A new sustainability indicator for supply chains: theoretical and practical contribution towards sustainable operations

Both business and policymakers' agendas have been dominated by a debate on the lack of an integrated approach to measure the sustainability level of supply chains. To help in overcoming this crucial gap, this study proposes a framework for obtaining a sustainability index based on supply chain sustainability sub-criteria, criteria, and dimensions. This study considers 63 sub-criteria and 10 criteria for sustainability triple bottom lines including environments, social and economic. Since there are always uncertainties involved with decision data, the fuzzy logic is incorporated in calculations. This study is unique in the sense that it reduces the computational complexities of previous approaches by utilising subjective preferences and a more facilitated hierarchical soft computing method. The outcomes of this study contribute the practitioners to consider more environment-related practices through their system. An illustrative case is also resolved to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed index in real supply chains.

Automated summary

This study proposes a framework for obtaining a sustainability index based on supply chain sustainability sub-criteria, criteria, and dimensions. It incorporates fuzzy logic and subjective preferences to simplify the computational complexities and provides guidance for practitioners to consider environment-related practices.