Hotspot Identification for Improving Cane-Sugar Sustainable Supply Chain Through the Integration of Life Cycle Assessment and Value Stream Mapping

• Published in: Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability
• Main Author: Masudin I.; Alfarisi S.; Suhartin E.; Restuputri D.P.; Shariff S.S.R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2025
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85217199578&doi=10.1007%2fs41660-025-00486-y&partnerID=40&md5=c56d7980569d36a0c0797866a3b9457a

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and value stream mapping (VSM) are pivotal tools for advancing sustainability in cane sugar manufacturing. LCA enables manufacturers to make informed decisions that minimize their environmental footprint. Value stream mapping, on the other hand, provides a detailed visualization of the entire production process, highlighting areas of inefficiency and waste. While prior studies have extensively explored the individual applications of LCA and VSM in assessing environmental impacts and optimizing production processes, there is a need for more integrated research that combines the strengths of both methodologies. Furthermore, this study could thus explore the environmental, social, and economic issues and identify the potential pain reliever by implementing LCA and VSM practices in the cane-sugar supply chain. This study highlights opportunities to enhance the sustainability performance of the cane sugar industry’s supply chain and offers a systematic framework. The findings indicate that the main impact category that needs to be improved is marine aquatic ecotoxicity. In addition, two strategies for determining the sustainability performance level were suggested. The ability to identify key hotspots of a process is the strength of the LCA-SVSM developed in this study. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.