BMO6508 Operations Management
Question:
In recent years, Sustainable Operations Management (SOM)has started receiving attention from both operations management and management science researchers. SOM includes topics such as green supply chain (eg, Linton et al, 2007; Darnall et al, 2008), green procurement (eg, Seuring andMüller, 2008; Walker et al, 2009) and reverse logistics (RL) (eg, Dowlatshahi, 2005; Srivastava, 2008). SOM has a potentially vital role to play in contributing to solutions for the complex sustainability challenges confronted by many organisations (Kleindorfer et al, 2005; White and Lee, 2009). As a result, a number of operations management researchers and practitioners are dealing with the challenges of integrating the issues of sustainability in protecting the environment and reducing the carbon footprint (eg, Carter and Rogers, 2008; Lee, 2011). Both researchers and practitioners recognise the importance of SOM as a key strategic component in the development of cost-effective and sustainable global supply chains to meet the increasing needs of customers in terms of flexibility, responsiveness and cost while safeguarding natural resources for future generations. Most of the research on SOM has been limited to literature reviews (eg, Linton et al, 2007), conceptual frameworks (eg, Seuring and Müller, 2008), case studies (eg, Pagell and Wu, 2009) and some empirical papers (eg, Zhu et al, 2005). However, SOM requires modelling and analysis for performance measures and metrics of various
options available for SOM in both in manufacturing and\ services. White and Lee (2009) further argue that sustainable development has been largely regarded as a global challenge and the potential of Operational Research (OR) is yet to be properly exploited in this area.
An analysis of the OR discipline in developing economies by White et al (2011) supports the latter argument. Through this research, White et al (2011) highlight that OR can make a significant contribution towards enhanced decision making, yet still OR has not been methodically utilised to address the Millennium Development Goals. The contribution by Kleindorfer et al, (2005) highlights the analysis of papers in the area of Sustainable Operations Management’ in the first 50 issues of ‘Production and Operations Management’. Although Kleindorfer et al, (2005) focus on supply chain issues, their analysis offers limited insights to the overall development and status of the area. Similarly, Seuring and Müller (2008), in their literature review, specifically focus on the advent and growth of integrated supply chain management. A much broader effort is made by Srivastava (2007), but primarily focusing on a RL perspective. Ormerod and Ulrich (2013), on the other hand, focus on analysing OR and ethics and argue that despite the energetic engagement of OR in organisations in different contexts, there is still a lot to do especially providing clarity as to how OR practices can be ethically established. Although sustainability offers an all-encompassing framework for much of the former and continuing environmental research in operations, Linton et al (2007) argue that in essence, sustainability in operations and supply chain management moves beyond current conventional practices. Research into how academia, researchers and practitioners can integrate OR within SOM is critical, as such research not only requires many questions be answered but also the establishment of a wide variety of approaches including conducting case studies, model development, statistical testing of propositions and machine learning (Kleindorfer et al, 2005; Matos and Hall, 2007; Linton et al, 2007).
Nevertheless, there are not many articles that deal with modelling and analysis of SOM decision making at strategic, tactical and operational levels that are important for implementation of SOM decisions. The aim of this special issue is to help researchers and decision makers to understand the strategies, tactics and implementation processes involved in SOM decisions and the performance measures and metrics through modelling and analysis of SOM. With the help of these articles appearing in this special issue, one should be able to gain a better
understanding of the issues involved in SOM and how to model and evaluate SOM decision-making environments and decisions through appropriate modelling and analysis of both manufacturing and service supply chains. The scope of the special issue is to present researchers and senior managers with conceptual modelling and analysis of various sustainable operations decisions and their performance outcomes in supply chains. This includes optimisation related to closed-loop chains, carbon footprinting of supply chains, life-cycle management, greening supply chains, green and reverse logistics, product and process development towards improving energy savings, efficiency of transport and other related areas. Emphasis is placed on sustainable operations design, modelling and analysis, optimisation, and their performance measurement in a supply chain.
