Agility factors in cold supply chain using GRAY-DEMATEL and AHP

Nowadays, major challenges in the cold chain of perishable products, such as dairy products, are that these products do not reach customers on time. Answering the question of how to make the cold supply chain of perishable products more agile, the possibility of more control over this issue can be increased. This study tries to investigate the factors affecting the agility of the cold supply chain and after identifying the effective factors, rank them using the GRAY-DEMATEL-AHP. To data gathering, the literature of the subject and the opinions of experts and stakeholders who have sufficient experience in the cold chain have been used and the identified factors have been confirmed after several revisions by the Delphi through snowball sampling. Also, in order to take advantage of both the GRAY and DEMATEL approaches, this paper uses a combination of these two methods to examine causal relationships among the factors affecting the agility of the cold supply chain. The results show that Among the sourcing sub-factor, government decision-making and policies with a weight of 0.212 has gained the first rank and in the sub-factor of distribution, loading time and speed of action in distribution, with a weight of 0.188, has gained the first rank. Also, among the sub-factor of production, accurate planning and speed of action in order production, with a weight of 0.342, has gained the first rank. This paper adds valuable knowledge to the study of the dairy industry cold supply chain agility.