Stability and Sustainability of Supply Chain

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Stability and Sustainability of Supply Chain
Stability and Sustainability of Supply Chain
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Stability and Sustainability of Supply Chain
Introduction
Supply chain refers to the network built between firms and their suppliers with the aim of
producing and distributing certain products to the final consumers/buyers. The supply chain
networks are made up of different activities, individuals, systems and resources. It is the duty of
the individual firms to develop their specific supply chain and be in a position of handling all the
risk that may be manifested in the course of operation.
The supply chain may be made up of a series of steps that enables the firm to get the product or
services to the customers. This may involve the transformation of raw materials into finished
product and carrying out logistics. Several risks may arise when trying to manage the supply
chain. This paper is going to major on discussing the potential challenges that should be
considered in order to achieve a sustainable and stable supply chain and give possible
recommendations. The report is going to focus its strategies based on the article “Going green is
not that easy for electric vehicle”. The focus is to put emphasis on long-term development of
sustainable supply chain in the industry.
Literature review
Potential challenges to be considered to ensure sustainability of the supply chain
The processing cost
For sustainability and going green, companies ought to change their way of operations and opt
for more environmentally friendly products. Companies should consider incorporating the close
end-recycling project in their supply chain in order to reduce the effect if global warming.
Recycling used products such as Lithium Batteries in the automotive industry is one of the major
way of cutting down the usage of natural resources since the recycled products are of the same

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Stability and Sustainability of Supply Chain
standards as the manufactured ones. If companies have the option recycling used products, there
is apparently no reason for them to manufacture new products instead; they should opt for the
latter. Energy consumption by firms, individuals and industries can be reduced through
recycling of products and building constituent deports to reduce the distance travelled in th
transportation of raw materials and cost.
Consequently, the government has the task of ensuring that business/ individuals are only
involved in activities that are less harmful to the environment. Wastage of time is part of
potential challenges that can Couse a firm to have an unstable supply chain. Proper time
management includes on time delivery of products and cutting down the usage of technologies
that consume allot of power and time such as use of petrol and diesel engines
The cost of processing goods for instance LIB in the automotive industry and use of electric
vehicles can be a potential challenge that must be considered for sustainability of the supply
chain to be realized. The current processing cost may increase when the design of products such
as LIB becomes complex and sophisticated. Technological development may be the solution of
reducing the cost of production. According to Gouda & Saranga (2018), they denote that for
sustainability to be realized in the activity of the firm, it is rudimentary for the supply chain to be
flexible unlike the classical supply chain. This implies coping up with the developing
technology. Sustainability should be influenced by the ability of the supply chain to reverse itself
and still function properly; the ability to remanufacture or recycle used products such as LIB.
This includes recycling used parts as in the case of automotive industry. There are a number of
potential challenges that may arise in the supply chain management and should be addressed
appropriately in order realize a stable supply chain. When the issue of stable and sustainable
supply chain is brought up, three key areas ought to be taken into account namely the economic

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Stability and Sustainability of Supply Chain
dimension, environmental dimension and the social dimension. A stable supply chain should
consider all the three areas. To begin with, supply chain can be divided into two major parts, the
reverse part and the forward part. Many industries for instance the automotive industries operate
within the forward supply chain where they get their raw materials from different suppliers or
they can use materials that have been recycled as long as they meet the required standards
(Valinejad & Rahmani 2018, p.58).
The figure below shows a sample of the automotive supply chain
According to Burnson (2017), the cost of processing and production of safety and quality
products is one of the areas that hold potential risks in the supply chain. With the increasing
problem of global warming and difficulty in accessing sufficient raw materials by industries, it
becomes very challenging for the manufacturers to produce safe and high quality product that are
environmental friendly. As in the case of automotive industry, the use of petroleum-based
engines has proved beyond doubt as one of the leading courses of global warming. With respect
to the impending danger that may be brought by the fumes emitted by the locomotive engines,
automotive industries have now been forced to restructure their supply chain and opt for more