A design of a circular closed-loop agri-food supply chain network—A case study of the soybean industry

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an irresistible need for the agri-food industry to prioritize the development of efficient supply chain systems considering circular economy concepts. Agri-food products are critical to sustaining human life, as they provide essential nutrients required for maintaining bodily functions. Producing the appropriate quantity of agri-food products to match the potential demand is crucial for efficient supply to industries and markets. In addition, the principles of the circular economy can be employed to effectively utilize or reintroduce agri-food waste back into the network. This work formulates a novel mixed-integer linear programming model to propose a closed-loop agri-food supply chain network design for the soybean industry under sustainability and circular economy terms. The multi-objective network struggles to manage the total net profit while monitoring CO2 emissions and the satisfaction of customers within the network. Given the NP-hard nature of the network, the solution approach embraces a set of conventional and hybrid metaheuristics to surmount its complexity effectively. To this end, four multi-objective optimizers and three hybrid algorithms are utilized. Hence, the model's compatibility with real conditions is investigated using fifteen practical tests. The results of interval plots and the hybrid multi-criteria decision-making techniques emphasize that optimizers can solve all sizes of problems. However, MOGWO is better suited for addressing small-size problems, whereas MOHHSA is highly effective for tackling problems of medium and large sizes.