SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND THEIR IMPACT ON RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTION
Abstract
The rising interest in sustainability and socially accountable production has driven organizations across the globe to incorporate sustainable practices in operations management. The current study explains how operations management sustainable practices have impacted responsible production, with energy efficiency, reduced wastage, sustainable procurement, and lean manufacturing principles mentioned specifically. As the industries of the world compete in terms of being sustainable while economically involved, knowledge about the contribution of sustainability initiatives towards the efficiency in operations is becoming more of a major point of interest. The research is carried out in the Indian industrial environment, where core industries like manufacturing, textiles, automobile, pharmaceuticals, and other core sectors are facing radical changes because of tough environmental regulations, consumer consciousness, and foreign supply chain pressures. Data is gathered by a scientific quantitative method from industry experts by a comprehensive survey questionnaire. The survey is specific to the application of sustainable practices, their success in improving operational effectiveness, and organizational implementation problems. The model of multiple linear regression (MLR) has been employed for investigating the correspondence between sustainable practice and operating performance, whereas the structural equation model (SEM) has also been employed as a competing method in order to research complex interdependency between sustainability indicator and performance measurements. While undergoing analysis, one attempts to explore the most material sustainable practices regarding reducing cost, simplifying the production cycle, and resource economy. In addition to that, hypothesis testing has been conducted with the purpose to confirm assumptions involving benefits derived due to sustainable practice. These outcomes establish a clear positive correlation of efficiency improvement goals and sustainable practices. Firms who consistently pursue energy efficiency measures experience a cost reduction by 10-20% in operations. Initiatives for waste reduction create increased levels of material utilization. Sustainable procurement sources reduce supply chain resilience but retain low supply chain disruptions and enhance procurement performance. Lean manufacturing strategies like Total Quality Management (TQM) and Just-in-Time (JIT) dramatically raise productivity rates and process elimination. One of the major conclusions drawn by this research is that businesses adopting multiple sustainability measures derive more cumulative advantages than firms adopting one measure. Still, despite this, issues like front-end high cost, resistance, and scarcity of expertise persist to deter mass adoption. Government policy, tax concession, and industry cooperation have also been considered in this research as enablers for India's sustainable production practice. To demonstrate the effect of sustainable practices, a heatmap correlation analysis is employed to determine the strongest drivers of operational performance. The findings are that lean production and energy efficiency are the best at driving performance improvement, and in second place are waste reduction and sustainable sourcing. The findings of this research hold wider implications for industrial policymakers, business executives, and sustainability experts in general, offering evidence-based insight into the potential for sustainability-focused operational approaches to generate long-term profitability along with environmental stewardship. In detailing the nexus of theoretical sustainability conceptions and industrial practice, this work offers a blueprint for companies to adopt ecologically sound production methods without sacrificing economically competitive viability.
Keyword : Sustainable Practices, Operations Management, Responsible Production, SustainabilityInitiatives, Sustainable Procurement, Lean Manufacturing, Energy Efficiency, Waste Reduction.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
1. Elkington, J. (1997).Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st-century business. Capstone Publishing. 2. Kleindorfer, P. R., Singhal, K., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2005). Sustainable operations management. Production and Operations Management, 14(4), 482-492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-5956.2005.tb00235.x 3. Zhu, Q., & Geng, Y. (2013). Drivers and barriers of extended supply chain practices for energy saving and emission reduction among Chinese manufacturers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 40, 6-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.10.011 4. Seuring, S., & Müller, M. (2008). From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16(15), 1699-1710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.04.020 5. Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, 42-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.11.039 6. Pagell, M., & Wu, Z. (2009). Building a more complete theory of sustainable supply chain management using case studies of 10 exemplars. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 45(2), 37-56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493X.2009.03162.x 7. Govindan, K., Rajendran, S., Sarkis, J., & Murugesan, P. (2015). Multi criteria decision making approaches for green supplier evaluation and selection: A literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 98, 66-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.06.046 8. Hart, S. L., & Milstein, M. B. (1999). Global sustainability and the creative destruction of industries. Sloan Management Review, 41(1), 23-33. 9. Lozano, R. (2015). A holistic perspective on corporate sustainability drivers. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22(1), 32-44. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1325 10. Sarkis, J. (1999). How green is the supply chain? Practice and research. Journal of Cleaner Production, 7(4), 217-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-6526(98)00043-1 11. Chen, C. C., Shih, H. S., & Shyur, H. J. (2006). A business sustainability decision support framework for manufacturing industries. Technovation, 26(7), 442-450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2005.03.004 12. Wu, G. C., Ding, K., & Chen, P. S. (2012). The effects of GSCM drivers and institutional pressures on GSCM practices in Taiwan's textile and apparel industry. International Journal of Production Economics, 135(2), 618-636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.05.023