Multi-objective Sustainable Supply Chain with Deteriorating Products and Transportation Options under Uncertain Demand and Backorder

Abstract

Supply chain sustainability, with economic, environment and social values, has gained attention in both academia and industry. For deteriorating and seasonal products, like fresh produce, the issue of timely supply and disposal of the deteriorated products are of great concern. This paper is to develop a possibilistic mathematical model, solved after linearizing the non-linear statements, and to propose a new replenishment policy for a centralized sustainable supply chain (SSC) for deteriorating items. Different transportation vehicle options produce various pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) levels are considered. Several variables are uncertain as the end-customer demand, the partial backordered ratio and the deterioration rate. Deterioration occurs for in-stock inventories and during transportation. The solution provides the optimum transportation modes and routes and the inventory policy by finding a balance between financial, environmental and social criteria.