Sustainable supply chain network design problem: Using the integrated BWM, TOPSIS, possibilistic programming, and ε-constrained methods

Abstract

This paper proposes a two-stage multi-objective possibilistic integer linear programming sustainable supply chain network design model, minimizing the economic, environmental goals and maximizing the social sustainability goals. The proposed model determines the openings of facilities and the amount of flow of goods across the supply chain. It introduces supplier green image factors in the design of the supply chain network. The model has considered epistemic uncertainty to model the unknown capacity, cost, and demand. The proposed study has been carried out in two stages. In the first stage, BWM (Best-Worst method) and TOPSIS are applied to evaluate the green image weights of suppliers. Further, these green weights are being used in the second phase for the supply chain network design. The study has adopted combined possibilistic programming and Epsilon (ε) constraint method, which was reported infrequently in the literature. Epsilon (ε) constraint method generates distinct Pareto-optimal solutions, which provided a large combination of the trade-off between the cost, emission, and social sustainability. The results facilitate decision-makers to take the decision in an uncertain environment.