The Key Activities of Green Logistics Management in the Thai Automotive Industry

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:In the early of the 21st century, environmental concept was considered as the priority of international standards and regulations in order to manage company and industr y with integration of envir onmental ma nagement in their business processes. In business process of most countrie s, the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the important strategic of all industries (Hsu, Choon & Laosirihongthong, 2014; Isaksson & Brodin, 2013; Styles, Schoenberger & Galvez-Martos, 2012a; Styles, Schoenberger & Galvez -Martos, 2012b). SCM is the integration of logistics activities and management of product, service and information that flows from first suppliers to end users and organizing the cooperation of the three main SCM dimensions; i.e. Economic, Social and Environment dimensions (Bernon & Mena, 2013; Fayezi, O'Loughlin & Zutshi, 2012).The goal of SCM is to minimize the total cost and adding value to the supply chain that uses a variety of natural resources and energy while causing minimal waste and pollution to the community and environ ment (Bak & Boulocher-Passet, 2013; Department of Primary Industries and Mines, 2011; Lorentz, Toyli, Solakivi & Ojala, 2013). T hen, this development produces pollution t hat affects the environment and communities which ar e solved by Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) (United Nation Environment Programme, 2014). SSCM is considered to be important as it is green logistics management, the management of logistics activities while considering the environmental concept , in parallel with decr ease in the envir onmental effects (Dey, Guardia & Srinivasan, 2011; Xia & Tang, 2011).In the industry manner, the knowledge of green logistics management is important for studying key activities of this management. Also, this knowledge is the key information for com panies to start green logistics management within their business processes. Furthermore, this information supports fundamental knowledge to plan the logistics management towards a company operating with environmental concept. Apparently in 2013, the automotive industry was a major sector in Thailand with a significant contribution to the country's economy, in the amount of 12% of Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP). In 2014, Thailand had the world 17 th largest manufacturer and host economies for 2013 -2015 in Rank 8 of the world. Also motor vehicle production capacity was nearly 2 million vehicles with an export value of US$30 billion according to the Thailand Ministry of Commerce. (Thailand Board of Investment, 2015)Moreover, ASEAN countries are trying to promote green and environment friendly technology. Thailand has high potential to become the hub of global gr een automotive production towa rds global trend (ASEAN Automotive Federation, 2014; Thai Automotive Industry Association, 2015). Also, the gover nment and private sectors have been collaborating to create the master plan for automotive industry (2012 -2016) in order to develop Thailand to be a global green automotive production base and to support the research and development in automotive technology (Thai Auto parts Manufacturers Association and BOI, 2012).As the results, the information of main activities of green logistics management (inbound logistics) in the Thai automotive industry needs to be developed for understanding activit ies management. This research focus on inbound logistics that is an essential element of business operations for a manufacturing firm, involving the processes of receiving, storing and distributing raw materials for use in production. Therefore, the purpose of this r esearch is to study the main activities of green logistics ma nagement (inbound logistics) in the Thai automotive industry.THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE KEY MAIN ACTIVITIES:The indicators and dimensions of key activities are analyzed with two data sources which are the reviewed of liter atur es from journal articles a nd r eports of the automotive organizations. …