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Supply chain miles
How can supply chain miles support strategic choice or positioning?
Contents
A logistics-distance measure for making the travel embedded in purchased inputs and delivered products visible.
Global sourcing allows organisations to buy on price and quality from almost anywhere, but the environmental effect of transport can remain hidden. Supply chain miles record the distance travelled by an input or product from production to final delivery. The idea began with “food miles.” Historical estimates cited in this account suggest that food travelled, on average, between 1,500 and 2,500 miles (4,000 km) on its way to a consumer and that the distance had increased by a quarter since the 1980s. Treat those figures as historical context, not a current benchmark.
When to use it
- Answer the performance question: “To what extent are we minimising the environmental impact of our business?”
- Assess logistics distance within the corporate-social-responsibility perspective.
- Define collection methods, calculation boundaries, reporting frequency and data ownership.
- Compare the trend with reduction targets and relevant route or product benchmarks.
Origins
The KPI extends the United Kingdom’s “food miles” concept, associated with food-policy scholar Tim Lang and later campaign work on long-distance food transport. Distance is easy to understand and can expose unnecessary movement, but it is not a carbon measure by itself. Mode, vehicle efficiency, load factor, refrigeration, return journeys, production method and the rest of the product life cycle can outweigh distance.
What it is
Perspective: Corporate social responsibility perspective.
Key performance question: To what extent are we minimising the environmental impact of our business?
Measure travel on the demand side for purchased components and goods and on the supply side for products or services delivered to customers. Report the route and transport mode with the distance so that management can distinguish a shorter but inefficient journey from a longer journey using a lower-impact method.
How to use it
Measurement
Define the start and end points, route convention, unit, mode and whether returns, intermediate processing or empty legs are included.
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