۱- Introduction

۲- Research methodology and initial data statistics

۳- Related literature reviews published recently (2006 onwards)

۴- Sample description and main characteristics

۵- How have OR methods been used to support sustainable supply chain decisions?

۶- How have the three pillars of sustainability been modeled in sustainable supply chain?

۷- Industrial applications

۸- Critical analysis and future research agenda

۹- Conclusions

References

Abstract

Sustainable Supply Chain have become a cornerstone to any company that seeks to achieve sustainable goals. A company’s image is no longer related to the old paradigm of being sustainable in its own activities, but instead is associated with a strong collaboration between all supply chain stakeholders, towards a sustainable activity. It is then critical to create new methods and tools to account for the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social, in a multi-stakeholder chain. In this context, operational research (OR) methods play a key role in supporting sustainable supply chain activities. This paper aims to review the trends and directions of OR methods applications towards the achievement of sustainable supply chain. A set of 220 papers has been reviewed to identify the OR methods being employed, the levels of decision considered and how sustainability practices were treated through OR. We found that optimization models applied to strategic level decisions are the most preponderant studies. Moreover, it was verified that sustainability has been mainly tackled by assessing economic and environmental aspects, leaving behind the social aspects. Additionally, OR-based studies do not yet present a clear definition of sustainability, a fact that is proven by the number of environmental and social methodologies explored. Based on the major trends identified in the literature, a research framework is derived, pointing towards a future research agenda in the area.

Introduction

Supply Chain (SC) have appeared for the first time in the literature more than thirty years ago when Oliver and Weber (Oliver & Webber, 1982) proposed the first definition for the management of such systems. Since then, the SC management (SCM) area has grown considerably at both research and industrial levels, and SC are nowadays bedrock systems in any organization. SC, in its classical form – forward supply chain, are viewed as a combination of processes aimed at fulfilling customers’ requests, that include all possible network entities such as suppliers, manufacturers, transporters, warehouses, retailers and customers, whose main purpose is the customer´s satisfaction at a minimum cost (Simchi-Levi et al., 2007). However, such a purpose has enlarged over time, and SC have been expanding their activities towards the goal of integrating not only economic, but also environmental aspects. Reverse logistics activities have been incorporated within the existing networks, and the collection and treatment of end of life products through recycling, or remanufacturing, repairing, and/or finally disposing of some used parts, have been considered within those networks (Cardoso et al. 2013; Fleischmann et al., 1997). This led to the dawn of the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) (Guide & Van Wassenhove, 2002). CLSC are logistic systems whose design, planning and operation aim to maximize value creation over the entire life cycle of a product, pursuing a dynamic recovery of the product value from different types and volumes of returns. Savaskan & Van Wassenhove (2006) highlighted the benefits of an integrated CLSC, and such systems have been explored in several published works, namely by Salema et al. (2010); Cardoso et al. (2013); and Zeballos et al. (2014).