Amin Chaabane

Designing supply chains with sustainability considerations

Increasing social awareness together with the new regulations for carbon and waste management are forcing enterprises to reconsider their supply chains with respect to economic, social and environmental objectives. Furthermore, cap and trade legislation for greenhouse gas emissions introduces a new level of complexity. This article presents a comprehensive methodology to address sustainable supply chain design problems where carbon emissions and total logistics costs, including suppliers and sub-contractors selection, technology acquisition and the choice of transportation modes, are considered in the design phase. The proposed methodology provides decision makers with a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model to determine the trade-off between economic and environmental considerations. This methodology is illustrated through the study of a Canadian firm operating in the steel industry which is facing a new legislation that caps carbon emissions. The results show how emission trading market can be used to reduce the carbon dioxide abatement cost.

Carbon Market Sensitive Green Supply Chain Network Design

This paper introduces a mixed integer mathematical model formulation for the ¿Carbon-Market Sensitive - Green Supply Chain Network Design¿ problem (CMS/GSCND) where carbon trading considerations are integrated within the supply chain network design phase. The solution methodology allows the evaluation of different strategic decisions alternatives, such as supplier and subcontractor selection, product allocation, capacity utilization, and transportation configuration, and their impact in terms of carbon footprint. This new formulation provides decision makers with the ability to understand the trade-offs between total logistics costs and the impact of greenhouse gases reduction. It also allows offsetting the latter through both supply chain reengineering and carbon trading. Model validation, results, and extended analysis are demonstrated via a numerical study.

Carbon market sensitive sustainable supply chain network design

Abstract Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design involves taking into account social, economic and environmental objectives at design time. While the social dimension is sometime harder to capture or quantify in mathematical terms, the Emission Trading Schema (ETS) introduces a natural trade-off between the economic and the environmental dimensions. This article addresses the design of supply chains that are also sensitive to the carbon market. Carbon emissions and total logistics costs are integrated in the design of the supply chain using a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model that is solved by goal programming. The proposed methodology provides decision makers with the ability to evaluate the trade-offs between total logistics costs and carbon offsetting under different supply chain operating strategies, environmental regulatory constraints and carbon market evolution. The approach is presented through an illustrative example derived from the steel industry where new legislation imposes regulatory carbon caps on emissions. The results show that this approach is a good starting point for a more comprehensive framework for sustainable supply chain network design.

Fuzzy-AHP approach for warehouse performance measurement

Warehouse performance evaluation is the measurement of efficient use of warehouse space, customer satisfaction level, quality of goods stored and transport, level of inventory and environmental friendly delivery. Managers and decision makers are keen to know very rapidly which decisions at what level need extra attention and have more impact on overall warehouse performance. In this paper, we propose a Fuzzy-AHP integrated approach that incorporates the linkage between the operational and strategic criteria to generate an overall warehouse performance measurement system. A numerical example illustrates the uses of the proposed model for Warehouse performance evaluation.

On the design of ustainable, green supply chains

Increasing regulatory legislations for carbon and waste management and the concerns on corporate social responsibility are driving forces behind sustainable supply chain network design which involves taking into account social, economic and environmental objectives at design time. While the social dimension is sometime harder to capture or quantify in mathematical terms, the Emission Trading Schema (ETS) introduces a natural trade-off between the economic and the environmental dimensions. This article addresses the design of supply chains that are sensitive to the carbon market where carbon emissions (environmental dimension) and total logistics costs (economic dimension) are integrated in the design of the supply chain using a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model that is solved by goal programming. The approach is presented through an illustrative example in the steel industry where new legislation imposes regulatory carbon caps on emissions. The results show that this approach is viable and offers a good starting point for a comprehensive framework for sustainable supply chain network design that can be expanded to include social aspects relating to the community.

A two-phase multi-criteria decision support system for supply chain management

Multi-criteria decision-making techniques have been used to solve a range of real world problems in management science and specific supply chain management (SCM) problems (e.g. supply chain design and reconfiguration, purchasing, scheduling, supplier selection). The results obtained are encouraging. Nevertheless, robust approaches for solving multi-criteria supply chain problems are still in progress, and more research is needed before an effective and operational framework can be developed. The proposed approach introduces a two-phase hierarchical approach to solve a multi-criteria SCM problem integrating both strategic and tactical decisions where the supply chain is evaluated based on the supply chain operations reference model. The latter considers various metrics such as delivery reliability, flexibility, responsiveness and cost. The first phase evaluates different supply chains configurations using analytic hierarchy process. The second phase solves the network for the optimal safety stock placement using dynamic programming. The output from this two-phase process is a supply chain network configuration that has the right amount of safety stocks at the right place to absorb variability in demand.

Present focuses and future directions of decision-making in construction supply chain management: a systematic review

Abstract This paper utilizes a systematic literature review methodology to identify the present focuses and discuss the future directions of decision-making in construction supply chain management (CSCM). The results show that, at present, the CSCM applications are still focusing on material and resources management with the internal supply chain (SC) integration. Strategic decisions related to building partnerships, IT-based planning and logistics-based planning are not conducted at the early phase of planning and design. For future trends in CSCM application, a framework is proposed to leverage the three important points: the collaborative planning and design with advanced techniques; the lean procurement with BIM and third-party logistics; and the application of Lean and BIM in construction operations and delivery. The original contribution of this paper is the attempt of identifying CSC decisions and suggests how they should be delivered during the phases of a construction project with the use of appropriate SC methods and tools.

Sustainable supply chains optimization: Mathematical modelling approach

The most of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions are attributed to supply chain activities. Thus, a comprehensive supply chain planning models are essential to maintain the supply chain performance (cost-effectiveness) under environmental policies. These models should capture the trade-offs arising through the interaction between different supply chain processes such as material acquisition, manufacturing, transport, distribution, and recycling. Therefore, we propose a model for strategic supply chain planning that takes into account carbon trading and includes decision on supply chain responsiveness under different environmental regulations: caps on supply chain carbon footprints and recovery rate of products at the end-of-life.

Context-Aware Business Processes Modelling: Concepts, Issues and Framework

Recent research activities on the design of business processes were driven by flexibility. Process flexibility can be achieved through the ability to trigger dynamic changes in the core of business process components in a timely manner and in response to business environment evolution. The drivers for business process flexibility can be found in the “Context” of a process which may include among others time, location, weather, legislation, and culture. Context-Aware Business Process Modelling extends traditional business process models with contextual variables that trigger a dynamic behavior under continuous change. However, as yet, most of the research work in this area has focused on some specific contextual information to model some varying parts such as business rules and goals. Little attention has given to the design and development of a general framework for context-aware business process modelling. In this paper, major business process components were extracted from the main existent business process design formalisms, amplified by contextual information, and integrated into a more a general framework. A case study of a well known European Logistics Enterprise is used to illustrate how contextual information should be integrated within existent business process modeling approaches.

Designing and evaluating sustainable supply chains : a carbon market oriented approach

Increasing regulatory legislations for carbon and waste management and the focus on corporate social responsibility are driving a major focus on supply chain sustainability. In this research, a goal programming model is proposed to address a supply chain design problem with environmental considerations. Carbon emissions (environmental dimension) and total logistics cost (economic dimension) are considered in order to evaluate the supply chain performance. A crucial contribution of our work is that, together with incorporating regulatory environmental constraints such as emissions “cap” and putting a price tag on carbon emissions, we comprehensively model compliance strategies for the supply chain including suppliers and sub-contractors selection, technology acquisition, and transportation modes configuration. The results obtained show that this approach is a viable decision tool and offer a good framework for designing and evaluating efficient and environmental supply chains.