A field research on green supply chain management in electrical household appliances manufacturing: istanbul case

The changes experienced in many areas after the Industrial Revolution, on the one hand, made it easier to meet human needs and, on the other hand, were influential in diversifying these needs. The beginning of mass production with industrialization increased the use of raw materials and led to the unrestrained consumption of resources available worldwide. Especially since the second half of the 20th century, the opinion of the requirement for precautions against the uncontrolled usage of these resources has become more prominent and widespread. Analogous issues have started to arise in the electrical household appliances sector, as in many other fields with the development of technology. The measures taken by this sector in terms of resource use and green practices have initiated to be implemented in the world's leading countries, primarily in producing electrical household appliances. As a part of this process, Turkey has tried to follow these developments closely in terms of both legal procedures and practices. The electrical home appliances sector has a crucial position in Turkey's industrial branches. The electrical home appliances sector, which provides a significant level of employment, stands out as one of the leading export items. Since all of these are issues that affect and shape production, they determine processes such as purchasing, production distribution, and reverse logistics. Green supply chain management practices are a series of procedures that proceed from the beginning of this process to the end customer and even reverse flows. For this reason, green supply chain management activities have started to take a vital place in the electrical home appliances industry. Determining issues such as awareness of the activities in question in the sector, their feasibility, the perspective of sector representatives, and obstacles experienced are the factors that shape the functionality of this process. This thesis analyzes the general situation of the sector and focuses on production processes and the feasibility of green supply chain management activities. First of all, the importance of green supply chain management is explained, and its condition in many different sectors is touched upon. Afterward, following the mention of the place of the electrical home appliances sector in the world economy, its position in Turkey was tried to be briefly explained. By conducting in-depth interviews with ten companies producing in the electrical home appliances sector, the levels of green supply chain practices in purchasing, production, distribution, reverse logistics, and other processes related to these areas were tried to be determined. Through this sample, an effort has been made to determine the general structure of green supply chain management practices in the sector. Resolution suggestions have been tried to be presented by focusing on the reasons for the different levels of practices of companies operating in the sector. The impact of legal procedures on the process was tried to be determined, and on the other hand, its impact on environmental awareness was discussed. The sensitivities and problems of both the relevant authorities and companies on this issue have been attempted to be revealed. In addition, since no study on green supply chain management practices in the electrical home appliances sector could be found during this study, recommendations were made to provide a starting point for future studies. Keywords: Electrical home appliances industry, Supply chain management, Green supply chain management, Green practices, Sustainability, Environment.