Roadmap proposal for a more sustainable supply chain through supplier management

• Autor(a) principal: Mendes, Diana Emília Moura
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/38182
• topic: Sustainability; Sustainable supply chain management; Transparency; Supplier evaluation; AHP; Continuous improvement; PDCA cycle

With the increasing stakeholder pressure and media scrutiny concerning the adoption of more sustainable practices, companies have been forced to report its social and environmental impacts and adopt new strategies. The textile industry, given its inherent characteristics, such as intensive water and chemical use, is particularly sensitive to this topic. This project, developed in a multinational fashion retailer, had the main objective to cultivate and integrate sustainability in the supply chain, through the engagement, assessment and monitoring of suppliers. Since the company does not own any industrial unit, the production is outsourced to suppliers mainly from Asian countries, promoting a very complex supply chain. And given that the majority of the company’s impacts are related to suppliers activities, a thorough analysis to the supplier management was conducted. The PDCA cycle steps were followed and in a first moment, priorities and criteria were defined and weighted using AHP, then, a supplier assessment process was created. A manual with social and environmental best practices, destined to suppliers, was also developed as well as a standard questionnaire for a continuous data gathering. The steps taken and the tools developed allowed to create a roadmap for sustainability continuous integration, to further contribute for a more resilient supply chain.