A Little Note on Greening your Supply Chain

We all hear about greening supply chains as a popular strategy for companies wanting to save money (and face). But what exactly does greening a supply chain entail?

Andrew Kinder of Industry Week writes that greening your supply chain involves:

Optimizing the physical supply chain, storage and transportation of products across it

Lower energy usage in the manufacturing conversion process

Improving product design and packaging to minimize waste

Kinder says, 

"By moving away from spreadsheet based planning or system that relies on two variables (cost and speed), manufacturers can dynamically plan where and when to make, buy, store, and move goods based on changing fuel costs and transportation modes. The models allow manufactures to immediately see the impact of network changes to the supply chain and the bottom line."

Sounds like nothing one more class with Professor Hahn couldn't teach us.