Almost 77 percent of manufacturers participating in a recent survey said they are currently required by their customers to report on their environmental impact and that of their products or require their vendors to do so - results that suggest green supply chains are becoming the norm.

More than 80 percent of respondents said that green supply chains - in which companies make purchasing decisions based on non-financial criteria, including the environmental impact of vendors and their products - will become more important in the next three years. The study was conducted in December 2010 among more than 200 executives with manufacturing operations with greater than $100m in revenue.

However, respondents indicated that their IT infrastructure, including enterprise resources planning software, was not keeping up with their changing green supply chain needs, with 87 percent reporting that this data was handled at least in part through hard copy. Only five percent rated their ERP software as "excellent" in its handling of green supply chain data while 54 percent rated their ERP solution as "poor" or "not at all helpful" in this regard.

"This disconnect between industry needs and what ERP software vendors are delivering will likely become a major issue in the years ahead," IFS North America President and CEO Cindy Jaudon said.

The study, which examines not only the green supply chain issue and its effect on enterprise software needs but the increasing trend towards mixed-mode manufacturing, is available at http://download.ifsworld.com - in the Industry Reports & Studies category.

Source: IFS