​KUALA LUMPUR: The coal and fuel supplier to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) Generation and independent power producers, also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad, TNB Fuel Services Sdn Bhd, said it is on track to tackle national energy challenges and sustainability issues.

In today’s increasingly competitive business environment, supply chain management is emerging as an opportunity for improvement. All businesses in virtually every sector of the industry heavily rely upon effective sourcing practices in order to maintain output and deliver consistent performance. Driving down costs for these processes and increasing profitability is the need of the hour. 

​One way to address this need is through lean sourcing which has emerged as a winning strategy for transforming procurement practices. Based on Kaizen methods of lean management, lean sourcing promotes principles of improving in-house practices at companies to boost productivity. It also includes a focus on improved customer service and building collaborative relationships with suppliers and other business partners. ​

​Some may be aware of the Triple Bottom Line; Planet, People and profit. Often these principles can be seen to be conflicting. We’ve all been there, looking at the supermarket shelves and comparing an organic piece of fruit, vegetable or meat to its non-organic counterpart. Many still select the non-organic chicken, banana or potato purely because it is cheaper, even though there is often a wider value to the organic version. 

This is one of the challenges of procurement, taking into account the broader picture and obtaining products and services that contribute the best overall value to the organisation. 

If you have been following our recent articles on sustainable sourcing, you should realize that effective supply chain management is not only key to improve economic and environmental performance, it is also a leading method to conserve resources. Another major benefit of transforming supply chain management practices is uncovering the path for innovation, reducing costs, increasing productivity, and optimize operations to suit the goals of the business. In order to make supply chain management practices effective, it is important to adopt sustainable steps. I had devised a systematic roadmap that will help you in adopting the sustainable practices in supply chain management.

In 2006, Aptium Global provides a useful whitepaper focused on creating sustainable purchasing savings via Lean Sourcing. In this whitepaper, it discussed about Lean Sourcing as a sourcing technique that aims to improve productivity by reducing inventory, improving customer service, and increasing output. On the other spectrum is Strategic Sourcing, which is a systematic, data-driven approach to enhance supply base and improve overall value proposition. Both methods offer their own unique set of benefits geared towards optimizing procurement processes, as well as ensuring costs are kept at optimum levels to enable business growth. What are their differences?

The core concept of sustainable sourcing has its origins in the continuous evolution and growth we see all around us today. There is no denying that the global landscape is changing fast, and this transformation is taking business practices right along for the ride. As population centers rapidly expand in emerging markets, targeting the right spots is becoming a top priority for all companies. This is because in order to continually have access to new resources at competitive production costs, procurement teams need to redefine the vision for the future.

​When it comes to green and sustainability, the oil and gas industry is often perceived as the biggest offender to the environment. Aker Powergas Subsea have been promoting the use of subsea technology that will significant reduce the carbon footprint in the oil construction and production projects. Our CTO Thomas Cheah had the privilege of sitting down with C M Venkateswaran, CEO of Aker Powergas Subsea, for an exclusive interview last Saturday morning. We thought the sharing by Mr. Venkateswaran is highly inspirational for the players in the Oil and Gas industry, as well as other industries who wish to reinvent themselves for building a more sustainable and resilient supply chain.

With almost nine billion people in the world, demand for natural resources is already around 30% higher than the earth can regenerate. And critical elements and metals that only the earth can provide are being consumed at unprecedented rates. This represents a supply risk. 

​The challenge of sustainability is in reshaping the relationship between business and society. Companies need to better manage natural resources and significantly lower their global ecological footprint.