Supply Chain Sustainability

Modeling and Innovative Research Frameworks

Sachin Kumar Mangla, Mangey Ram, Sachin Kumar Mangla, Mangey Ram

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783110625684
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Ingeniería mecánica

Supply chains are significant in improving business efficiency. Sustainable supply chains help industries enhance their ecological, monetary, and social performance. Innovative research frameworks as well as the modelling of sustainability issues are significant to different stakeholder's perspectives. This book guides researchers and practitioners through developing effective sustainable supply chains to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

1 Fuzzy inference system in sustainable supplier

Nurullah Umarusman

Turgut Hacivelioğullari

Abstract

Nowadays, businesses focus on sustainable supply chain management to gain economic, environmental, and social benefits. In reference to the criteria determined, selecting sustainable suppliers for the three dimensions of sustainability and for the companies operating in different sectors from these dimensions enables the business to become stronger in the market. In this study, sustainable supplier selection criteria were classified as quantitative and qualitative using the information obtained from the literature research. Later, by comparing Dickson’s criteria with Ghoushchi’s criteria, Dickson’s criteria were classified within the framework of triple bottom line. The solution to the sustainable supplier selection problem of a business that produces sustainable agricultural machines in Turkey using criteria selected from the classification was performed with Mamdani-type fuzzy inference system.

Keywords: Mamdani-type fuzzy inference systems, sustainable supply chain management, supplier selection problem,

1.1 Sustainable supply chain management

The term of sustainability emerged in 1960s as a response to the concerns of environmental degradation and social inequality (McKenzie, 2004). The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) defines sustainability as “the development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” Since the declaration by WCED in 1987, arguments have been going on in terms of how such a wide and political concept of sustainability can be applied to an economic perspective and made functional, and business world interpreted it as the integration of economic, social, and environmental dimensions, generally known as “triple bottom line” (TBL) (Elkington, 1998). While it is not a universally accepted concept of sustainability, it fundamentally means the integration of economic, social, environmental, and cultural concepts into business applications. The concept of sustainability actually originates from “sustainable development,” which has a much wider scope (Caroll and Buchhollz, 2008). The economic line of the TBL points to the effects of business applications by a corporation on the economic system (Elkington, 1998). A corporation needs to supply the needs of its market fully, correctly, and timely; satisfy its customers; and profit economically without compromising its quality in order to continue in a positive direction for a long-term sustainability (Cuthbertson, 2011). For communities, social sustainability is both a condition to strengthen life and a process to achieve it (Mc Kenzie, 2004). Many businesses utilize supplier evaluation tools and partner applications to ensure a higher social responsibility for their supplier chains (Gimenez and Tachizawa, 2012). The social dimension of the TBL represents the necessity of maintaining beneficial and fair applications for labor, human capital, and the community. Applications such as fair wage system and health insurance enrich the society (Alhaddi, 2015). Although the environmental problems that societies face today are widely documented and blamed largely on business world, there is need for developing practical solutions to minimize some of the risks and difficulties rising from such problems. Business world is in the center of these environmental controversies, but it must also locate itself in as the center of solutions (Lamming and Hampson, 1996). The aims of supply chain management (SCM) in terms of sustainability are to optimize manufacturing activities and maximize profitability. However, they should also minimize the use of resources and production of waste material while maximizing the amount of recycled energy in order to ensure environmental sustainability (Zhou et al., 2000).

Sustainability is usually associated with corporal social responsibility. The concept of sustainability dictates the fulfillment of current needs without compromising the needs of future generations. Hearing about sustainability for the first time, people think about green products, recycling, global warming, and the protection of rain forests. While these are vital parts of sustainability, costumers also care about their community and the reputation of a business (Heizer et al., 2017). The concept of sustainability created many uses such as “social sustainability,” “environmental sustainability,” “sustainable development,” and “sustainable future” (Kopnina and Blewitt, 2014). Sustainability and sustainable development can be explained as a combination of economic, social, and environmental elements within the problems related to supplier selection. As the concept of sustainability is a key factor in SCM, companies try to incorporate the features of sustainability into their supply chain activities in order to gain competitive advantage (Azadi et al., 2015). Then sustainability leads to competition among institutions, which are focused on innovation (Hansen et al., 2009).

Sustainable SCM (SSCM) is the administration of cooperation among companies in addition to the flow of material, information, and capital all along the chain in view of the three fundamental dimensions of sustainable development (Seçkin, 2018). SSCM originated from the way the current generations satisfy their needs and its effects on and the concerns for the capability of future generations to satisfy their own needs (Altuntaş, 2015). It is an important discipline that enables the integration of environmental and social applications into commercial activities to reach the target of sustainability (Ashby et al., 2012). Supply chain sustainability is the encouragement of managing environmental, social, and economic effects, and good governance applications along the life span of products and services. The aim of supply chain sustainability is to create long-term environmental, social, and economic values, to protect and improve them f...