Abstract
Keywords Life Cycle Management, Life Cycle Impact Assessment, Supply Chain Management, Environmental Performance, South Africa.
Abstract Automobile Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs) are increasingly pressurised in the global marketplace to incorporate economic, environmental and social performances in their policies, culture and decision-making processes. These performances objectives manifest in three operational focal points that are fundamental to OEMs: projects that drive internal operational changes, assets that are required in the manufacturing process, and the actual automobile products that determine the economic value of manufacturing operations. A holistic Life Cycle Management (LCM) approach would subsequently require an effective integration of these three life cycles within the business practices of OEMs.
Sustainable product LCM, or product stewardship, implies the incorporation of the principles of supply chain management. The OEM thereby assumes responsibility for the economic, environmental and societal consequences (in the context of the suppliers actual locations) of consumed components, materials and energy inputs. OEMs that have assembly facilities in South Africa have initiated the process to assess the environmental performances of their first-tier suppliers and determine where improvements are possible. However, the lack of process information to determine the precise environmental impacts of suppliers is a common problem in South Africa (as in other developing countries). OEMs have subsequently commenced to systematically obtain process information limited to: water usage, energy usage, and waste produced per manufactured item. These three process parameters do not, however, directly show the overall burden of a supplier on the environmental resources of South Africa. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, as stipulated by ISO 14040, has been applied to obtain Environmental Performance Resource Impact Indicators (EPRIIs) associated with the limited process parameters in the South African context. A case study in the South African automobile industry is used to demonstrate the quantitative evaluation tool. OEMs are thereby equipped to assist the supply chain in developing countries to improve the overall sustainability of automobile products.