Sustainable Innovation in Supply Chain Management -- A Measurable Supply Chain Framework

This study aims to find measurable approaches to achieve sustainable closed-loop supply chain. The proposed methodology here was initiated with my experience that was gained through InnovationSpace Program. InnovationSpace Program is a year-long multidisciplinary product-design and development program hosted by Arizona State University that aims to tackle societal problems. Inspired by the Design Thinking framework, I found out that much more effort would need to be done from the beginning stage of product design in order to achieve real and cohesive improvement in industries today. Thinking about the concepts of reverse logistics within supply chain and the planned obsolescence during the product design stage, I would like to come out some more efficient and measurable long-term supply chain planning for the industries, regarding its different production lines and the properties of its products.

Through the process of writing the sustainability report for InnovationSpace program, I had gained deeper understanding about applying sustainability concept into daily business procedures. As supply chain is defined as the oversight over materials, services, information and finances flowed within and among companies and industries, the new innovative supply chain management can be better adjusted according to the concern of any sustainable impact to all the stakeholders and communities. After gathering the information from industries and listening to the suggestions from academic insights, I then finalized the proposed innovative sustainability strategy for the supply chain management nowadays and I called it as Diamond Index.

Diamond Index=Avg(Environmental Stewardship+Social Responsibility +Economic Impact)^(Innovation Index)

Economic Impact (Econ)∈ [0, 10] Social Responsibility (Soc)∈[0, 10]
Environmental Stewardship (Env) ∈ [0, 10] Innovation ∈ [0, 1]