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Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (23 September 2020) | Viewed by 39555

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Marija Bogataj

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Guest Editor

CERRISK, Institute INRISK, 8210 Trebnje, Slovenia
Interests: transportation; safety; insurance; acturarial science; logistics; decisions science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Francisco Campuzano Bolarín

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Guest Editor

Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena
Interests: supply chain modelling and simulation

Prof. Dr. Suresh P. Sethi

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Guest Editor

Centre for Intelligent Supply Networks, University of Texas, Dallas, TX 75080, USA
Interests: supply chain management; partially observed inventory models; stochastic dynamic differential games; dynamic and stochastic advertising models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There are three main aspects of sustainable supply chain management. The social aspect focuses on the human resources and their functional capacities, with an emphasis on their differences that arise from the needs of younger and older cohorts, thus impacting the supply chains in the silver economy. The economic aspect focuses on the value chain and costs. The environmental aspect—the heart of this Special Issue—focuses on pollution, climate change, food waste, etc. The United Nations has declared these aspects as the three pillars of sustainable development that are mutually reinforcing. In addition, we will consider the fourth aspect, the technological one, which is being studied in many recently published papers, including some in Sustainability. A critical issue of technological sustainability is the obsolescence of products and processes. Moreover, this aspect should focus on new technologies such as big data, blockchain, and digital matchmaking. For this Special Issue, we seek papers on sustainable supply chain management involving any or all of these aspects.

Prof. Marija Bogataj
Prof. Francisco Campuzano Bolarín
Prof. Suresh P. Sethi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainability
supply chain
social sustainability
economic sustainability
environmental sustainability
new technologies
obsolescence
silver economy

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 826 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Sustainability Strategy across the Supply Chain: A Conceptual Approach from the Organisational Perspective

by Mohammad Najjar, Michael H. Small and Mahmoud M. Yasin

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10438; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su122410438 - 14 Dec 2020

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3732

Abstract

Much of the existing literature on the social aspects of sustainability in the supply chain has focused on dyadic buyer-supplier relationships. However, supply chains are much more extensive, featuring multi-tiered systems consisting of many interconnected sequential and parallel dyadic relationships; therefore, a more expansive and holistic approach to exploring the management and integration of social sustainability standards across the extended supply chain is desirable. This research attempts to help fill this void and considers the extent to which a series of sequential upstream and downstream supply chain partners, rather than only a focal organization’s immediate suppliers and buyers, influence the formulation process of the social aspects of a sustainability strategy and the deployment of associated practices across the extended supply chain. Findings in the literature indicate that, inter alia, sustainability efforts in the supply chain are likely to be guided by stakeholders’ sustainability desires/requirements, the geographical location of buyers and suppliers and the associated sustainability enforcement regulations and cultural norms, and the volume of trade between the buyer and supplier. This paper uses the results gleaned from a review of the literature to propose a conceptual framework for selection of sustainability strategy across the multi-tiered supply chain. Finally, we introduce a conceptual approach to the process of implementing and deploying the social aspects of sustainability strategies and practices across the supply chain using an integrated social-sustainability information management system (ISIMS). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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17 pages, 1695 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Framework for Capacity and Operations Planning in Services Organizations Employing Workers with Intellectual Disabilities

by Jose Pedro Garcia-Sabater, Julien Maheut, Angel Ruiz and Julio Juan Garcia-Sabater

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9713; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12229713 - 21 Nov 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2312

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated framework for capacity and operations planning in Spanish sheltered employment centers (SECs). Employment provides socio-economic opportunities for people with disability. Well functioning SECs that provide opportunities for people with and without disability to work alongside each other are an important component of Spain’s current labor market. To be economically sustainable, SECs need to satisfy their clients expectations in terms of price, flexibility and performance, whilst taking into account and strengthening the diverse skills and abilities of their workforce like specific learning and forgetting processes. The SEC studied herein, a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to create employment for people with disabilities its workforce is deployed directly on clients’ premises. Efficient management across this multi-site environment, whilst supporting the diverse employment needs of its staff, is of paramount importance. This paper contributes an integrated framework to support SEC capacity and operations planning, which prioritizes the explicit training needs of workers with disability at all levels (strategic, tactical, and operational) as a lever for achieving the organization’s goals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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19 pages, 436 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Top Management’s Support on the Collaboration of Green Supply Chain Participants and Environmental Performance

by Jungeun Lee and Hye-Young Joo

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 9090; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12219090 - 31 Oct 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3401

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the support of top management significantly improves the level of environmental collaboration with participating companies upstream and downstream of the green supply chain and the impact on environmental performance. The results of the empirical analysis of 301 companies that are establishing a green supply chain are as follows. First, top management’s support positively affects the level of collaboration with suppliers and customers in the green supply chain. Secondly, support from top management has a direct impact on the company’s environmental performance. Thirdly, the environmental collaboration of participating companies partially plays a mediation role between the support of top management and the environmental performance. This study has significance in that it analyzes the theoretical mechanism of top management’s support for environmental collaboration with participating companies, leading to environmental performance, and draws implications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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23 pages, 4629 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability of an Activity Node in Global Supply Chains

by David Bogataj, Marija Bogataj and Samo Drobne

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8881; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12218881 - 26 Oct 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2120

Abstract

Urban shrinkage is a remarkable phenomenon that cannot be convincingly explained by existing theories on urban growth and is closely linked to the global supply chain (SC) nodes in the labour market. This paper shows how a municipality in which an activity SC cell (production or service) is located as a node in the SC graph can be made more attractive for industrial activities and human resources, more sustainable, and less shrinking, through appropriate tax policies and investments in the infrastructure of the central places—cities where production or services are located. To this end, we developed the decision support model for the joint control of urban rightsizing by SC managers and local authorities. In the model we linked the extended material requirements problem (MRP) with a normalised asymmetric gravity model. The paper outlines how local authorities and institutions, when planning for the growing intensity of production or services, in a city where the number of workers is insufficient, should take into account the impact of taxation as well as investment in the infrastructure of a municipality, and not just net wages, in order to attract human resources. They need a decision support model for their negotiations on the rightsizing of the city. The objective was to develop a model of fiscal mechanisms in the interactive decision making processes of local authorities and SC managers to control the availability of labour in the city where production or services are running and need to grow because SC managers want to increase production or services but the available labour force is shrinking. A case study in Slovenia shows how local authorities and SC managers should work together to maintain a sustainable activity cell in a functional region of the urban agglomeration where this production or service is located. It models how to plan the rightsizing. Such an integrated policy best achieves the desired intensity of the supply chain, thereby avoiding the relocation of activities outside the region, which allows unsustainable flows of human resources and uncontrolled shrinking of a city or region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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23 pages, 1793 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Risk Mitigation in a Meat Supply Chain with Options of Redirection

by David Bogataj, Domen Hudoklin, Marija Bogataj, Vlado Dimovski and Simon Colnar

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8690; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12208690 - 20 Oct 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3732

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present how a higher income can be achieved by developing a broader and more accurate planning framework and control perishability from stable to fork if it is possible to redirect the shipments in the case of increasing perishability dynamics or longer time delays on the roads. It also gives the answer to the question of how such a Supply Chain (SC) can be evaluated using Net Present Value (NPV) approach. The procedures include a real-time calculation and communication about the remaining shelf life (RSL) during transportation and other logistic manipulations from one chain node to another if the time to exceed the contractually stipulated Customer Remaining Shelf Life (CRSL) is distributed by known distribution. Planning and control on the skeleton of the extended material requirements planning (MRP) model are advised, where time delays and their impact on the CRSL can be easily calculated. The changes in the NPV at contractually stipulated CRSL are calculated dynamically in real-time. Smart devices, tracking temperature, humidity, and gas concentration enable such reports immediately after detecting a high probability that CRSL, as stipulated in a contract, will not be achieved, based on the known parameters of the exponential distribution of the remaining shelf life as a time to failure at each node of the graph. The model includes possibilities to deliver the meat to the local market or to the reverse logistics plants in the nodes of the remaining route, if the expected contractually stipulated CRSL becomes too high. On this way, shortening unnecessary routes further contributes to less pollution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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18 pages, 2120 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synergic Sustainability Implications of Additive Manufacturing in Automotive Spare Parts: A Case Analysis

by Luis Isasi-Sanchez, Jesus Morcillo-Bellido, Jose Ignacio Ortiz-Gonzalez and Alfonso Duran-Heras

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8461; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12208461 - 14 Oct 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3681

Abstract

Triple bottom line (3BL) approaches to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) often involve trade-offs between their three dimensions (economic, environmental, and social), thus curtailing its application and leading to goal unalignment among stakeholders. Under some circumstances, however, synergic approaches (typically involving disruptive innovations) might allow simultaneous improvement in one or more dimensions without compromising the others. This paper analyzes one such case: the potential of properly designed additive manufacturing approaches in the automotive spare parts industry to simultaneously boost profits and reduce environmental impact. It is based on the systematic analysis of the real spare parts business of a mid-size automotive brand in Spain. Its results suggest that such synergic, self-reinforcing opportunities do indeed exist, and might even be further developed by strategically integrating sustainability constituents such as circularity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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16 pages, 760 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Overview of Dynamic Facility Layout Planning as a Sustainability Strategy

by Pablo Pérez-Gosende, Josefa Mula and Manuel Díaz-Madroñero

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8277; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12198277 - 08 Oct 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4630

Abstract

The facility layout design problem is significantly relevant within the business operations strategies framework and has emerged as an alternate strategy towards supply chain sustainability. However, its wide coverage in the scientific literature has focused mainly on the static planning approach and disregarded the dynamic approach, which is very useful in real-world applications. In this context, the present article offers a literature review of the dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP). First, a taxonomy of the reviewed papers is proposed based on the problem formulation current trends (related to the problem type, planning phase, planning approach, number of facilities, number of floors, number of departments, space consideration, department shape, department dimensions, department area, and materials handling configuration); the mathematical modeling approach (regarding the type of model, type of objective function, type of constraints, nature of market demand, type of data, and distance metric), and the considered solution approach. Then, the extent to which recent research into DFLP has contributed to supply chain sustainability by addressing its three performance dimensions (economic, environmental, social) is described. Finally, some future research guidelines are provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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28 pages, 10035 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bibliometric Analysis in Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing: What about the Sustainable Supply Chain?

by Jon Borregan-Alvarado, Izaskun Alvarez-Meaza, Ernesto Cilleruelo-Carrasco and Gaizka Garechana-Anacabe

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 7840; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12197840 - 23 Sep 2020

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4981

Abstract

During the last decade, different concepts, methodologies, and technologies have appeared, evolving industry toward what we know today as the fourth industrial evolution or Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Advanced Manufacturing (AM). Based on both, Supply Chain (SC) is presented as the relevant process that sets the sustainability of manufacturing and, therefore, is defined as a key term in a sustainable approach to I4.0. However, there are no studies that analyze the evolution of science in the fields of I4.0 and AM together. In order to fill this gap, the aim of this research work is to analyze the tendencies of science research related to I4.0 and AM by conducting a bibliometric and network analysis and also to generate a new contribution through the analysis of scientific trends related to SC and Sustainable Supply Chain (SSC) within this scientific context, for the time span 2010–2019. The results show that the number of publications is growing exponentially and the most active countries are Germany and the U.S., with Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University being the most productive organization and Tecnologico de Monterrey the most collaborative. The analysis of the scientific terms allows us to conclude that the research field is in a growth phase, generating up to almost 4500 new terms in 2019. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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28 pages, 9034 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Trade-off Analysis of Economic and Environmental Aspects of a Disruption Based Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network

by Abdul Salam Khan, Catalin Iulian Pruncu, Razaullah Khan, Khawar Naeem, Abdul Ghaffar, Pakeeza Ashraf and Shah Room

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7056; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12177056 - 29 Aug 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3628

Abstract

Closed-loop supply chain networks are gaining research popularity due to environmental, economic and social concerns. Such networks are primarily designed to overcome carbon footprints and to retrieve end of life products from customers. This study considers a multi echelon closed-loop supply chain in the presence of machine disruption. A multi-objective model is presented to optimize the total cost, the total time and emissions in a closed-loop supply chain network. The aim is to analyze the trade-off between the objectives of cost, time, and emissions and how these decisions are impacted by the selection of different available machines. A number of solution approaches are tested on a case study from the tire industry. The results suggest the improved performance of the hybrid heuristic and the importance of controlling disruption in a closed-loop supply chain network. Furthermore, there is a trade-off between the different objective functions which can help the decision maker to choose a particular solution according to the preference of an organization. Finally, conclusion and future research avenues are provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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Review

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17 pages, 560 KiB

Open AccessReview

A General Outline of a Sustainable Supply Chain 4.0

by Héctor Cañas, Josefa Mula and Francisco Campuzano-Bolarín

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 7978; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12197978 - 26 Sep 2020

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 6283

Abstract

This article presents a literature review to identify the current knowledge of supply chains 4.0 from the sustainability perspective. Reviewed papers were classified in terms of objectives, results, and sustainability approaches. Additionally, a critical discussion with the main results and recommendations for further research was carried out. Manufacturing supply chains have been contemplated but agri-food supply chains and chains related to diversified cropping systems have been also considered. In this way, 54 articles were identified and revised, and were classified according to the three main aspects of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. The classification of articles indicated that more attention has been paid to the environmental aspect in the industry 4.0 (I4.0) context in the literature, while the social aspect has been paid less attention. Finally, reference frameworks were identified, along with the I4.0 models, algorithms, heuristics, metaheuristics, and technologies, which have enabled sustainability in supply chains. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects)

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