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Radically Reducing Waste in a Publishing Supply Chain
Situation
Product waste had been on the agenda of publishing supply chain participants for some time, however progress had been limited due to different and at times opposing incentives across the supply chain; in fact, organizations throughout the supply chain even had differing perspectives on what the problems actually were. Compounding this, significant change would require simultaneous change across many companies. Blu Skye brought a unique collaborative approach to bring the whole system to the table to garner momentum and alignment.
Insights
Taking an innovative view of the magazine supply chain, this focus of this effort was on how to improve both the profitability and environmental sustainability of the system as a whole. The investigation (footprint and analysis) of the magazine supply chain revealed that although the largest environmental impacts come from paper manufacture, the best way to profitably reduce these impacts is through reducing the amount of product waste (66% of magazines go unsold) in the supply chain.
Results
To rapidly address these challenges, Blu Skye conducted a “system in the room” session based on an Appreciative Inquiry approach. The session included executives from all parts of the value chain and was designed to build from the collective strengths of all supply chain participants. The session was used to develop a shared vision of the future, identify and prototype a set of initiatives to achieve the vision and mobilize actions teams to pilot each initiative. The anticipated result was reduced publication production by 60m copies per year, which was expected to save the supply chain $100m in cost abatement in addition to significant environmental benefits.
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