulfillment services, they can’t realize efficiency and productivity in a cost-effective
manner. This has been the case for most SMEs, however, outsourcing has become a trend amidst companies of
all sizes now. Third-party solutions are helping companies turn their fixed expenditures into variable costs
without incurring large capital expenditure or maintenance costs.

Such changes will make SCaaS adoption inevitable, and eventually, companies will have no choice but to go
the outsourcing way in order to gain a competitive edge in the market.
SCaaS will not be a question of “if”, instead it will be a question of “when” for organizations.

42
 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN – THE CIRCULAR WAY
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY Aparna Jaiswal (Goa Institute of Management

Introduction: -
For the future supply chain sustainability is gaining its importance in business and as well as in whole world.
More and more money is being invested by companies to take up sustainability initiatives, which aims to
reduce waste and emissions of carbon. Recently, there has been a push towards establishing a circular
supply chain to remove waste and build a continual use of resources.
Stahel and Ready coined this ideology as ‘Circular Economy’. A circular economy aims to deliver benefits
such as a reduction of the pressure on the environment, improving the raw material supply security,
innovation stimulation, creating jobs, etc. to augment economic growth. Circularity (a common reference to
the circular economy) is a re-engineered approach to solve the “take, make, dispose” model of production
that traditional linear economy follows.
What is Circular Supply Chain:
Unlike traditional liner supply chain, where goods are consumed and finally eliminated in trash and the flow
of goods initiates with raw materials, circular supply chain sees a reverse logistics. Recycling is often energy
intensive procedure, and thus reuse and repair comes before recycling in circular supply chain flow. If re-use
prospects are identified first, it can save a substantial amount of energy in the future.
Circular supply chain could be understood by a famous saying - “one man’s waste is another man’s
pressure”. This is the essence of circular supply chain, it takes apparent waste material and returned goods
and turn them into products which could be re-sold. Circular supply chain involves approaches to create
novel product to service and methods of recovering new goods and focus on generating “smart” forecasts
and readiness for expenses in the future. [1]
Figure 1 : Illustration of circular supply chain model

Source : Datex Corporation

43
How can it be achieved?

•Reduce virgin resource extraction in the long run and replace traditional material inputs with biobased
renewable or recovered materials
•Recycle waste into secondary raw materials, thus reducing waste disposal
•Make long-lasting and standardized inter-compatible products which would reduce the rate of resource
extraction and waste generation
•Sharing under-utilized products to facilitate the reduction in demand for new products and raw materials
extraction
•Market green products with incentives and promote efficient product use with greener product design

Transistion from linear supply chain to circular supply chain requires association from different stakeholders at
every level - product designers, suppliers, logistic partners and other players in the supply chain and
manufacturing to be involved as a group, making decisions. The firms at each step of the business may be
independent, but circularity can be achieved if all members through the product lifecycle interact and engage in
a model to promote sustainability. There is recognition for organizations to have upstream and downstream
associations in various procedures and actions that generate values through products and services for their
ultimate consumers. Environmental and social values as much as economic values need to be tracked across
the supply chain throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Challenges in implementing CSC Model:

Ownership of end-of-life products: At their individual point of sale, most supply chain firms lose control of
products and raw materials. This means they must reclaim consumer access at the conclusion of a product's life
cycle. Because the product will naturally return to them, high-tech companies prefer leasing and subscription
models. [2]
Quantity of Materials: One of the most difficult tasks is to collect and organise end-of-life products in a cost-
effective manner for processing. To acquire access to material, most supply chain businesses work with trash
vendors, raw material suppliers, and reverse logistics providers.
Value of Raw Materials: A circular economy must remain constrained by economic constraints. Low-residue-
value products are less likely to be processed. While different materials may have different environmental
implications, the majority of the organization's decisions will be based on cost and risk.
Product complexity: Here's something to consider for electronics buyers: the less complex a product is, the
easier and less expensive it is to reprocess it. Recycling to reclaim raw materials is one of the simplest ways to
tackle complexity, according to Gartner, however recycling results in a loss of value because the manufactured
product is extinguished in the process.

Circular supply chain in action:

H&M : The company has pledged to make its operation “circular”. It encourages customers to drop their used
closed clothes in drop off bins at their outlets. These cloths are then recycled into new clothes. At present the
company claims that, more than half of the materials they use are recycled and sustainably resourced.

44
Nike’s Reuse -A-Shoe Program : In this initiative, the organization collects worn-out and old shoes for
recycling and renovates them into Nike Grind, which in return is used in making playground surfaces and other
Nike products.

Vodafone’s phone trade in program: a trade in value is offered by the company for any old device which can
be used to purchase a new one. The old phones which are traded by the customers, are harvested for their parts
and recycled by the company, thereby reducing waste.

Conclusion:

To conclude, a sustainable supply chain as defined by Carter and Rogers is the “strategic achievement and
integration of organization’s social, environmental and economic goals through systematic coordination of key
inter-organization business processes to improve the long-term economic performance of the individual
company and its value network.” This definition of a sustainable supply chain is based on risk management,
strategy, transparency and culture that supports sustainability and circular economy. A circular economy is an
industrial economy that is regenerative and restorative by plan, keeping resources in use at their maximum
value for its maximum duration by practices of reuse, refurbishment, and recycling.

Circular supply chain is not only a sustainability framework but also an innovative method of leading business.
It encourages businesses and establishments to collaborate, innovate in ways that take into account resource
shortage and climate change, offer a retort to consumer community pressure to decrease waste. The circular
supply chain is the key that hold potentials to unlock a $4.5 trillion economic opportunity. [3]
Transforming linear economies into circular by leveraging technology across the supply chain can deliver
organizations that are socially accountable, environmentally conscious and aware whilst deriving economic
growth. Technology adoption can be expensive in the short run for organizations, but they enable
sustainability, in the long run, allowing forward movements of circularity meeting industry 4.0 requirements.

References:
Impact of the Circular Supply Chain on Sustainability, Datex Corporation, 2021
Four Challenges Standing in the Way of a Circular Economy- Bridget McCrea, Sourcetoday.com
Building a circular supply chain for a circular ecomony- Mary-Kerstin Hassiotis, April 09 2020.

45
 Green and Sustainable Supply Chain Management
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY

Green Supply chain Management is a process of implementing ecofriendly Concept in regular supply chain
management to improve Environmental Sustainability by using different Green practice like Green purchasing,
Green distribution, Green warehousing, Green Manufacturing Processes, Green transportation using biofuels etc.

Introduction:

Environmental degradation is being major problem these days. Environment related issues are getting increased
day by day and traveling faster than forest fire. It is affecting world level of territory, which is causing serious
issues like Climate change, Global Warming, also creating scenarios of scarcity for natural resources. Water and
air pollution became the biggest matter of concern because it is causing different disease and affecting human life
badly. Heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstruction pulmonary disease, stroke, Dracunculiasis, Cholera,
Hepatitis, Typhoid fever, and Norovirus are few examples of disease caused by water and air pollution. As world
is struggling for fresh air and pure water, Green supply chain management concept raised as a ray of hope.
Implementation of GSCM concept proved very helpful in controlling air water and waste pollution. By adoption
of green Practices in business operations, Environmental sustainability gets enhanced. GSCM Concept proved
like killing two birds with single stone. By GSCM Environmental pollution as well as production cost is getting
reduced. It can also help in Economic growth, creating competitive advantage in terms of customer satisfaction,
better image and reputation, also creating opportunity to export products in pro-environmental countries. Green
Idea definition is expanding with new innovations and environmental sustainability protection technique, which
can be recognized by corporate social responsibilities, green manufacturing, waste control and management,
recycling and re-manufacturing, green supply chain, sustainable and ecofriendly supply chain etc. Term Green
and Sustainable supply chain means idea of integrating sustainable environmental processes using green practices
with tradit ional supply chain Management. Supplier selection, material purchase, designing of product,
manufacturing, and assembling of product, product distribution and end of life management process are included
in it. Normal supply chain processes mitigate harmful impact of business operations, whereas green supply chain
management involves value addition / creation through operations of whole chain. Main goal of Green supply
chain management was controlling air and water pollution but it is also increasing firm’s performance in terms of
less waste , recycle and re- manufacturing , reduction in manufacturing costs, greater customer satisfaction ,
greater efficiency of assets, positive image building etc.
Below figure shows implementation of green supply chain of a child’s crib manufacturer as an example.

46
 Figure: GSCM implementation in child’s crib manufacturing

Green supply chain management concept proved outstanding in controlling environmental

degradation without compromising with organization’s performance and profit.
Below figure explains the concept of Green and Sustainable supply ch ain management.

Figure: General Concept of Green and Sustainable supply chain management

47
In today’s scenario Environmental awareness is increasing, so firms have pressure to reduce the harmful effect
of their Business. Customers as well as government emphasize to go green. Since last couple of decades issues
related to global warming, air pollution, water pollution and waste pollution increased a lot and caught world
wise attention. Experts forced to think about more ecofriendly concepts and find possible solutions towards
“Green”. Rath identified GSCM (Green Supply Chain Management) which plays important role in establishing
organizational and environmental sustainability.

Critical Success Factor Roles in GSCM

Below are the six key critical factors identified for putting green supply chain management into practice to attain
better environmental sustainability:
Management of Customers
Competitiveness
Regulatory
Ethical leadership/internal management
Management of Supplier
Social

Management of Customers:
Customers play an important and effective role in Green supply chain management. Developing countries Firms
are facing heavy pressure to adopt ecofriendly practices in their business management processes. To attain
customer’s attention firms are adopting green practices to get advantages in competitive market.

Competitiveness:
In many researches it has been observed that Competitiveness has played key role in adopting green practices in
supply chain. There is lot of pressure in getting customers attraction, so firms are trying different ideas to
achieve it. Even if Firms choice is not making environment sustainable, they are doing it to reach the level of
their competitors or to leave them behind.

Regulatory:
As environmental issues are getting increased day by day, so environmental laws are getting strict and
governmental bodies have farmed strict regulations on organizations to reduce the harmful/ negative effect of
their business on environment to maintain sustainability of ecosystem. Hence Going green became more and
more important for firms. Green supply chain management has helped a lot in controlling air pollution, water
pollution and waste pollution, so Global warming effects are also controlled.

Ethical Leadership/Internal Management:

Support and encouragement from seniors motivate Employees to adopt green practices in their day to day work.
If every employee is applying ‘Go green’ Concept in their work ultimately it is affecting the firm’s business
management practices and helping a lot on Adopting Green supply chain management. Leaders/ Managers also
motivate and train employees to adopt more green practices. Employees get encouraged for adopting green
practices which motivates other employees to do the same. Hence Ethical leadership/internal Management
played important role in adopting Green and sustainable Supply chain management.

48
Management of Supplier:
Suppliers and customers are key participants in Green supply chain management. Green supply chain services
can not be adopted without active participation of Supplier. Collaboration with suppliers enhances incentive
systems and increase the adoption and development of new ecofriendly ideas. Green partnership agreements,
technologies, and transparency in implementation of innovative green practices may generate enhancement in
operational and environmental performance which helps organization to achieve their goals.

Social:
It is found in number of researches that societal factors have significant impact on attaining environment
friendly practices objectives.as customers are more aware and concerned about environmental issues ,
governmental regulatory bodies are also paying more attention which is forcing organization to adopt
ecofriendly practices and share their updates about each steps with customers and on social media. NGOs, social
networking sites, Media are also playing important role in encouraging and forcing firms to adopt Green and
sustainable supply chain management.
Green Practices in Supply Chain Management:

There are number of green practices which is adopted for better productivity and environmental growth.
Following are some of the well-known green practices:
Green material sourcing
Green marketing
Green management
Green distribution and warehousing
Green manufacturing
Ecological Design
Renewable energy and biofuels

Green material sourcing:

Green material sourcing means purchasing ecofriendly materials which have recyclability, re-usability, less or
negligible negative impact on environment and nonuse of hazardous chemicals.
Purchase professionals are trained and motivated to focus on purchasing ecofriendly materials.
Sourcing Green materials results into less procurement cost which increase financial performance. It also
increases reputation and customer attraction. Min and Galle further emphasized green sourcing supporting waste
reduction enhances recycling and remanufacturing and other activities in supply chain.

Green Marketing:
Green Marketing focus on activities like designing, Planning, production, price, Process, promotion and after
sale service to achieve organizational goals in reducing harmful
effect on environment. Green Marketing promotes the products with advertising about ecofriendly properties.

Green Management:
In a firm Green management Practices provide supplementary sources of information which helps in enhancing
their Business and Environmental objectives. Adoption of Green Management practices help in cost saving,
Environmental compliance improvement, improving firm image, increasing capacity, achievement of social
commitment and reduction of emitting harmful waste.

49
Green Distribution and Warehousing:
Green distribution and warehousing help in reduction of waste and energy saving. It improves overall
performance of firm with better corporate image. Green distribution helps enterprises to obtain superior financial
and environmental performance.

Green manufacturing:
Green Manufacturing practices involves manufacturing of green and ecofriendly materials, application of Green
Resources, manufacturing of recyclable resources which improves environmental situations as well as firm’s
business.

Ecological design:
Luthra et al highlighted that 80% impacts on environment from product and process related could be controlled
with the adoption of ecological design in supply chain management. Ecological design of products incorporates
many ideas like cleaner technology processes, Green raw material, and component. Green Design of product
improves environmental effect of product during their life as well as provides opportunity to save cost because of
recyclable and re-usable property.

Renewable Energy and Biofuels:

Firms are totally dependent on Energy and fuels. Using renewable energy and biofuels has improved
environmental condition a lot, because fuel and energy is one of the biggest pollutants which cause air pollution,
water pollution, emits Green -house gases etc.
Using Renewable energy resources and biofuels has decreased cost as well as improved environmental
performance of firm. Biofuels are cheaper than Fossil fuels and same goes with renewable energy resources.
Government also have strict instructions to minimize negative environmental impact. Using Biofuels and
renewable energy Firms comply with government regulations as well as make better profit.

Conclusion
Adoption of GSCM firms have improved environmental as well as Financial performance. Corporate reputation
has also improved which attracts more customers and suppliers which ultimately results into positive impact on
business. Hence Using Green supply chain management practices is a better profitable option for organization as
well as helps maintaining and creating sustainable Ecosystem.

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 Smart logistics in supply chain management
IMPACT OF DESIGN AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT ON
QUALITY

Pandemic has exposed a lot of uncertainty in the global supply chain. Due to lockdown and unavailability of
resources, a huge disruption in the supply chain leads to a shortage of critical supplies in different parts of the
world. Similarly, the Indian manufacturing and supply chain industry has witnessed major challenges and
uncertainty which led to several disruptive innovations starting from digitalization to business transformation.
Industry 4.0, for instance, is a trending buzzword that refers to the fourth industrial revolution that is smart
factories with connected machines and intelligent robots. In this fourth industrial revolution, machines are
internally connected and these machines can communicate with each other, and diagnose their problems. In the
subsequent paragraphs, I will address the leading innovations and challenges faced by manufacturing and supply
chain industries that can potentially shift the industry towards the fourth industrial revolution.

Major Challenges faced by the industry Limited face-to-face interactions:

During last year, the pandemic has changed the way we communicate with little to no face-to-face in- person
discussion. So, communication with different stakeholders of a supply chain has become very challenging.
Lockdowns, travel restrictions, limited availability of transportation, etc, have paralyzed the whole supply chain
and manufacturing industry. The mismatch between supply and demand led to high distribution and inventory
costs. Most Indian manufacturing companies that are overly dependent on few Chinese suppliers for procurement
of raw materials find it extremely difficult to manage their supply chain during the pandemic. The need to
diversify the supplier and distributor portfolios become unparallel in these challenging times.

Last mile connectivity issue:

Another issue is the limited reach to the rural parts of India. Last-mile connectivity was always a major problem
for Indian logistics and supply chain industries and pandemic has amplified the magnitude of the issue to a much
higher extent. Also, the recent boom in the e-commerce industry raised the expectations of people to receive their
delivery fast and free. Due to lack of infrastructure and demand fluctuations, companies are finding it very
challenging to meet customer expectations.

Impact of USA-China trade war in Indian manufacturing industries:

The USA and China trade war posted a great opportunity for Indian manufacturing firms. Not only USA, but also
countries such as Japan, South Korea have expressed their interest to shift their production from China to
countries like India, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. Though the lack of infrastructure in these countries raises a lot of
uncertainties and it may take almost twenty years to build similar infrastructure in these countries like China.
With the current infrastructural challenges and with falling manufacturing output, India is not able to tap the
opportunity to become the next global manufacturing hub.

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 The new innovations and the path forward

Emergence of connected factories reduces the communication barriers:

Digital technologies like the Internet of Things and Machine Learning are helping Indian companies to reinvest
the wheels. Through IoT sensors, companies collect relevant data of the different components of machines, store
the data in the cloud centrally to monitor performance, and derive intelligence based on their needs. To reduce
the manual data entry and predict the outcome based on historical data, machines are fed with data collected by
IoT sensors and train machines by machine learning algorithms to predict future outcomes. E-commerce
companies like Flipkart, Amazon are building predictive modelling using Artificial intelligence and Machine
Learning to predict the future demand of the customers. Using predictive modelling these companies will be
able to sync their demand and supply side and reduce the vulnerability towards any sudden rise or fall in
customer demand. So, with very few manual interventions companies can run smoothly even with limited face-
to-face interactions. From the below numbers quoted by Mckinsey, there can be great benefits in all the different
segments mentioned below:

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Connecting Rural India:

The connectivity in the rural areas in India has improved significantly due to the digital India campaign with
cheap internet by providers like Reliance Jio. Also, the availability of low-cost smartphones helps to reach the
farthest corner of the country through mobile connectivity. So, companies have improved their flexibility and
response time in the supply chain networks which have helped to build robust connectivity in the rural areas.

The next global manufacturing Hub - India

India is trying to leverage the USA, China trade war and the Indian government is promoting different campaigns
like Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, to promote the Indian manufacturing industry. In the 2021 union budget,
we have seen a huge inclination towards the infrastructure sector and the government has allocated around Rs
20,000 crores on the infrastructural front. To improve the manufacturing process, India needs to improve on several
grounds, specifically on the technology front. With the recent development of Industry 4.0, companies are well
aware of new technologies, but most of the companies are ignorant about the change. India has a huge labor force
with sub-optimal skills and training them with new technology needs a lot of investment. Government should
encourage these companies to adopt new technology by offering subsidies and tax holidays.

Indian companies are driving the way forward:

Few Indian companies have demonstrated substantial growth towards the fourth industrial revolution. Companies
like Tata Motors has recently faced a lot of challenges in managing its supply chain. It has twenty-six
manufacturing units across Asia, Africa, and Europe. All the manufacturing units are working in silos and
maintaining these units in pandemic was a major challenge for the company. Recently the company has developed
a connected ecosystem that can connect its machines in different plants located in different geographical locations
using IoT sensors that collect data from different machines and store the data in a central cloud location. Now Tata
Motors can monitor all the machine activities and performance centrally and derive different meaningful inferences
like –
what will be the upcoming maintenance schedule of the machines? Which machine can cause a possible bottleneck
in the system?
Moreover, oil and gas industries are currently using technologies like Augmented reality and Virtual reality to
show the progress of their assignments to the clients virtually without any physical visit to the project locations.
Also, construction companies like Larson and Toubro are building end-to-end real estate projects with very low
manual intervention than the traditional way using 3D printing technology.

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In conclusion, the recent shift in the fourth industrial revolution holds a lot of promise for the supply chain and
manufacturing industry. With the help of digital technologies and a huge labor force, India can be the next global
supply chain hub. The recent inflows of private funds in manufacturing sectors and different government schemes
will help Indian companies to explore new technologies and invest in upskilling their workers for the fourth
industrial revolution.

References:
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-india-technology-to-transform-
a-connected-nation

https://www.digitalindia.gov.in/ebook/MeitY_TrillionDollarDigitalEconomy.pdf

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/supply-chain-40--the-next-generation-
digital-supply-chain#

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 OPERA TEAM 2021
Ankit Anand Nigudkar Karan
Mahesh

Mohit Verma Nilesh Biswas

Nikam Sanket Shwetanshu

Sanjay Suman

Continuum Volunteers 2021

Nishant Bansal Riya Goyal Shweta Chourasia
Parsewar Rupesh Dhanashree Umesh Harsh Kumar
Bhimashankar Chavan Singh

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