Modelling and assessing sustainability of a supply chain network leveraging multi Echelon Bayesian Network

Supply chain sustainability (SCS) is an approach that takes into consideration the environmental, economic, and social aspects of the supply chain processes, components, technologies, and logistics when designing a supply chain network. The elements that impact SCS encompass all kinds of waste, emissions, green management, workers? health and well-being, market competitiveness, transportation, and financial aspects of the network. Supply chain experts should integrate sustainability practices in different phases of the supply chain and encourage organizations to orient their efforts toward designing sustainable supply chains. In this study, we present a new metric, ?supply chain sustainability index (SCSI)? to assess the overall sustainability of a biomass supply chain network through three criteria: environmental, social, and economic sustainability. To pursue the objective of the study, a Bayesian Network approach is implemented to depict the causal relationship among different variables and to demonstrate a better analysis of the subject. For further assessment and analysis of the overall sustainability of the supply chain network, sensitivity analysis and belief propagation are performed. Results indicate that all three criteria are imperative to SCSI prediction; however, economic sustainability has a slightly higher effect among the three criteria, while social criteria have the lowest effect on SCSI. ? 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Supply chain sustainability (SCS) is an approach that considers the environmental, economic, and social aspects of the supply chain processes when designing a supply chain network. It is important to integrate sustainability practices in different phases of the supply chain and encourage organizations to orient their efforts toward designing sustainable supply chains. Results from the study show that economic sustainability has a slightly higher effect on the supply chain sustainability index (SCSI) prediction compared to the social criteria.