Exploring the Rationale Between ERP and EPR in Asian Countries Using Cloud-Based Approach

Abstract

In order to sustain in a competitive technological environment, every organization integrates all primary business processes to strengthen its ERP. ERP systems are designed to integrate business functions with global supply chain, and therefore, if it is not properly managed during its implementation may lead to resistance from the users. The featured functions of ERP comprise of the proficiency to keep and track the environmental data of raw materials from suppliers, to prepare an environmental report for each product from cradle to grave, to prepare report on logistics and transportation, and to comply with the ERP software used by third-party manufacturers. For successful ERP implementations and to that end research, two factors can be taken into considerations, namely business process re-engineering (BPR) and extended producer responsibility (EPR). Developing Asian countries are in process to apply the principles of EPR to electronics and electrical equipment waste (e-waste). As a result of booming electronic and electrical appliances, the consumers are ready to purchase the latest technological invention throughout the year. Hence, the old gadgets that can be treated as e-waste can produce toxic chemicals for the environment and people around them if those are not recycled properly. So EPR policy gives the responsibility to producer for the collection, disposal, segregation, and recycling of discarded electronic appliances. China and Thailand have enrolled regulations on the recycling of e-waste with common characteristics such as the financial responsibility of producers and subsidies for collection. The Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently (2016) updated its EPR regulations on e-waste and plastics. Due to the reason that e-waste is an article of trade, the proposed system is functional. Consumers and governments try to keep balance/optimization between profitability and sustainability. This balance can only be maintained or the ERP system can sustain if the producers can take a holistic approach for the workflow among resource, finance, development, distribution, and collection. This paper suggests an approach that how the firms in Asian countries can follow a cloud-based ERP system enabling all policies of EPR to keep balance of ecosystem.