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Companies in the process industry are active on many fronts when it comes to sustainability. Reduce energy consumption, use renewable energy sources, reduce footprint. The demand for sustainable products and packaging is also increasing, while at the same time legislation and customer requirements are becoming increasingly strict. From a commercial point of view, there are plenty of commercial opportunities with the latter. The question is how to respond adequately to these changing demands, without leading to unwanted complexity in the supply chain.
The following applies to every change process: without a good overall strategy and a chain-oriented approach, the risk of unwanted complexity is high. The roadmap towards sustainability is also one big change process. It is a cross-departmental and cross-company theme and therefore requires control of the entire supply chain. If you do it right, sustainability can be a game changer with which you can create an innovative portfolio with optimal added value. Based on market wishes, strong supply chain management and clear choices and goals. If not, prepare yourself for a many-headed monster that pops up in every link of the chain and creates complexity.
Take the growing demand for vegetarian and vegan products, for example. Sales and marketing usually see opportunities immediately. Operations has many questions. Do you need to change production lines more often because of shorter runs in addition to your regular products? Can we do that without complexity? Is it profitable? Is it at the expense of delivery times? Purchasing is also scratching its head. Because here, for example, the question is whether sufficient raw materials are available for a new range of sustainable products and how certain their availability is. The transition to sustainable packaging also requires a look across the entire supply chain. What does an alternative material mean for the shelf life of a fresh product? And do you opt for a phased switch from plastic to cardboard packaging or do you make the switch in one go? So a lot of things that you have to think about carefully. To prevent sustainable initiatives from being taken up at individual departmental level, because cross-departmental control is lacking.
Sustainability projects are not something you do alone, sustainability belongs to everyone. Customers are therefore also fully engaged in the process. That is why it is a no-brainer to talk to them about it and see if you can come to joint sustainable choices. As a producer, you may even become a frontrunner if your customers, or even the entire market, want to switch to sustainable product and packaging variants in a short time. Or maybe there is an opportunity to make the change for an entire sector.
Are all decisions made and all goals clear to everyone? Then it's time to actually get started. The ideal starting point is the new product development (NPD) process. New product and packaging concepts can be developed and tested here. And the focus of that process extends to the footprint over the entire chain. And all our own departments, suppliers and customers deliver their input and remain connected in the various development phases. Based on strong supply chain management, optimal decisions can then be made for now and later. Go? Or no go
Bastiaan Boers
Partner ARV Group