Identification and Assessment of Critical Risks of Sustainable Supply Chain in the Iranian Lead and Zinc Industry

Sustainability is now increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to deal with the current challenges of global supply chains. Supply chains of the lead and zinc industries are most important. Because these two industries not only are among the high-risk in different countries, including Iran, but also can affect economic, social, and environmental sustainability. On the other hand, identifying and assessing the critical risks of supply chains have been less addressed in recent studies. This study aimed to identify and assess critical risks of sustainable supply chains (SSCs) in the Iranian lead and zinc industry. This study was a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) descriptive survey. Based on the literature, 24 risk factors that affect supply chain sustainability were identified, out of which 20 critical risk factors were confirmed in two steps by reviewing experts’ comments and the data obtained from in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The validity of questionnaires is verified based on the opinions of a group of 5 experts in the first step and another group of 17 experts and professionals of the lead and zinc industry in the second. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the questionnaires was calculated to be 0.837, indicating the reliability of the questionnaires. The risk factors were analyzed using the Risk Priority Number (RPN), fuzzy DEMATEL, and risk matrices. Based on the results, “lack of technological/knowledge sustainability”, “price and cost fluctuations”, “inflation and exchange rates” and “environmental pollution” were the most important risk factors in the supply chain of the Iranian lead and zinc industry.