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in
operational
cost
and
improvement
in
competitiveness. The finding from this study is
hopefully able to provide insight for the policy makers
in policy setting towards encouraging more firms to
adopt Green practices.
Keyword: Green Operations, Drivers, Environment, SMEs, Malaysia
Introduction
Environmental issues get the global attention due to increasing
environmental damages like global warming, environmental degradation
and ozone depletion. Globally, various efforts have been done between
countries through various cooperation and agreements to address these
issues. Signatories or parties that joined and ratified the international
agreement towards environmental responsibility will generally adopt them
as local laws, regulations and directives. This has indirectly affect business
operations in terms of complying with the green requirement. Therefore,
sooner or later, firms that have adopted the green supply chain into their
business operations will have an added advantage in comparison to the firms
that are not.
Apart from becoming the political agenda, environmental concern
has become a socio-demographic factor that affect consumer spending
pattern, as they are increasingly aware of the environmental issues.
According to Wisner et al. (2005), customers are increasingly demanding to
know where the products come from, how they are made and distributed,
and what impacts future legislation will have on the products they buy.
Therefore many big corporations nowadays, especially in western world,
have taken initiative to involve in the social and environmental
responsibility along the supply chain of their business. Apart from
complying with the local regulation, it is done voluntarily as an effort to
portray good corporate images, which indirectly enables firms to gain wider
market share.
In order to remain competitive and sustainable in the dynamic
business world today, firms must be aware and responsive to the
environmental issues. Greening the operations have been seen as means to
response to the environmental awareness issues from the perspective of the
practitioner. Green operations along the supply chain management are a
method to design and/or redesign the supply chain which incorporates
recycling and re manufacturing into the production process. This involves
the minimization of a firms total environment impact from the start to the
finish of a supply chain, and also from the beginning to the end of the
product lifecycle (Beamon , 1999). Therefore, a lot of multinational
companies have been making tremendous advances in the environmentally
2
Case Analysis
Firm A manufacture high quality print inks including varnishes,
solvent ink and water based ink for the printing and packaging industry
using modern machinery and state-of-the-art equipment. The firm is
committed to fostering long lasting customer relations by giving their best in
sales support and quality assurance in all of their products. Firm A offers a
wide product range to serve the printing and publishing industry. They also
have a wide marketing and sales network covering Peninsular Malaysia and
they focus on research and development of new ink formulations to meet
customers needs, maintain competitive pricing for high quality products,
provide a quick response to customer enquiries and have fully equipped
laboratory facilities at their factory. Firm A adopted green practices to meet
worldwide customers needs and demands since customers nowadays tend,
and prefer, to do business with a company that has ISO 14001 certification
or any other environmental standard that verifies them as an eco-friendly
company. Firm A acknowledge that green practices, can be another value
added for the company to survive in the challenging market today. Almost
30 competitors that offered the same product range as Firm A, but only 6 of
them have the ISO 14001 certification, thus it makes a difference between
them in the eye of customers perceptions. Furthermore, when the
Department of Environment (DOE) checked Firms A premises, they would
not have any problem since they have to comply with all the specifications
needed by the authority body. Top management of Firm A also gave full
support and commitment in emphasizing the importance of green practice
implementation in Firm A. Thus, the green process becomes easier
especially in budget allocation annually.
Firm B manufacture high quality solder products. It also provides
total soldering solutions to electronics and electrical and automotive
manufacturing companies. The main factor for Firm B to get involved in
green initiatives was their customer requirements. In business dealings with
their customers, they have to comply with all the specifications and
requirements needed by their customers such as the composition of certain
substances in the products. This initiative was believed not only to maintain
the current customers but also to attract more potential customers to do
business with them. In addition, to export and initiate business in other
regions, especially in western and developed countries, Firm B has to meet
the regulations in respect of environmental matters. Indeed, some of their
customers set ISO 14001 certification as the basic requirement before they
proceed with any business proposal. Within the company, Firm B focuses
more on in practicing pollution prevention activities. As such, they
maximize the usage of materials in the production process in order to
minimize waste within the process. For example, Firm B re-used plastic
Firm A
Respondent
(Designation)
Year
Established
No of
Employees
Factory
Manager
Firm B
Operations
Senior
Executive
Case Studies
Firm C
Engineering &
Production
Manager
Firm D
Quality
Senior
Executive
1979
1989
1990
1982
88
65
795
238
Main
Products
ISO14001
Certified
Drivers for
GSCM
Printing Ink
Solder
Products
Capacitors
Shock
absorbers,
interiors and
plastic
2008
2004
1998
2003
Customer
requirement;
competitiveness;
regulations;
management
commitment
Customer
requirement;
competitiveness;
regulations;
Customer
requirement;
regulations;
management
commitment
Customer
requirement;
marketing
strategy
SMEs and LEs. This indicate that although SMEs often expected to be lack
of resources and capabilities due to its small size, it has not limits the SMEs
from adopting green initiative especially when the awareness and
commitment sparks from the internal management. Based on the result of
the study, it can be concluded that drivers for green initiative for SMEs are
not different from LEs. The demand to adopt green initiative may due to the
nature of industry and the product produce which relates to the requirement
by their consumers and the law enforcement by the government. Firms
including the SMEs can go beyond complying as they see benefits in terms
of economic returns due to possible reduction in operational cost and
improvement in competitiveness.
References
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