Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Insights Identifies Legislation as the Driving Factor for Sustainability Initiatives in the Manufacturing Sector

Singapore and Hong Kong, September 24, 2008 – Leading independent research and advisory firm, Manufacturing Insights Asia/Pacific, an IDC company, today announced that legislation is currently the main driver for manufacturing companies in the region to embrace sustainable manufacturing. The report, "The Compliance-Driven Supply Chain: Attitudes and Trends Toward the Greening of the Supply Chain in the Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Region” provides forward-looking research, as well as fact-based analysis of successful global supply chain strategies. It also advises manufacturers on how to enhance scope of services and improve performance while minimizing cost.

Dr. Christopher Holmes, Vice President of Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Insights says, "Moving beyond pure compliance, there is still much confusion among organizations in the region on how to organize and implement green initiatives."

The following are the three top factors that will influence manufacturing companies as they "green their supply chains":

Legislation is the key driver for companies to adopt sustainable manufacturing initiatives. Findings in this report show that 67% of companies expect legislation to increase over the next two years, with China, India, Singapore and Taiwan being the countries where companies expect the importance of legislation to have the greatest increase. In countries where legislation is not in place, customer requirements is ranked second most important driver. 

Going green starts at the design phase of the product. The use of IT applications, such as product life-cycle management (PLM), assist companies to design green products and green manufacturing operations; provide design for compliance guidelines; and, manage trade-offs in product life-cycle decisions. The role of the supplier will increase in importance as they need to adopt similar processes to ensure that the whole supply chain is operating in an environmentally friendly way. Manufacturing companies is also expected to invest in procurement and supplier relationship management (SRM) systems to assist in the management of suppliers. These systems will assist in the management of the suppliers ‘green scorecard,’ providing analysis into the supply chain to understand the history of the parts or product they are buying.

Internal recycling is the most widely adopted green initiative across manufacturing companies in the region, followed by energy efficiency tracking and packaging redesign. The area that companies are showing the greatest interest is in the use of renewable energy sources. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is ranked second in terms of interest for the next two years.

Dr. Holmes adds, “We are seeing a trend where companies are combining their green initiatives with continuous improvement initiatives, such as lean manufacturing, both within their own operations and across their supply chains. This will assist organizations as they come to grips with sustainable manufacturing.”

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