An integrated open-loop supply chain network configuration model with sustainable supplier selection: fuzzy multi-objective approach

Supply chain management is an essential part of most companies to reduce costs and increase the profit for a competitive business environment. The success of companies is directly connected to the performance of the supply chain. The sustainability of businesses broadly depends on the purchasing decision, and the process becomes more complex with resource limitations. In addition, relationships with suppliers are considered for optimal production and risk minimization in the supply chain network. This research aims to design and optimize a multi-echelon, multi-period, and multi-objective open-loop supply chain (OLSC) network design. The objectives are deemed to be the total costs, the minimization of environmental costs, and the maximization of the importance level of suppliers. Furthermore, a fuzzy approach based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets is designed to evaluate the supplier performance according to sustainable qualitative criteria. After determination of the weights of criteria and evaluation of suppliers by interval type-2 fuzzy numbers, the final score of suppliers is calculated based on the weights of criteria and evaluation scores. Three fuzzy programming approaches are utilized to solve the developed OLSC model. A numerical example is provided to validate the model and effectiveness of the proposed evaluation procedure. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed evaluation procedure and the achievement of a compromise in the developed model.