A multiobjective optimization model of production-sourcing for sustainable supply chain with consideration of social, environmental, and economic factors

Abstract

This paper incorporates the three pillars of sustainability - economic, environmental, and social dimensions - into a supply chain. A multiobjective programming model which jointly minimizes costs, emissions, and employee injuries in a supply chain is first constructed. Using the weighted-sum approach with weights setting by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the model is solved by normalization of the minima of the three objectives. A numerical example is conducted to test the model. The results show that it is indeed possible to integrate environmental and social metrics in supply chain system optimization. Multiobjective optimization can balance the social, environmental, and economic performance. This paper presents a new multidimension perspective for optimizing supply chain; it will inspire practitioners to change their decision ideas and improve supply chain sustainability. © 2014 Zhixiang Chen and Svenja Andresen.