Opportunities and challenges in sustainable supply chain: An operations research perspective

摘要

The stakeholders of a supply chain (SC) are suppliers, manufacturers, transporters, warehouses, retailers and customers. The main purpose is customer satisfaction at minimum cost. The objective has become many-fold over time because the system has taken into account environmental and social problems as well. Reverse logistics have been incorporated to collect used products for recycling, repair or disposal. This has led to closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) where the systems are designed to include all stages of the product life for value addition. In a sustainable SC, in addition to environmental issues, social needs of customers are also considered so that the next generation should not face problems of resource constraints or environmental issues. Sustainable supply chain (SSC) has been recently studied by many authors. SSC can be considered as a complex system that involves many from suppliers to customers taking into account social, environmental, and economic impacts. Commitments to supply chain sustainability have gained considerably over the years. This involves organizations understanding the sustainability approach, applying the best practices to achieve it and understanding tools for decision making from strategic to operational levels. This article deals with the design, plan and operation of SSC in an uncertain environment through literature review on applications of OR on SSC to support the complex decision making process of SSC. (265 refs.)