An assessment of sustainable supply chain initiatives in Indian automobile industry using PPS method

The Indian automobile sector is undergoing a multi-dimensional transition arising from customer's expectation for disruptive and innovative technology, the changing regulatory environment, demand for environment friendly mobility infrastructure and intensive competition from abroad. The prominence of sustainability in Indian automobile industry supply chains has become of utmost importance to be prepared for the future ahead. Despite industry commitment towards sustainability the management lacks direction when it comes to implementation. The study aims to find out factors that contribute to sustainability in the supply chain management of the automobile industry. A systematic review was conducted to explore different social, economic and environmental factors and sub-factors, extensively used for measuring the dimensions of sustainability. A total of 42 respondents were taken from seven Indian automobile industries for measuring sustainability. Further, the identified factors and sub-factors are ranked through the PPS (Percentage Point Score) method. A conceptual framework was developed to show the sub-factors impacts three dimensions of sustainability. Thus, three hypotheses were created and further tested. The study shows that the environmental factor has a more influence on a sustainable initiative with the highest score of 90 points (indicates first rank), followed by economic factor with 67 points (second rank) and social factor has 61 points (third rank). Thus, it was determined which factor or sub-factor is more important and priority than others. As a result, the final PPS score for sustainability gives us tangible and measurable values to enhance the efforts of organizations in their commitment towards achieving sustainability across the supply chain of the automobile industry.