Designing a Sustainable and Reliable Supply Chain Network Under Uncertainty (Case Study: West of Carton)

Customers now care more than ever about the sustainability and reliability of products packaging. This research considers a multi-product and multi-period closed-loop supply chain design problem with three objectives of profitability, social responsibility, and reliability under uncertain conditions. Triangular fuzzy numbers have been used for non-deterministic parameters and a robust probabilistic programming approach with Me scale has been used to deal with fuzzy constraints. The proposed approach eliminates the need for iterative consideration by decision-makers by providing unlimited choices from the optimism-pessimism spectrum. The mathematical model developed in this study is of mixed integer linear programming type, which is implemented Augmented Epsilon Constraint (AEC) method in GAMS software to solve it and find Pareto optimal solutions. The accuracy of the overall performance of the proposed model has been evaluated with four examples (based on the coefficients of the objective functions) from a case study in the Carton-Making Industry. The obtained results indicate the existence of a conflict between the three objective functions. With this account, decision-makers should demand lower profits for increased environmental protection and improved reliability compared to the situation where only the economic aspect is considered. The variability of the justified decision space in the Me criterion has helped to solve the supply chain network design problem more flexibly and closer to reality through the possibility of exchange between the objective function and the risk-taking level of the managers.