Sustainability Analysis under Disruption Risks

Abstract

Resilience to disruptions and sustainability are both of paramount importance to supply chains. This paper presents a hybrid methodology for the design of a sustainable supply network that performs resiliently in the face of random disruptions. A stochastic bi-objective optimization model is developed that utilizes a fuzzy c-means clustering method to quantify and assess the sustainability performance of the suppliers. The proposed model determines outsourcing decisions and buttressing strategies that minimize the expected total cost and maximize the overall sustainability performance in disruptions. Important managerial insights and practical implications are obtained from the model implementation in a case study of plastic pipe industry.