A multi-objective mathematical model for designing the fruit supply chain based on the quality and sustainable development goals

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Industrial Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran.

Abstract
Purpose: In this paper, a multi-objective mathematical programming model is presented for designing a multi-level, multi-period fruit supply chain, while accounting for sustainable development goals encompassing cost minimization, greenhouse gas emission minimization, and social dimension maximization. In the proposed model, product quality plays a fundamental role in supply chain design, and fruits are graded in distribution centers based on quality and distributed to fruit markets, compost factories, juice factories, concentrate factories, and drug factories.
Methodology: The proposed multi-objective model is solved using fuzzy goal programming. The weights of the objective functions as well as the weights of social dimensions are calculated using the fuzzy best-worst approach.
Findings:  In this research, a case study of Fars province, the third-largest apple-producing province in the country, is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. The results of the proposed model were compared with three models from economic, environmental, and social perspectives. The research findings show that system sustainability cannot be achieved by separately optimizing models with economic, environmental, and social perspectives. The proposed model achieves an efficient optimal solution across all three dimensions of sustainability, with significant improvements in the environmental and social dimensions and a negligible increase in system costs. In addition, by establishing a proper balance across all three sustainability dimensions, the proposed model leads to a supply chain with a different network structure and a different number of deployed facilities compared to the other three models.
Originality/Value: The added value of this research is to provide a comprehensive model that considers sustainability and quality as the main factors in grading and distributing products across different levels of the supply chain. The findings of this research can help policymakers and operational managers in the fruit industry make strategic and operational decisions in fruit production, processing, and supply-to-sale markets based on sustainability dimensions.

Keywords


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