Sustainable supply chains for supply chain sustainability: impact of sustainability efforts on supply chain risk

Supply chain managers across the globe are finding it difficult to manage the increasingly complex supply chains despite adopting a variety of risk mitigation strategies. Firms on the other hand have also been adopting various kinds of environmental and social sustainability practices in recent times to reduce carbon footprint and improve their image on the social front. However, very few studies in the extant literature have examined the impact of sustainability practices on supply chain risk. We address this important gap in literature by empirically testing this relationship, using primary data from six manufacturing sectors and 21 different countries including developed as well as emerging markets across the globe. Our findings indicate that risk mitigation strategies do not always reduce the actual supply chain risk experienced by firms, whereas sustainability efforts help reduce supply chain risk, especially in emerging market contexts. In addition, we find that, while reactive risk mitigation strategies on their own fail to reduce supply chain risk, they are effective when used in conjunction with sustainability efforts. We also find that preventive risk mitigation efforts are only effective in mature supply chains such as the OECD countries.     

Developing sustainability in the Italian meat supply chain: an empirical investigation

Although sustainable supply chain (SC) management has been widely investigated in recent years, the focus has mainly been on the practices adopted by a single company, so missing the big picture at SC level. This study of the Italian meat industry considers the SC as a whole, identifying the critical points for each stage in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability. To this end, a first set of case studies was conducted of companies at different stages of the SC before turning to focus on the meat processing stage, which was identified as critical and highly relevant. A second set of case studies analysed how these companies leverage SC management practices to develop sustainable SCs. In so doing, specific attention was paid to drivers and contingent variables that foster the adoption of sustainable practices. The results of the two steps were then merged to illuminate how practices adopted by the meat processors can impact on the whole chain, confirming their pivotal role in driving sustainability. These results provide a holistic view of the phenomenon, encompassing the entire chain from end to end and highlighting the interdependences across various stages of the meat SC.     

Product recovery optimization in closed-loop supply chain to improve sustainability in manufacturing

When business practices shift from a traditional open supply chain to a closed loop instead, the environmental and societal issues are efficiently integrated in business development. However, even an efficiently integrated shift introduces a number of trade-offs due to the contradictory goals that emerge from that business’s economical, environmental and social dimensions. In this paper, we propose a multi-objective mixed integer mathematical problem for a generic closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network to rationalise how a system’s product recovery helps to improve manufacturing sustainability. The CLSC network proposed in this study consists of a hybrid manufacturing facility, warehouse, distribution centres, collection centres and a hybrid recovery facility (HRF). The proposed model determines the best location for the HRF and optimal flow of products, recovered parts and material in the network while it simultaneously maximises profit, saves activity costs, helps to decrease the harmful effects of the manufacturing process and makes a positive impact on societal development. To validate the model, a numerical illustration with the help of a case study from an electrical manufacturing industry is offered. The results authenticate the approach of the model towards the fulfilment of various environmental regulations. A sensitivity analysis, completed on demand, and the return rate also assists decision-makers to manage their decisions with a broader insight towards manufacturing sustainability.     

Traceability as a means to investigate supply chain sustainability: the real case of a leather shoe supply chain

In recent years, the growing attention to environmental challenges has shown that these issues are becoming of more and more interest to both research and industry. Companies are expected to ensure their products are fully traceable and more sustainable, which requires the involvement of all of the actors in the production network. According to this aim, this study proposes a structured approach that uses the traditional traceability concept as a means to identify the main information needed to assess environmental impacts along the whole supply chain (SC). The proposed approach is composed of four main steps: (i) SC modelling to identify all stakeholders and their inter-relations, (ii) data sharing to collect all relevant data, (iii) data elaboration to calculate performance at different levels of detail and (iv) result interpretation to optimise the SC. The distributed implementation of the approach at different SC steps represents a useful means to practically realise a sustainable SC management. A case study involving a leather shoe SC is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach in identifying criticalities, supporting the selection of the most appropriate suppliers and correctly setting a management strategy towards the optimisation of internal and external traceability and environmental sustainability performances.     

Industry 4.0: a supply chain innovation perspective

The Fourth Industrial Revolution – also known as Industry 4.0 (i4.0) – comprises the digitalisation of the industrial sector. This paper uses the theoretical lens of supply chain innovation (SCI) to investigate the implications of i4.0 on supply chain management. For these purposes, the method of structured content analysis is applied to more than 200 use cases of i4.0-enabled SCI introduced by both established and startup companies. i4.0-enabled SCI manifests along three dimensions: process, technology, and business architecture. The key findings of this study can be summarised as follows: first, i4.0-enabled SCI extends the initial focus on productivity improvements in SC processes towards scalability and flexibility. Second, extant i4.0 solutions rely mostly on analytics and smart things while omitting smart people technology and the human-centric approach associated with the i4.0 paradigm. Third, established companies adopt i4.0 merely to sustain their existing business architectures while startup companies radically change their operating models, relying heavily on data analytics and the platform economy. Consequently, established companies pursue a problem-driven, engineering-based approach to SCI while startup companies follow an ‘asset-light’, business-driven approach. Lastly, there are two distinct approaches to digitalising operational SC processes: platform-based crowdsourcing of standard processes and on-demand provision of customised services.     

Sustainable product‐package design in a food supply chain: A multi‐criteria life cycle approach

This paper presents a multi‐criteria decision‐making approach for the selection of a sustainable product‐package design, accounting for the different actors within a food supply chain. The study extends the focus of sustainable packaging design to the collective of all supply chain actors. Decision criteria are identified via a literature review, and current product‐package alternatives are collected via interviews. With the inputs of these criteria and the alternative designs, a multi‐criteria decision‐making problem is formulated and solved using Best Worst Method (BWM). BWM finds the weights of the criteria. Using these weights, the ranking of the alternatives is found. The implementation of the analysis took place for three selected products of the Kraft Heinz Company. Data on the preferences of the supply chain members of these selected products were collected, and the optimal package designs were selected. It is shown through sensitivity analysis that modifying the weights that decision makers assign to the preferences of the supply chain members and the importance of the dimensions of sustainability have an effect on the selection of the optimal design.     

A technology selection framework for integrating manufacturing within a supply chain

This paper describes a structured analytical approach for selecting a manufacturing technology. A framework consisting of six integrated steps is proposed by considering the growing importance of supply chains in manufacturing organisations. The framework makes use of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach combined with strategic assessment model (SAM) to evaluate and select the technologies appropriate for providing overall competitive advantage. The framework is intended to assist industrial managers in promoting manufacturing and supply chain collaboration and co-ordination by including intra-organisational perspective in their organisational technology selection decision making process.     

Revealing interfaces of supply chain resilience and sustainability: a simulation study

Dynamics of structures and processes is one of the underlying challenges in supply chain management, where multiple dimensions of economic efficiency, risk management and sustainability are interconnected. One of the substantiated issues in supply chain dynamics is resilience. Resilience has a number of intersections with supply chain sustainability. This paper aims at analysing disruption propagation in the supply chain with consideration of sustainability factors in order to design resilient supply chain structure in regard to ripple effect mitigation and sustainability increase. Ripple effect in the supply chain occurs if a disruption at a supplier cannot be localised and cascades downstream impacting supply chain performance. This simulation-based study helps to identify what sustainability factors mitigate the ripple effect in the supply chain and what sustainability factors enhance this effect. The results indicate that (i) sustainable single sourcing enhances the ripple effect; (ii) facility fortification at major employers in regions mitigates the ripple effect and enhances sustainability; and (iii) a reduction in storage facilities in the supply chain downstream of a disruption-risky facility increases sustainability but causes the ripple effect.     

Boosting sustainability and financial performance: the role of supply chain controversies

In recent years, numerous scandals concerning working conditions in Asia have threatened the reputation of large companies like Wal-Mart and Inditex. Since such scandals call attention to activities harmful to sustainable development, it is very important to study the relationships between concerns for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), sustainability, and organisations’ market value. The added value of our study is, first, to explore SSCM controversies as drivers of or pressures for adopting and applying sustainability practices; and, second, to contribute to the recent but growing literature that analyses the channels through which SSCM and sustainability practices influence the firm’s value. We introduce sustainability environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices as a mediator between SSCM controversies and market value to examine whether SSCM controversies with firms’ stakeholders lead to improvements in the ESG dimensions of organisational sustainability. We also examine the relationships between the ESG dimensions and market value, measured as Tobin’s Q ratio. The results confirm both the positive relationships of SSCM controversies to the ESG dimensions two years later and a positive relationship of the dimension of governance to Tobin’s Q. We also confirm a negative and significant relationship of the social dimension to Tobin’s Q, and a non-significant relationship of the environmental dimension to Tobin’s Q.     

Resilient and sustainable supply chain design: sustainability analysis under disruption risks

Resilience to disruptions and sustainability are both of paramount importance to supply chains. However, the interactions between the two have not been thoroughly explored in the academic literature. We attempt to contribute to this area by presenting a hybrid methodology for the design of a sustainable supply network that performs resiliently in the face of random disruptions. A stochastic bi-objective optimisation model is developed that utilises a fuzzy c-means clustering method to quantify and assess the sustainability performance of the suppliers. The proposed model determines outsourcing decisions and resilience strategies that minimise the expected total cost and maximise the overall sustainability performance in disruptions. Important managerial insights and practical implications are obtained from the model implementation in a case study of plastic pipe industry.     

A framework for designing supply chain disruptions management considering productive systems and carrier viewpoints

With the advent of the global and digital world, the number of geographically dispersed firms throughout the world has increased and the problem of Supply Chain (SC) disruption appeared as a main concern to many industries. In such context, designing disruptions management strategies for a robust SC has become a critical worldwide issue that is still under-explored. Since its design phase, this class of robust and global SC must integrate technologies and agents of production. However, the existing works only consider the Productive Systems (PSs) and the carrier viewpoint must also be considered since goods should be produced and distributed at the right quantity, at the right place and at the right time. In this complex task of designing disruptions management, a formal method must be used to integrate technologies ensuring the compliance of certain requirements, such as: developing collaborative and autonomous models, allowing reuse templates, considering analysis/simulation abilities and facilitating the interaction among engineering practitioners. Therefore, this paper presents a framework to model, analyse, control and monitor the robust and global SC, designing and integrating models with Petri Net, agent-based model techniques for disruptions management and considering both PSs and carrier viewpoints. A case study is investigated and the findings demonstrated the proposed solution supports decisions making for solving problems of design, analysis and control.     

A strategic decision framework for a value added supply chain

Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The structure of the supply chain and the suppliers who participate in it are critical decisions for managers. The supply chain is no longer simply a source of inputs or services but an integral source of value added. It is clear that in some cases strategic supply chain objectives may require trade-offs, for example, between cost and innovation capability or between managing risk and maximising flexibility. These decisions balancing trade-offs between desirable partner characteristics are critical and can make a significant contribution to business performance. A framework is outlined, based on the foundation of extant literature, within which firms can make strategic decisions on supply chain structure by categorising the characteristics they prioritise in their supply chain strategy. There is also a strong foundation in the literature on developing mathematical models that provide insight into the decision-making process. A mixed integer programming model is specified that incorporates the opportunity for diversification and provides a demand allocation decision. The model is robust enough to allow for single or diversified supplier strategies based not only on capacity constraints but also on risk pooling and minimum performance requirements for key characteristics that form the basis of the strategy. A Lagrangian relaxation is proposed and satisfactory performance results are provided.     

New flexibility drivers for manufacturing,supply chain and service operations

Increasing product proliferation, customisation, competition and customer expectations, as well as supply side disruptions, pose significant challenges to firm operations. Such challenges require improved efficiency and resilience in manufacturing, service and supply chain systems. New and innovative flexibility concepts and models offer a prospective route to such operational improvements. Several emerging issues in flexibility, such as risk and uncertainty management, environmental sustainability, optimal strategies under competition, optimal operations with strategic consumer behaviours are being examined in this regard. This overview provides a concise review of these critical research issues, and discusses related papers featured in this special issue. Four major flexibility drivers are classified: disruption risks, resilience and the ripple effect in the supply chain; digitalisation, smart operations and e-supply chains; sustainability and closed-loop supply chains; and supplier integration and behavioural flexibility.     

Quick response strategy with cleaner technology in a supply chain: coordination and win-win situation analysis

Quick response strategy (QRS) has been widely adopted in a supply chain where members collect timely market information for better forecasting, and then respond promptly to the market changes by adjusting initial inventory decision. After adopting the QRS, sustainability issues such as greenhouse gas emission and energy waste may be more serious as production lead time is shorter. In this study, due to this dilemma, we develop a two-stage quick response supply chain with cleaner technology, where the manufacturer determines the cleaner technology investment and afterwards the retailer decides the ordering quantity. Based on Bayesian theory, we depict an information updating process for the QRS with cleaner technology. First, we find that the inventory service level significantly affects both manufacturer’s and retailer’s performance under the QRS with cleaner technology. Moreover, our analytical results indicate that the performance of centralised supply chain system is always better than the decentralised one. As a result, we propose two supply chain contracts, minimum ordering quantity (MOQ) and MOQ with buyback (MOQ-BB) to achieve supply chain coordination. Comparing with the MOQ, the MOQ-BB is more flexible to allow better allocation of the ‘additional’ expected profit between the channel members through the buyback price negotiation.     

Impact evaluation of supply chain initiatives: a system simulation methodology

To maintain enterprise competitiveness, enterprises require appropriate initiatives to efficiently manage the product, information and cash flows among different supply chain (SC) partners. Co-operation, postponement, vendor managed inventory, transhipment, logistic consolidation etc., are some of the typical initiatives for performance improvement in SC. In an industrial scenario, two or more of these SC initiatives are undertaken simultaneously for superior enterprise performance on multiple performance dimensions. These factors render the analytical SC models inapt and simulation modelling becomes a suitable methodology to study SC performance that can accommodate the complexities present. The impact studies of these initiatives are difficult because these require exploitation of flexible and dynamic modelling elements which are analytically complex and mathematically intractable. We address these issues in the present research by developing a simulation platform to undertake studies with an industrial SC scenario. The challenges to explore SC performance under multiple initiatives are the major motivations for the present research. The novelty of this research lies in the development of a multi-product, multi-echelon SC simulation platform for realistic and industrial SC scenario encompassing the capability to accommodate multiple SC initiatives simultaneously. It is based on the building block approach using Arena®. We undertake SC performance studies under the application of several important SC initiatives. The results are encouraging and they underline interesting research areas to explore further.     

绿色供应链管理的基本原理

人口、资源与环境三者之间的矛盾日益突显，要求制造业提高其活动与环境的相容性。绿色供应链管理是从系统的观点与集成的思想出发解决制造业与环境之间冲突的有效方式。从可持续发展的思想出发建立了绿色供应链的概念模型，分析了绿色供应链管理的目标，在此基础上探讨了绿色供应链管理的基本原理，认为共生原理、循环原理、替代转换原理与系统开放原理是实施绿色供应链管理应该遵循的基本原理。     

Simulation modelling for food supply chain redesign; integrated decision making on product quality,sustainability and logistics

Food supply chains are confronted with increased consumer demands on food quality and sustainability. When redesigning these chains the analysis of food quality change and environmental load of new scenarios is as important as the analysis of efficiency and responsiveness requirements. Simulation tools are often used for supporting decision-making on supply chain (re)design when logistic uncertainties are in place, building on their inherent modelling flexibility. Mostly, the underlying assumption is that product quality is not influenced by or does not influence chain design. Clearly, this is not true for food supply chains, as quality change is intrinsic to the industry. We propose a new integrated approach towards logistics, sustainability and food quality analysis, and implement the approach by introducing a new simulation environment, ALADIN?. It embeds food quality change models and sustainability indicators in discrete event simulation models. A case example illustrates the benefits of its use relating to speed and quality of integrated decision making, but also to creativity in terms of alternative solutions.     

Industry 4.0 as an enabler of sustainability diffusion in supply chain: an analysis of influential strength of drivers in an emerging economy

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and sustainability are recent buzzwords in manufacturing environments. However, the connection between these two concepts is less explored in the literature. In the current business context, the future generation of manufacturing systems is greatly influenced by the rapid advancement of information technology. Therefore, this study aims to examine the drivers of I4.0 to diffuse sustainability in Supply Chains (SCs). This research identifies the most relevant drivers through the literature and discusses them with area experts. Afterwards, an empirical analysis is conducted to validate the key drivers. Finally, the Grey based DEMATEL method is employed to examine the influential strength of the identified drivers and to build an interrelationship diagram. ‘Government supportive policies’ and ‘Collaboration and transparency among supply chain members’ were reported as highly significant drivers of I4.0. This study is an initial effort that investigates the key drivers of I4.0 to achieve high triple bottom line (ecological-economic-social) gains in SCs by taking an example from an emerging economy, i.e. India. This study may help managers, practitioners and policy makers interested in I4.0 applications to diffuse sustainability in SCs.     

The impact of supply chain analytics on operational performance: a resource-based view

This study seeks to better understand the role of supply chain analytics (SCA) on supply chain planning satisfaction and operational performance. We define the architecture of SCA as the integration of three sets of resources, data management resources (DMR), IT-enabled planning resources and performance management resources (PMR), from the perspective of a resource-based view. Based on the data collected from 537 manufacturing plants, we test hypotheses exploring the relationships among these resources, supply chain planning satisfaction, and operational performance. Our analysis supports that DMR should be considered a key building block of manufacturers’ business analytics initiatives for supply chains. The value of data is transmitted to outcome values through increasing supply chain planning and performance capabilities. Additionally, the deployment of advanced IT-enabled planning resources occurs after acquisition of DMR. Manufacturers with sophisticated planning technologies are likely to take advantage of data-driven processes and quality control practices. DMR are found to be a stronger predictor of PMR than IT planning resources. All three sets of resources are related to supply chain planning satisfaction and operational performance. The paper concludes by reviewing research limitations and suggesting further SCA research issues.     

Inventory decision-making models for a closed-loop supply chain system

In this paper, we investigate how buyers’ and suppliers’ distinct perceptions of technology uncertainty affect the relationship between communication frequency and supplier performance. Information processing theory suggests that a fit is desirable between perceived environmental uncertainty and the communication processes between organisations. However, if partners in a buyer-supplier relationship do not concur on the high level of technology uncertainty, it is highly questionable whether increased communication will be effective in increasing supplier performance. Using dyadic data from 86 buyer-supplier relationships, involving 388 respondents, we found that communication frequency was positively related to supplier performance only when both suppliers and buyers perceived high levels of technology uncertainty. When buyers perceived greater technology uncertainty than their suppliers, communication frequency was negatively related to supplier performance. The findings in this study show that it is important to take the distinct perceptions of buyers and suppliers of technology uncertainty into account when assessing the effects of communication frequency. It appears that increased communication is only effective when both parties acknowledge the need to communicate, and can be unfavourable when only one party sees the benefits of it.