industry

UTIPS.
Sustainability and innovation in the
supply chain
A collaborative research project
This report is intended exclusively for employees of the client. Its distribution, quoting of its contents and reproduction – complete or in part
– for the purpose of conveying it to a third party requires the prior written consent of Universiteit Twente.
The text and graphics summarised here have been used in the course of a presentation; they do not represent a full documentation of the
event.
Project Sustainability and innovation.ppt
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The project sustainability and innovation is going to be hosted in “tangible”
industry
Construction industry
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The link between supplier innovativeness and sustainability will be explored in an
industry-academic consortium
Situation
NRS (NEVI research stichting)
Reseach consortium
• Prof. Dr. Holger Schiele (University of Twente,
• NRS supports a research project on
expert in innovation and purchasing maturity),
Prof. Dr. Bart Vos (Tilburg University, expert in
sustainability), Dr. Hans Voordijk (University of
Twente, construction-expert)
sustainability1) and innovation
• Industry and university participation (post-doc
project for 2 years)
• With Dr. Petra Hoffmann excellent candidate as
post-doc researcher available
Industry partner
• Industry partner provides access to data and
periodically hosts researcher
• Co-defines research target
• Profits from implementable tailor-made results
1) Broad understanding of sustainability covering working conditions, social
responsibility, ecological aspects, energy efficiency, recycling
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The project increases the sustainability in a supplier portfolio
Project proposal
Rationale and problem
• Sustainability issues have come to the agenda from multiple directions and are particularly relevant in the
construction sector
• An organisation like a contractor in the building industry, which does not produce materials themselves, has a
challenge in addressing sustainability issues. Sustainability targets can only be accomplished with the
help of adequate supply chain partners
• Many suppliers are unable to comply and thus will hamper the focal organisation’s efforts to achieve a higher
standard in sustainability
Research and implementation approach
• The issue arises how to best select suppliers for leveraging sustainability (and innovation)?
• The project will first assess the sustainability of the existing supply base, then identify drivers of sustainability
by following a “maturity approach”, make suggestions and an improvement plan and finally measure the
increased sustainability of the optimised supply base after implementation
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Developing a quick maturity test for supplies will allow to identify those suppliers
with whom successful collaboration in sustainability is possible
Conceptual approach to solution
Research approach
Sketch of concept
• Innovative suppliers are also the sustainable
ones (“Porter-Hypothesis”). Without power of
innovation organisations cannot change
processes and products to become more
sustainable. But: empirical results are mixed,
innovativeness may only be a necessary
condition
Sustainability
Innovativeness
• Our hypothesis: suppliers need to first have
reached a sufficient maturity level in order to
address sustainability (e.g. with a firm having
excessive maverick buying, no green
procurement policy can work). It is not efficient
to invest effort in immature suppliers
Maturity
• This research project tests the innovationsustainability link. We introduce supplier
maturity as moderating factor. In this way it will
be able to effectively predict which suppliers
have a potential to become partners for
sustainability programmes
Source: Porter / Kramer (2006), Lovett et al. (2009), Kibbeling / van Weele
(2010), Wagner (2009, 2010), Schiele (2007)
• Mature innovative suppliers are expected to be
the sustainable ones
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An elaborated project plan will generate generalisable output
Project approach
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With our newly developed method an acceleration of the academically rigorous and
practically relevant research process can be accomplished
The world café method
Idea and procedure
• About 16 practitioners are invited to join a one-
M
day workshop
• Topic is subdivided into subtopics, each
Table
1
discussed at one separate table
M
M
Table
4
Table
2
M
Table
3
•
•
•
•
One permanent facilitator per table
Four – five participant per table
Approx. 30-60 minutes discussion per table
Rotation after each round of discussion/ new
composition of tables
• Brown paper for the documentation of each
topic, taping
• Instead of years long interview marathon,
findings are generated in short time
• Richer findings, because experts discuss with
M Facilitator
each other and not only with one interviewing
researcher
• Developed by Petra Hoffmann (University of
Source: Schiele / Krummaker / Kowalski / Hoffmann (2011): “Speeding up
scholar-practitioner collaborative research in situations of time constraints.
Applying the World Café as a tool for scientific inquiry”, under revision with
Industrial Marketing Management
Twente) in her dissertational project
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UTIPS.
Backup
This report is intended exclusively for employees of the client. Its distribution, quoting of its contents and reproduction – complete or in part
– for the purpose of conveying it to a third party requires the prior written consent of Universiteit Twente.
The text and graphics summarised here have been used in the course of a presentation; they do not represent a full documentation of the
event.
Thanks to our previous work, the employment of a post-doc and application of
novel methods (world café)1) sustainability drivers will be identified
Project plan – each block lasts about 6 month (1/2)
2. Identification of preconditions and risks for
applicability of the model in construction
1. Development assessment model
• Concept adaptation to the ABC corporation
situation, selection of commodity groups and
suppliers for assessment
• Organisation of one “world café” with about 16
corporation1),
participants from ABC
adopt to the particular situation
in order to
• Go / no-go decision for next steps
• Detailed plan next phases
• A steering committee will meet after 3, 9, 15
• Analysis of preconditions, risks and obstacles
for implementation of assessment model in
construction and firm context
• Estimating chance of successful
implementation of model at ABC corporation
• Detailed implementation plan
• Go / no-go decision
months
• Assessment model and detailed roll-out plan
known
1) For details on the world café method see appendix
2) Details on next page
• Risk analysis and detailed implementation plan
known
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Based on the understanding of sustainability criteria, improvement measures can
be implemented and the results measured
Project plan – each block lasts about 6 month (2/2)
3. Identification of sustainability drivers with
suppliers
• Roll-out of the model with ABC corporation
suppliers (i.e. survey based assessment of
their maturity, innovativeness and
sustainability experience2))
• A and B (large) suppliers to be assessed in +
those subjectively considered important
• Knowing drivers helps to identify “hopeless”
suppliers and those which can improve
• AS IS sustainability assessment of the current
ABC corporation supplier portfolio with survey
4. Implementation
• Action points for improvement of suppliers can
be derived
• Recommendations
• portfolio alignment (reducing purchasing
volume with “hopeless” suppliers)
• (passive) supplier development
(agreeing on areas for improvement with
suppliers)
• Roll-out plan (to be executed by ABC
corporation)
• Possibly validation with second case firm
• Characteristics of sustainable suppliers known
• Roll-out plan
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Based on the understanding of sustainability criteria, improvement measures can
be implemented and the results measured
Project plan – each block lasts about 6 month (2/2)
5. Harvesting
• Possibly second measurement of sustainability
in the end: documentation of results
• Development generalisable tool for
sustainability assessment and improvement
(output for NEVI; ABC corporation can use
findings freely)
• Sustainability programme implemented (output
for ABC corporation)
• Write min. 3 papers (output for universities,
joint publications with ABC corporation coauthors are targeted, too)
• Tool, papers, higher level of sustainability with
ABC corporation
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The industry’s partner contribution focuses on providing data access and
supporting associated activities
Industry contribution
• Support for the research project, for instance support with the organisation
Qualitative data
collection
of a “world café” with collaborators form ABC corporation and / or
preliminary interviews with experts
• Associated travel costs covered by ABC corporation
• The researcher has the chance to be periodically hosted with ABC
corporation in order to have a better access to and a better understanding
of the concrete situation. Home base of the researcher will be an office at
the University of Twente. The post-doc will also have to dedicate about a
third of her time to teaching activities at the UT
• The A and B suppliers of ABC corporation will be assessed based on an
Supplier assessment
instrument developed in the first phase of the project. For that purpose, a
survey will be hosted by ABC corporation to be filled in by the employees
knowledgeable on the suppliers
• Based on the results of the supplier assessment, recommendations will be
Implementation
formulated in order to increase sustainability in ABC corporation’s supply
base
• The implementation of the recommendations is in the responsibility of
ABC corporation
• ABC corporation will support the acquisition of a second firm for the
validation of the instrument, in case the project team decides on that
• In the end of the project, ABC corporation will host a re-assessment of the
suppliers, so as to document the progress
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Thanks to our previous work, the employment of a post-doc and application of
novel methods (world café)1) sustainability drivers will be identified
Project plan – each block lasts about 6 month (1/2)
1. Development assessment model
• Concept adaptation to the ABC corporation
situation, selection of commodity groups and
suppliers for assessment
• Organisation of one “world café” with about 16
participants from ABC corporation1), in order to
adopt to the particular situation
• Go / no-go decision for next steps
• Detailed plan next phases
• A steering committee will meet after 3, 9, 15
months
• Assessment model and detailed roll-out plan
known
1) For details on the world café method see appendix
2) Details on next page
UTIPS.
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