With growing competition in the market and dire need for sustainability, it has become imperative for companies to build long‐term relationship with their supply chain partners through sustainable ...collaboration. Among these, the supplier–manufacturer relationship is crucial for improved organizational, business and sustainable performance. Sustainable collaboration with suppliers involves crucial decision‐making processes such as continuous supplier monitoring and supplier development. Hence, a critical challenge that a company faces is to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for assessing the performance of a supplier for sustainable collaboration. In this regard, this study focuses on identification of KPIs for an Indian home appliance company through exhaustive discussions involving multiple decision‐makers. Further, a grey‐based decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) model is proposed in the study for analysing the importance levels among the fifteen KPIs based on multiple stakeholder perspectives. The results of the grey structural model indicate seven KPIs as influencing KPIs and eight KPIs as influenced KPIs. The KPI ‘Information disclosure’ has been identified as the most influential KPI for the evaluation of suppliers for sustainable collaboration. The implications drawn from the result analysis model can provide meaningful insights to managers for identifying strategies towards strengthening the supplier–manufacturer relationship and achieving organizational and market competence.
Immense concern for sustainability and increasing stakeholders’ involvement has sparked tremendous interest towards designing optimal supply chain networks with significant economic, environmental, ...and social influence. Central to the idea, this study aims to design a closed loop supply chain (CLSC) network for an Indian laptop manufacturer. The network configuration, which involves a manufacturer, suppliers, third party logistics providers (forward and reverse), retailers, customers and a non-government organisation (NGO), is modelled as a mixed integer linear programming problem with fuzzy goals of minimising environmental impact and maximising net profit and social impact, subject to fuzzy demand and capacity constraints. Profit is generated from the sale of primary and secondary laptops, earned tax credits, and revenue sharing with reverse logistics providers. The environmental implications are investigated by measuring the carbon emitted due to activities of manufacturing, assembling, dismantling, fabrication, and transportation. The social dimension is quantified in terms of the number of jobs created, training hours, community service hours, and donations to NGO. The novelty of the model rests on its quantification of the three triple bottom line (TBL) indicators and on its use of AHP–TOPSIS for modelling the multi-criteria perspectives of the stakeholders. Numerical weights for the triple lines of sustainability are utilized. Further, a fuzzy multi-objective programming approach that integrates fuzzy set theory with goal programming techniques is utilised to yield properly efficient solutions to the multi-objective problem and to provide a trade-off set for conflicting objectives. The significance of the CLSC model is empirically established as a decision support tool for improving the TBL performance of a particular Indian laptop manufacturer. Practical and theoretical implications are derived from the result analysis, and a generalised quantitative closed-loop model can be effectively adapted by other electronic manufacturers to increase their competitiveness, profitability, and to improve their TBL.
Abstract
Sustainable collaboration between manufacturer and supplier has emerged as a crucial supply chain decision for increasing business efficiency. In this study, a theoretical framework is ...proposed that uses practice‐based view to analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) for developing sustainable collaboration. Further, the current study proposes a novel three‐phase supplier evaluation–selection model to assess the incumbent suppliers on basis of KPIs for showcasing the applicability of theoretical framework. The model uses best–worst method (BWM) in the first phase for generating weights of KPI, adopts the TODIM approach in the second phase for evaluation of suppliers, and develops a supplier classification grid in the third phase for analyzing the impact of each selection strategy to be adopted. The novelty of the study is in evaluation of suppliers based on the KPIs with consideration of desirability as well as the potentiality metric and in consideration of the selection strategies, namely, supplier retention, supplier development, and supplier switching. A case study of India's leading home appliances company is taken to demonstrate the application of the current study. The result of BWM reveals that in terms of supplier's potentiality, “quality” emerges as a strong KPI while KPI “information disclosure” gains more importance while considering supplier's desirability towards strengthening the sustainable relationship. The TODIM grid analysis result suggests that suppliers with high performance in both metrics clearly qualify as the best suppliers and must be retained, while the suppliers performing low in both areas must be switched. For suppliers with metric values in conflict with each other, a trade‐off analysis is needed. Important research and managerial implications are drawn from the validation of the proposed framework, which can be useful for researchers and practitioners.
Due to rising concerns for environmental sustainability, the Indian electronic industry faces immense pressure to incorporate effective sustainable practices into the supply chain (SC) planning. ...Consequently, manufacturing enterprises (ME) are exploring the option of re-examining their SC strategies and taking a formalized approach towards a sustainable partnership with logistics providers. To begin with, it is imperative to associate with sustainable forward and reverse logistics providers to manage effectively the upward and downstream flows simultaneously. In this context, this paper proposes an integrated SC network for the evaluation and selection of forward distribution partners (FDP) and third party reverse logistic providers (3PRLP) from a sustainable perspective of an Indian electronic ME. The sustainable evaluation of the logistic partners is performed using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution. The integrated logistics network is modeled as a bi-objective mixed-integer programming problem with the objective of maximizing the profit of the manufacturer and maximizing the sustainable score of the selected forward and reverse logistics providers. The novelty of the study is its ranking of the FDPs and 3PRLPs on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability and the simultaneous integration of logistics outsourcing decisions for the forward and reverse flow of products. Goal programming approach is utilized to capture the trade-off between the conflicting objectives and to attain a satisfying solution to the bi-objective problem. The results indicate that integrating the strategic decisions of selection of logistics partners with the operational flow planning decisions can immensely improve the sustainable performance value of the SC network and secure reasonable profits. The managerial implications drawn from the result analysis provide a sustainable framework to the ME for enhancing its corporate image.
Establishment of a closed loop supply chain (CLSC) network has attracted immense significance due to government policies and societal demand for environmental consciousness. However, to enhance the ...financial and ecological impact of the network, the forward and reverse supply chain networks must integrate well so that decisions taken in both areas complement each other. In this study, we propose an eco-efficient CLSC design for extending the existing supply chain of an Indian firm that assembles inkjet printers. The network design is configured as a multi-objective model in a multi-period setting and is mathematically formulated into a mixed integer programming problem with fuzzy objectives. Fuzziness provides flexibility to the decision makers because they must accommodate the conflicting nature of the objectives. The fuzzy multi-objective model incorporates the firm's economic and environmental concerns into the decision making process by selecting environmentally responsible suppliers to procure components based on sustainable criteria, choosing appropriate recovery options for end-of-use (EOU) inkjet printers, and planning an efficient transportation network design for reducing the carbon emission of the distribution and collection activities. The uniqueness of the proposed fuzzy CLSC optimization model lies in providing an integrated decision making framework that can aid the manufacturer in making crucial strategic, tactical, and operational decisions of optimal selection of suppliers, component order allocation, recovery flow allocation, and vehicle routing planning. The novelty of the model also lies in simultaneously minimising the overall cost of the activities undertaken, maximizing the performance of the component suppliers and minimising the carbon emissions of the associated transportation activities. A weighted fuzzy mathematical programming approach is utilised for generating a fuzzy, properly efficient solution as the desired compromised solution for the CLSC network problem configuration. The relevance of the model is justified using a real data set derived from a case study of the firm based in the northern capital region (NCR) of India. The findings indicate that the proposed integrated CLSC network model enables the firm in gaining sustainably from the numerous electronic product reuse opportunities in the Indian market. Further, while costly to begin with, choosing suppliers with higher sustainable performance and vehicles with lesser emission rate could substantially enhance firm's sustainable image and result in higher profits in the future.
Due to intensification of market competence and customers increasing socio-environmental concerns, sustainability has become a focal point for most organizations. Thus incorporation of customer ...sustainable expectations into the conventional supplier selection process has become necessary for manufacturers to sustain in the competitive market. To cope with this issue, it is necessary to model the customers' opinions and expectations into the strategic supplier selection and order allocation decision making, an area not delved upon much in the literature. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop an analytical model for manufacturing firm for selection of suppliers based on customers' expectations which are reflected as retailers' expectation level and also for bringing in financial and socio-environmental stability to the whole SC. The research methodology adopted involves 1) use of fuzzy-TOPSIS technique using Z numbers for evaluation of suppliers based on traditional as well as social environmental attributes which reflect customer's social and green expectations, 2) development of a novel bi-objective mathematical model for selecting suppliers meeting the expectation levels, allocating orders proportionate to the performance scores of the suppliers, rewarding or penalizing the suppliers as per their sustainable performance, 3) Transformation of the bi-objective model into a weighted goal programming model for attaining a trade-off solution between the objectives of minimization of cost and maximization of sustainable value of purchase. To exemplify the efficacy of the model, case of electronics sector is presented. The findings of the result suggest that penalty and reward value incorporated in the cost objective system is effective in enhancing the sustainable performance of the suppliers and can prove to be an effective strategy for DMs. The study recommends that the proposed mathematical model can considerably aid the manufacturer in integrating supplier selection and order allocation decisions while optimizing the performance of the customer oriented supply chain.
Ecological sustainability has become a top priority for governments and business practitioners because of the massive surge in electronic waste (e-waste). This ecological context has compelled ...electronic firms to adopt reverse logistics (RL) and to invest in advanced technologies with a focus on sustainable recovery practices and on reducing excessive carbon emissions (CEs). This study proposes a multi-objective mixed integer programming (MOMIP) model for configuring a RL network design; it incorporates multiple products, multiple recovery facilities, multiple processing technologies, and a selection of vehicle types. The novelty of this study lies in its consideration of four green technologies (inspection, dismantling, repair/refurbishing, and recycling facilities), and its efforts to maximize return yield potential in the form of product, components, and material recovery. The main objective of the model is to minimize overall RL network cost and environmental impact due to processing and transportation. Further, a weighted goal programming technique is used to determine efficient solutions and furnish a trade-off among the conflicting objectives. The mathematical model is validated utilizing a real life case study of an electronics manufacturing firm in India. The total RL network cost and emissions are both reduced, and different technologies are selected automatically for the RL processing facilities. The results demonstrate that the return yield increases significantly with the greener technology selections. The study also draws significant implications, specifically that carbon tax regulatory policies aid in significantly reducing carbon emissions to a large extent along with increasing product return yield. Hence, the results will help industrial managers in their strategic and tactical decision making. Their evaluations of recovery options, technology selection, and vehicle selection with regard to economic and ecological impact will permit decision makers to gain valuable managerial insights.
Increasing sustainability demands of stakeholders and government regulators are driving Food Manufacturing Companies (FMCs) towards embedding sustainability practices across the entire food value ...chain. This is most relevant in emerging economies such as India, as the sustainable growth of the food supply chain (SC) is predominantly dependent upon its multiple tiers of suppliers. Regrettably, the most impactful tier of suppliers, which are the grass-root suppliers, lie outside the reach of the sustainable efforts of the FMC. Significantly, the incorporation of the sustainability initiatives needs consistent and coordinated efforts of all the tiers of suppliers and stakeholders, especially in the current situation where a global pandemic badly hits farmers. This can be achieved by adopting Collaborative Sustainable Practices (CSPs) for channelization of joint efforts of FMC and stakeholders towards sustainability of grass-root suppliers using supply chain practice view. However, minimal documentation exists regarding the same, and the present study intends to fill this gap. Based on a case study of an Indian flour milling company, the focus of the research work is (1) identifying CSPs that FMC can adopt, (2) ascertaining the role of interim suppliers for ensuring sustainability up to the last tier of suppliers, and (3) developing a structural model utilizing combined efficiencies of Total Interpretive Structural Modeling technique and Fuzzy-MICMAC analysis, which the FMC can adopt for effectively implementing both the traditional practices as well as the CSPs. Through the result findings, decision-makers can visualize the impact and strength of each CSP and its interactions with other CSPs. It can enable them to cascade effective managerial responses into the respective tiers of SC for successful implementation of the CSPs and transmission of sustainability benefits to include the grass root suppliers. The study provides significant theoretical implications contributing to the existing literature on sustainability in a multi-tier food SC. Further, inputs to policy formulators for enhancing sustainability of farmers are outlined.
The Indian electronics industry is facing immense pressure to include sustainability practices in order to meet customer expectations, comply with legislation and create an edge over competitors. ...This growing need for inclusion of sustainability is driving original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to collaborate with third-party reverse logistics providers (3PRLPs) to sustainably manage returns. Collaboration with 3PRLP will put OEMs in a stronger position regarding compliance with government legislation, improving upon their corporate image and customer satisfaction. It is a win-win situation for the OEM. On the other hand, from the 3PRLP's point of view, it is important to know the capabilities of the OEMs before entering into a collaborative endeavour. Hence, it is firstly necessary to identify the most appropriate attributes of the manufacturer which are essential for a sustainable collaboration. In this context, the study proposes a novel framework for investigating the performance attributes of the OEMs from the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability. Since the evaluation of each attribute for each dimension of sustainability differs in terms of the nature of the information needed and the time and resources required, it is necessary to conduct a pre-evaluation of the attributes using the Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) method. Furthermore, the shortlisted attributes for each sustainability dimension are evaluated and prioritized using the best worst method (BWM). The novelty of the attribute selection process lies in simultaneously considering the degree of importance of the attribute as well as the degree of difficulty of the collection of data required for the assessment of the OEM. The result of this study helps decision-makers and practitioners to comprehend the most influential attributes of OEMs which are crucial for collaboration, thus enhancing the overall sustainability impact of the supply chain. The managerial implications drawn from the resulting analysis provide the 3PRLP with a sustainable evaluation framework which can be ideally used for the selection of collaborative partners. The above model is validated using the case of an Indian 3PRLP company that handles electronic products.
•Proposed a novel framework for investigating OEM's performance attributes to achieve sustainability.•Evaluation and prioritization of the attributes are performed using the best-worst method.•The model is validated using the case of Indian 3PRLP company.
Incorporating sustainable decisions with the retailer’s operational management has attracted enormous significance due to government regulations and customer demand for environmental consciousness. ...However, incorporating sustainable operations may interfere with the operational performance of the firm and, hence, retail companies need to examine the influence of these operations on overall supply chain efficiency. The present study develops a performance measurement model based on a two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique for measuring the joint impact of sustainable operations and operational activities on the business performance of a retail company. A case study of an Indian electronic retail chain is presented to reveal the potentiality and suitability of the proposed models. The novelty of the paper lies in establishing DEA models for an Indian retail chain company and for providing an analytical understanding of the conditions under which the strategic decisions at the operational level successfully support the integration of sustainable operations into the SC management. The results show that the additional sustainable constraints lead to improved operational efficiency of some firms of the retail chain and result in improved business efficiency, while for other firms the integration of sustainable objectives decrease business efficiency. The significance of the study lies in providing efficient target conditions for inefficient retail stores to improve their performance. The findings of the study provide meaningful insights to Indian retailers venturing into sustainable retailing operations for enhancing the operational and business efficiency of the supply chain.
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