Title: Exploring ecosystem network analysis to balance resilience and performance in sustainable supply chain design

Authors: Vitor De Souza; Jacqueline Bloemhof-Ruwaard; Milton Borsato

Addresses: Graduate School of Mechanical Engineering and Materials (PPGEM), Federal University of Technology – Parana (UTFPR), Rua Deputado Heitor Alencar Furtado, 5000, 81280-340, Curitiba PR, Brazil ' Operations Research and Logistics Group, Wageningen University and Research, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands ' Graduate School of Mechanical Engineering and Materials (PPGEM), Federal University of Technology – Parana (UTFPR), Rua Deputado Heitor Alencar Furtado, 5000, 81280-340, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

Abstract: Sustainable supply chain design can be performed using optimisation strategies for minimising environmental impacts while maximising profit. It is not clear how such strategies influence the resilience of a supply chain - its ability to handle disturbances without compromising its function. This research used the ecosystem network analysis (ENA) to evaluate the resilience during the design of a sugar beet supply chain. The ε-constraint method was used to solve a multi-objective, mixed integer linear programming (MOMILP) model. Results showed that ENA results are compromised when the strategy of minimising environmental impacts is used, due to the increased fragility of the configuration, compared with the configuration from the profit maximisation strategy. Sensitivity analysis also revealed that, when the number of facilities is increased, ENA results improve while profit is decreased. ENA showed an interesting potential to support the pursuit of balance between resilience and performance during early design stages.

Keywords: resilience; ecosystem network analysis; ENA; sustainable supply chain design; SSCD; multi-objective programming.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOM.2019.098525

International Journal of Advanced Operations Management, 2019 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.26 - 45

Received: 10 Apr 2018
Accepted: 15 Nov 2018
Published online: 25 Mar 2019 *

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