Sustainable Supply Chain Management

A special issue of Resources (ISSN 2079-9276).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2016) | Viewed by 30981

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
President, Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production (2009-2011)
JM Reyes Professorial Chair, Department of Industrial Engineering, De La Salle University, Philippines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Business Administration, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

While a great deal of work has been done on the production side, the growing purchasing power in Asian Pacific economies is having increasingly serious impacts upon the environment. As a result, there is growing concern about the ability of the region to be sustainable in the long term. In response to this threat, significant moves have been made in Asian countries to restructure their economies towards more suitable patterns of SSCM.

For example, the RoHS and WEEE directives from the EU sent a strong wave of signals to Asian exporters in pursuance of compliance. Additionally, REACH and similar ‘Toxics Use Reduction’ approaches and ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) are increasingly challenging industrialists, university researchers and governmental policy makers and consumers to be more holistically proactive. As a result, business-to-business, life cycle assessment, design for environment, green labeling and greening of supply chains efforts are becoming more important for the Asian-Pacific regions’ business environment.

Some countries’ policy makers are exploring ways to develop and implement national strategies and policies to promote green and SSCM of greener products that can help them to foster the evolution of truly greener economies in consumption and production.

The increases in world energy prices coupled with worsening food scarcity in many regions of the world, due, in part to climate change uncertainties, diversion of agriculturally valuable land for production of bio-fuels, continuing human population growth, are prompting many Asian governments to revisit their energy, food and population policies.

This trend is causing an expanded usage of tools in supporting the development and implementation of sustainability strategies designed to foster improved efficiency and effectiveness in the utilization of materials, energy and sustainable regional habitat management. 

This Special Issue focuses particularly on papers from the Asian Pacific region that address:

  • Resource flow and management in SCM;
  • Education and Training for SSCM;
  • Knowledge sharing for SSCM;
  • Technology Management for SSCM;
  • Mobility and Sustainable Transport in SSCM;
  • SSCM metrics and indicators;
  • Eco-design, process optimization, improved management;
  • Decision analysis and decision support for SSCM applications;
  • Industrial synergies and eco-industrial development in Asia.


Prof. Dr. Ming-Lang Tseng
Prof. Dr. Anthony SF Chiu
Prof. Dr. Ru-Jen Lin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Resources is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

1131 KiB  
Article
Towards a Balanced Sustainability Vision for the Coffee Industry
by Luis F. Samper and Xiomara F. Quiñones-Ruiz
Resources 2017, 6(2), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6020017 - 05 Apr 2017
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 23643
Abstract
As one of the world’s most traded agricultural commodities, coffee constitutes a significant part of the overall economy and a major source of foreign revenue for many developing countries. Coffee also touches a large portion of the world’s population in the South, where [...] Read more.
As one of the world’s most traded agricultural commodities, coffee constitutes a significant part of the overall economy and a major source of foreign revenue for many developing countries. Coffee also touches a large portion of the world’s population in the South, where it is mainly produced, and in the North, where it is primarily consumed. As a product frequently purchased by a significant share of worldwide consumers on a daily basis in social occasions, the coffee industry has earned a high profile that also attracts the interest of non-governmental organizations, governments, multilateral organizations and development specialists and has been an early adopter of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). Responding to the trend of increased interest on sustainability, it is therefore not surprising that coffee continues to be at the forefront of sustainability initiatives that transcend into other agricultural industries. Based on literature and authors’ experiences, this article reflects on the VSS evolution and considers a sustainability model that specifically incorporates producers’ local realities and deals with the complex scenario of sustainability challenges in producing regions. Agreeing on a joint sustainability approach with farmers’ effective involvement is necessary so that the industry as a whole (up and downstream value chain actors) can legitimately communicate its own sustainability priorities. This top-down/bottom-up approach could also lead to origin-based, actionable and focused sustainability key performance indicators, relevant for producers and consistent with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative also aims to provide a sustainability platform for single origin coffees and Geographical Indications (GIs) in accordance with growers’ own realities and regions, providing the credibility that consumers now expect from sustainability initiatives, additional differentiation options for origin coffees and economic upgrade opportunities for farmers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management)
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1275 KiB  
Article
One-Dimensional Renewable Warranty Management within Sustainable Supply Chain
by Ammar Y. Alqahtani and Surendra M. Gupta
Resources 2017, 6(2), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6020016 - 05 Apr 2017
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6685
Abstract
Sensor embedded products utilize sensors implanted into products during their production process. Sensors are useful in predicting the best warranty policy and warranty period to offer a customer for remanufactured components and products. The conditions and remaining lives of components and products can [...] Read more.
Sensor embedded products utilize sensors implanted into products during their production process. Sensors are useful in predicting the best warranty policy and warranty period to offer a customer for remanufactured components and products. The conditions and remaining lives of components and products can be estimated prior to offering a warranty based on the data provided by the sensors. This helps reduce the number of claims during warranty periods, determines the right preventive maintenance (PM) policy, and eliminates unnecessary costs inflicted on the remanufacturer. The renewing, one-dimensional Free Replacement Warranty (FRW), Pro-Rata Warranty (PRW), and combination FRW/PRW policies’ costs for remanufactured products and components were evaluated with/without offering PM for different periods in this paper. To that end, the effect of offering renewable, one-dimensional, Free Replacement Warranty (FRW), or Pro-Rata Warranty (PRW), or combination FRW/PRW warranty policies for each disassembled component and sensor embedded remanufactured product was examined, and the impact of sensor embedded products on warranty costs was assessed. A case study and varying simulation scenarios is examined and presented to illustrate the model’s applicability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management)
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