Building a sustainable supply chain Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Building a sustainable supply chain Case Solution

Sustainable activities are activities that have an overall beneficial effect on people and environment. From the case study of IKEA, a lot of sustainable activities have been identified. The two major sustainable activities are:

The raw material it takes from the primary sector does not harm the environment.
The products are manufactured in a responsible manner.

The primary sector is involved in the development of raw material. Therefore, IKEA worked closely with its suppliers to develop its products. This helped IKEA to ensure the sustainable business activities, which means that it attempts to make such products that have a sustainable impact on company’s customers and the overall environment. While designing its products, IKEA considers low prices, well designed, and well performing products to make them available to everyone in the society in order to provide maximum benefits to environment. In addition, IKEA makes sure that a strict check in the product development stage takes place so as to meet its criteria of proper functioning, efficiency, and quality of the product. IKEA takes into account the matter of its products’ impacts on its environment. Furthermore, IKEA also negotiates the prices of raw material from its suppliers in order to provide low prices to its customers. It also keeps an eye on its supply chain activities so as to make sure that it is aligned with the sustainable business activities. IKEA tends to manufacture product in a responsible way. This means that it uses sustainable raw material in its products, such as wood fiber so as to make its products renewable and recycled. This is considered as the most important element in its business since its products are made of renewable resources that have no negative impact on the environment and have been utilized further. Moreover, some products of IKEa are being made of recycled plastics and material clippings, which make its products more sustainable and reduce the impact on the environment.

2) Explain how each sector of industry is linked together within a supply chain.

Three sectors identified are assumed to be linked with the supply chain. The three sectors are Primary Sector, Secondary Sector, and Tertiary Sector.

Primary Sector:

The primary sector of IKEA is responsible for the development of the products. It is linked with the supply chain in a sense that the company takes all the raw material for its products from the primary sector. In its primary sector, IKEA works closely with the suppliers so as to ensure the best quality of raw material. Since the primary sector is involved in development of the raw material, therefore, it makes sure that it selects the best raw material at negotiable prices from the suppliers, which in turn will be in the best interest of the environment in which it operates. Moreover, raw material is considered as an important element in the supply chain activity. So under the primary sector, IKEA deals with the purchasing and selection of raw materials from its suppliers.

Secondary Sector:

The secondary sector of the industry is also considered to be linked with the supply chain activity. It is involved with the manufacturing process and creates products from raw material. In the secondary sector, the products move from different processes that add value in the products. The secondary sector comprises of input that undergoes a manufacturing process and the result is the output with added value.......................

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Building a sustainable supply chain Harvard Case Solution & Analysis