The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain: How to Create a Green Infrastructure with Lean Technologies (FT Press Operations Management) [Hardcover]

Robert Palevich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0132837617 | ISBN-13: 978-0132837613 | Edition: 1

Lean, green supply chain management combines the efficiency that lean technologies deliver with the environmental and cost benefits of sustainability. The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain illuminates the business benefits of combining "lean" and "green," and offers start-to-finish guidance for redesigning company infrastructure and technologies to achieve these benefits. Palevich introduces the essential concepts of lean green supply chain management, illuminating them with a comprehensive case study showing how to manage change, innovation, talent, execution, inventory, warehousing, and transportation. He demonstrates how to integrate supply chain sustainability into business scorecards; make more effective use of third-party providers (3PLs); drive more value from information; build a state-of-the-art forecasting system and share it with suppliers; and much more. He then systematically addresses the full spectrum of technical issues, including forecasting methodologies, the nitty-gritty of supplier integration; business intelligence in event-driven supply chains; carbon tracking; quantifying lean savings; and much more. This book will be an invaluable resource for every business and technical manager, decision-maker, technical specialist, and consultant concerned with lean and green supply chains.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Strong passion in sustainability and relentless pursuit in lean technologies describe Professor Palevich.... One cannot find a better author for this subject.”

--Dr. Otto Chang, Dean of the Richard T. Doermer School of Business, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

 

“Rob did a great job at Do it Best. One of his many accomplishments was designing and developing the first computerized forecast and inventory control system in our industry.”

--Don Wolf, President Emeritus, Do it Best Corp.

 

“It’s great to see Rob sharing his expertise with others. Rob was truly one of the key players year in and year out by helping Do it Best achieve a cost of operation that was consistently 34% lower than our closest competition. His inventory control programs allowed us to achieve 97% fill rates on over 65,000 SKUs and become the industry leader in turns. A true leader and innovator in his field.”

--Mike McClelland, President/CEO Emeritus, Do it Best Corp.

 

“Professor Palevich has spent a long and illustrious career devoted to the study of lean supply chain management. The skills that he has passed on to students over the years have undoubtedly created a stronger university and truly a world-class business curriculum. It has been my pleasure to have such an influential mentor help shape and guide my career.”

--Anthony McDonald, Inventory Analyst, Auburn Gear Inc.

 

“[Professor Palevich’s] classes literally changed my way of thinking, and I saw the true importance of technology--not only in everyday life but how it is the driving factor in business for streamlining processes while cutting costs. In addition, it was the reason I’ve chosen to go into the telecommunications industry and make a career out of it, and for that I can never thank [him] enough!”

--Chelsea Smith

 

“Whether you are a supply chain manager, executive, decision-maker, technical specialist, or lean consultant, Robert Palevich’s book has something for everyone. Mr. Palevich’s passion for innovation, lean management, and designing a sustainable environment comes through in every chapter of this book! The case studies provide real-life examples that can be taken back to your business, with concrete ideas that can be implemented immediately. This is sure to be a great read for anyone hoping to increase value in their organizations.”

--Melissa McKown, Manager, Continuous Performance Improvement, Parkview Health

 

The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain presents a complete framework for building a world-class supply chain that is both lean and green.

 

Robert Palevich shows organizations how they can increasingly leverage complex, content-rich information environments to drive breakthrough cost reduction and environmental benefit.

 

Palevich introduces ideas, strategies, and technologies drawn from more than 30 years running supply chains at Do it Best Corp. and collaborating with leaders such as GE, 3M, Sherwin Williams, and Black & Decker. He presents best-practice implementation techniques and matches them with detailed guidance for scorecarding improvements in productivity, cost, and environmental impact. Chapters conclude by summarizing realistically achievable savings and their bottom line impact.

 

Whatever your supply chain responsibilities, this book will help you drive the next generation of performance improvement--building supply chains that are more responsible and more profitable.

 

Achieve and measure sizable improvements in

• Personnel costs and productivity
• Paperwork and supply cost reduction
• Building space and utility utilization
• Transportation costs
• Customer service levels
• Margins
• Inventory levels and turns
• IT resource utilization
• Company morale
• Carbon footprint and more

About the Author

Robert Palevich directs the Business Enterprise System and Technology (BEST) Center at the Richard T. Doermer School of Business at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. He formerly served as Global Director of supply chain and e-business for the Do it Best Corporation. Palevich holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial management from Purdue University and an MSBA and MBA from Indiana University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (January 20, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132837617
• ISBN-13: 978-0132837613
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,047,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Going lean leads to going green, February 8, 2012

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain: How to Create a Green Infrastructure with Lean Technologies (FT Press Operations Management) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

The fundamental premise of this book is a simple one that is often overshadowed by political posturing and wrangling. That premise is that going green is a natural business tactic, for in general the end result is the saving of money for the organization. When used to refer to business, "lean" generally means the tightening of operations, reducing costs and improving efficiency, and that will in most cases lead to an improvement of the bottom line.

The supply chain is the sequence of actors and events that sequentially execute to bring a product from the point where it is the form of unprocessed raw materials to where it moves out the door as a sale. What Palevich does in this book is set down three types of supply chains. They are:

*) Collaborative supply chain

*) External supply chain

*) Internal supply chain

For each of these chains, Palevich describes the general form that it has and the points where efficiency improvements can be made. Each of these points is then examined in greater detail with reasonable computations regarding what level of improvements can be seen. The fact that Palevich is so conservative in the estimates of the savings is the most impressive feature of the book. In general, they are in the more reasonable range of 2-4% instead of the ridiculous claims made by more unrealistic proponents.

Computations and charts are used throughout the book to make the points regarding the potential savings, in general the point is that "going lean leads to going green." While there may be a few managers that will not find applicable improvements in this book, the majority of people will find at least the germ of the tactic that they can apply to improve the overall efficiency of their organization.

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Help a Company Create a Lean, Green Infrastructure, February 3, 2012

By 

Tracy Oshima (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain: How to Create a Green Infrastructure with Lean Technologies (FT Press Operations Management) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I will never be in charge of a large retail operation, much less their supply chain, but if you are this might be a good book for you. I like getting books of this kind and reading through them, sometimes just to see if I can understand them and, of course, to learn about things I don't know.

However, this book was very hard for me to get into, maybe because I know nothing about the field, but that's never stopped me before. I have a lot of books about things I'll never do, books about starting up small companies to starting up a chemical plant, but if you're in the field, you will probably get along fine with this book, because it was written for you.

I didn't read the whole book, but I read a couple times the chaptered on RFID and I now have a better understanding of why a large retail operation would want to use these for tracking and inventory control. I still think RFID chips are horrible and wish they'd never have been invented, but that's just me.

Again, if you're in the field and want to save money on your supply chain and go lean and green at the same time, this would be the book for you.

4.0 out of 5 stars Written Like a Textbook, February 1, 2012

By 

Diane Mcgough (Lake Oswego, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain: How to Create a Green Infrastructure with Lean Technologies (FT Press Operations Management) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

In this book Robert Palevich explains how organizations can go lean in their supply chain while being green at the same time. If you streamline your supply chain so that you're using less fuel, your cars are on the highways less, thus You're green. Actually, I see his point, less fuel, means less pollution and if your trucks spend less time on the roads, the government spends less time, money and energy repairing them. This book if full of examples like that.

However, the book is written like a textbook and is kind of dry and hard to get into because of the stilted writing. That being said, the information can both save a large retail operation a lot of money, while allowing it to go green, so it's a win win for everybody, the company saves money and Earth breathes a little easier.