Supply chain strategy decisions for sustainable development using an integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach

The evaluation and selection of strategies for sustainable development in manufacturing supply chains are critical tasks for the decision-maker because of the complexity involving various criteria. This paper deals with the prioritization of critical sustainability criteria and the sustainability strategy selection (SSS) using an integrated weighting approach. This approach consists of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the subjective and objective weight integrated approach (SOWIA) and the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) and is found to be effective for solving this multi-criteria decision-making problem. The proposed methodology is applied to solve a real-time supply chain decision-making issue of an Indian manufacturing industry. From a sustainability perspective, the results indicate the second strategy set as the best among the given alternatives, with an objective factor of 0.5. The robustness of the results has been analysed to identify the uncertainty in the final ranking. The consistency of the final ranking has been evaluated based on different objective factor values. The novelty of this paper pertains to addressing the most relevant SSS problem involved in a manufacturing supply chain and in establishing a hybrid approach for solving it. This approach offers a flexible provision for decision-makers to incorporate the appropriate level of subjectivity and objectivity into their decisions based on their degree of expertise. This study is unique and carries a high originality value, as it offers a new structured and flexible approach to solving the SSS problem.