Performance modeling and benchmarking of green supply chain management

Users' Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence-Based Chatbots

This research examines the effects of factors such as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, innovativeness, perceived information quality, and perceived customisation on behavioural intention to use Chatbots. The research model designed is empirically validated using structural equation modelling with the aid of AMOS software. A five-point Likert scale-based structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 378 Chatbot users in an online method. The results indicated that the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, innovativeness, perceived information quality, and perceived customisation have positive effects on intention to use Chatbots, whereas perceived enjoyment is found to exert no effect. The research further discussed implications and future directions of research.

Intertwining green SCM- and agile SCM-based decision-making framework for sustainability using GIVTFNs

Purpose

Supply chain management (SCM)-embedded valuable resources, such as capital, raw-materials, products, partners, customers and finished inventories, where the evaluation of environmental texture and flexibilities are needed to perceive sustainability. The present study aims to identify and evaluate the directory of green and agile (G-A) attributes based on decision support framework (DSF) for identifying dominating measures in SCM.

Design/methodology/approach

DSF is developed by exploiting generalized interval valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (GIVTFNs). Two technical approaches, i.e. degree of similarity approach (DSA) and distance approach (DA) under the extent boundaries of GIVTFNs, are implicated for data analytics and for recognizing constructive G-A measures based on comparative study for robust decision. A fuzzy-based performance indicator, i.e. fuzzy performance important index (FPII), is presented to enumerate the weak and strong G-A characteristics to manage knowledge risks in allied business environment.

Findings

The modeling is illustrated from the insights of decision-makers for augmenting business value based on cognitive identification of measures, where the best performance score is identified by the “sustainable packaging” under the traits of green supply chain management (GSCM). “The use of Web-based applications” under the traits of agile supply chain management (ASCM) and “Outsourcing flexibility” under traits of ASCM is found as the second and third most significant performance characteristics for business sustainability. Additionally, the “Reutilization (recycling) and reprocessing” under GSCM in manufacturing and “Responsiveness and speed toward customers needs” under ASCM are found difficult in attainment.

Research limitations/implications

The G-A evaluation will assist in attaining performance excellence in day-to-day operations and overall functioning. The outcomes will help executives to plan strategic objectives and attaining success.

Originality/value

To reinforce the capabilities of SCM, wide extent of G-A dimensions are presented, concept of FPII is reported to manage knowledge risks based on identification of strong attributes and two technical approaches, i.e. DSA and DA under GIVTFNs are presented for attaining robust decision and directing managerial decision-making process.

Supplier performance and selection from sustainable supply chain performance perspective

Purpose

This paper aims to address the supplier selection problem based on a developed framework capturing the essence of the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model, sustainability and providing services to customers. Specifically, the authors consider planning, manufacturing, delivery, sustainability and customer service attributes to evaluate and select suppliers.

Design/methodology/approach

Relevant literature is reviewed, a framework capturing the essence of major supply chain functions was developed and suitable measurement attributes were identified. An integrated fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution method are employed to obtain the final ranking of the attributes and suppliers. The proposed methodology is illustrated through a real case of an Indian automobile company.

Findings

The authors observed that planning, manufacturing, customer service, sustainability and delivery are preferred in decreasing order to select component suppliers for an automotive company. The impact of suppliers on planning and manufacturing is most important to consider while assessing suppliers. Interestingly, concerns about sustainability and delivery are the least cared factors when selecting suppliers. The top five criteria contain measures of operational efficiency rather than purchasing cost.

Originality/value

This paper proposes and demonstrates a supplier selection framework harmonizing supply chain functions of the SCOR model, sustainability and customers service that adds a valuable wing to literature that expounds on the connection of purchasing strategy to corporate strategy. A case study in an automotive company throws unique and valuable managerial implications for purchasing and supply chain performance.

Economic TEHES-Tube Material Evaluation by Absorbability Index under O-S-Dimensions for Minimizing Global Warming and Air Pollution by Exploring Dominance Theory: Green Management Initiative

It is investigated that the Global Warming and Air Pollution (GWAP) issues are highly prioritized around the world. There is a high magnitude of contaminated hot heat (CHH) from hot fluids such as contaminated water, oils, and mixed oils; toxic oils increase the GWAP ON emission. Such GWAP can be controlled by applying the methods-techniques for optimizing the energy processes, evaluating the high energy absorption material among available materials and technological advancement in energy flow devices, optimizing design of energy systems and low heat emission strategy, etc. It is observed that nowadays, Thermal Energy Heat Exchanger Systems (TEHESs) are utilized in many industries for transferring the energy between two mineral or contaminated liquids, separated by walls. It is found that TEHESs are constructed by tube materials, might be contributed to control the GWAP if TEHESs are fabricated with composite material, and have a high absorbability index. The evaluation of the Energy Absorbability Index (EAI) of TEHES composite tube materials provides the two innovative solutions to TEHES designers such as choose the economic/cost TEHESs and initiate to green management (reducing minimizing the GWAP). On literature survey, a few research documents are found by authors, which focused on mathematical modelling of either O- (objective-) or S- (subjective-) dimensions of composite TEHES tube material evaluation models for computing EAI. It is also probed that those models are simulated by single or nondynamic material evaluation methods. Therefore, it is summarized that there are no still research document pertaining to integrated/mixed mathematical modelling of O-S- (objective-subjective-) dimensions of composite TEHES tube materials with dominance theory for computing EAI of composite TEHES tube materials. Said research gaps are respected as major research defies (help to minimize the GWAP or green management). To fulfil the said research defies, the authors developed and proposed the TEHES-O-S-composite tube material evaluation model by conducting literature and real industrial survey, consisting of seven TEHES-O and four TEHES-S tube material dimensions. The O-dimensions are framed by available O-rating/data, while S-dimension is framed S-rating. The TFNs (triangular fuzzy numbers) are used by a team of experts for assigning the appropriateness ratings vs. four TEHES-S composite tube material dimension, and priority weights are assigned vs. entire TEHES-O-S tube material dimensions. After data modelling of the TEHES-O-S-composite tube material evaluation model, defuzzification is carried out to normalize O-S-data. Later, the authors’ implemented integrated optimization technique “crisp VIKOR combined FMF technique” to evaluate the EAI of composite TEHES tube materials. As the reliability of results is an enormous concern, dominance theory is applied by conducting the comparative analysis among evaluated results and delivering the accurate and reliable results. The evaluated beast composite TEHES tube materials based on EAI linked to green management and economic concern of material. The research can be used by TEHES designers to minimize the GWAP across the universe.

Smart Competence Management Using Business Analytics with Fuzzy Predicates

Organizations consider human capital as one of their most important assets. Experts in the field have focused on the research and development of human talent management skills. At present, companies are giving high importance to the management of this intangible resource. Management by competencies and skills is basic in the selection and development of the most valuable asset the organization has: its human capital. A conceptual framework of the intelligent management of human capital and some more advanced knowledge discovery techniques are presented in this paper. A methodology for smart detection of core competencies based on fuzzy logic predicates and business analytics is proposed. The proposed methodology allows: (1) the evaluation of the importance of competencies, (2) the identification of competencies achievement level of each employee, (3) the identification of competencies with difficulties, (4) the identification of competencies that have influence on others, and (5) a hierarchization of the competencies to select the most appropriated for the employee recruitment plan. Furthermore, an analysis is proposed using knowledge discovery, which allows one to identify which competences have influence on a specific one. All of the above is useful to build an ideal profile for a position. A case study was carried out in order to show the implementation and interpretation of our proposal.

A remanufacturing inventory model to control the carbon emission using cap-and-trade regulation with the hexagonal fuzzy number

Purpose

The awareness for protecting the environment has resulted in remanufacturing and recycling policies in manufacturing industries. Carbon emission is one of the most important elements affecting the environment. Carbon emission due to production and transportation creates complicated situations for the manufacturing firms by affecting the manufacturer's carbon quota. The ecological consequences posed in a reverse logistic model are the subject of this study.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study explores the fuzzy model of economic production for both remanufacturing and recycling with uncertain cost parameters under the cap-and-trade rule to control the carbon emission due to different modes of transportation. Due to imprecise cost parameters, the hexagonal fuzzy numbers are set to fuzzify the overall cost, which leads to correct decisions in a more confident way. The result is defuzzified by using graded mean integration.

Findings

This study offers an explicit condition to control the carbon emission of the manufacturer and reduce the optimum cost. The findings indicate that the collection of used goods that can be remanufactured must be increased. The model is validated numerically. Sensitivity analysis explores the various aspects of different parameters on net cost to accomplish the fuzzy production model.

Originality/value

Under fuzzy inference, the research offers a relevant contribution in the field of recycling with controlling carbon emission by using the cap-and-trade policy. This study provides a trading strategy for a manufacturer's decision to avoid losses.

Green supply chain management pressures, practices and performance: a critical literature review

Purpose

The concept of green supply chain management (GSCM) is evolving rapidly due to the environmental concerns and gaining popularity in the research community. This study critically analyze the literature of GSCM pressure, practice and performance for manufacturing enterprises based on the results of bibliometric, network and frequency analyses.

Design/methodology/approach

Scopus database is used for literature search. Bibliometric network and frequency analysis are used to critically review the evolution of identified constructs and measures of GSCM pressure, practice and performance.

Findings

This study has identified that the selected topic is in growing stage through the collaborative effort of the worldwide researchers. This study also shows the diffusion of influence in developing countries and there are enormous opportunities of research in these regions. The study finds evaluation of GSCM constructs and measures with time and shift in focus areas by the researchers. The study suggests more focus on the measurement of informative pressures, reverse logistics practices and negative impact on economic performance due to the adoption of GSCM practices. There is a need of simultaneous analysis of GSCM pressures, practices and performance to identify the cascading effect in different regions and industrial sectors and developed a conceptual framework to identify this effect. This study also observes the need of more quantitative measures-based case studies and suggests the use of life cycle assessment for the quantification of environmental performance.

Originality/value

This study for the first time has analyzed a specific topic of GSCM pressure, practice and performance through bibliometric and network analyses. This study critically reviews the constructs and measures of GSCM pressure, practice and performance and identified the future research directions.

Optimization of a two-echelon supply chain with random demand and random defect rate under strict carbon cap policy

Purpose

The yield of defective items and emissions of greenhouse gases in supply chains are areas of concern. Organizations try to reduce the yield defective items and emissions. In this paper, a constrained optimization model is developed with consideration of the yield of defective items and strict carbon cap policy simultaneously and then optimized. Further, sensitivity analyses have been carried out to draw different managerial insights. Precisely, we have tried to address the following research questions: (1) how to optimize the cost for a two-echelon supply chain considering yield of defective items and strict carbon cap policy, (2) how the total expected cost and total expected emissions act with changing parameters.

Design/methodology/approach

The mathematical modeling approach has been adopted to develop a model and further optimized it with optimization software. Costs and emissions from different areas of a supply chain have been derived and then the total cost and total emissions have been formulated mathematically. One constrained mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem has been formulated and solved considering emissions-related, velocity and production related-constraints. Further, different sensitivity analyses have been derived to draw some managerial insights.

Findings

In this paper, many decision variables have been calculated with a set of basic values of other parameters. It has been found that both cost and emissions can be controlled by controlling different parameters. It has been also found that some parameters have very little or no influence either on cost or emissions. In most cases, originations may exhaust the given limit of carbon cap to optimize their costs.

Originality/value

In spite of my sincere efforts, no paper has been found that has considered the yield of defective items and strict carbon cap policy simultaneously. In this paper, it is assumed that both demand and defect rates are random in nature. The model, presented in this paper may give insights to develop different supply chain models with consideration of both defective items and strict carbon cap policy. Sensitivity analyses, drawn in this paper may give deep insights to managers and carbon regulatory bodies.

Environmental performance in manufacturing companies: a benchmarking study

Purpose

This study aims to explore manufacturing companies' environmental performance with the green supply chain management (GSCM) approach, taking into account company size, geographic region, industrial sector, target market and environmental management maturity level.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the literature review, five propositions were put forward. An empirical study, using survey research, was completed. The survey questionnaire was designed with 46 items, using both the literature and industry expert input. Statistical analysis was employed to test the propositions in a sample of 116 Colombian manufacturing companies.

Findings

The test results indicate that significant environmental performance differences exist, given company sizes and target markets. However, no statistical significance was found involving the geographic region or industrial sector. Significant differences were found in maturity levels between the three clusters identified: reactive, preventive and proactive. Although the companies in the proactive group performed better, they still lagged in green practices that implied integration with suppliers and customers.

Practical implications

This study provides empirical evidence regarding the profile of those manufacturing companies that achieve better environmental performance. Moreover, the results yield insights for the generation of continuous improvement processes in companies with lower performance.

Originality/value

Few empirical studies have been carried out in GSCM that integrate specific factors in the environmental performance assessment of manufacturing companies in developing countries. On the other hand, the results permit the identification of the profile of those companies with greater maturity in their environmental practices.

Assessment of green supply chain management practices, performance, pressure and barriers amongst Indian manufacturer to achieve sustainable development

Purpose

The main objective of this paper is to integrate a typology of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices, performances, pressures and barriers with organizational performance theories. Also the aim of this paper is to investigate the present statues of GSCM amongst Indian manufacturer.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a systematic review, the study identified 27 GSCM practices, 16 GSCM performances, 06 GSCM pressures and 15 GSCM barriers that were organized into categories according to their theoretical conception, organizational context and characteristics. The survey and interview methods are used for data collection and analyzed by five-point Likert scale.

Findings

The main finding of this paper is ranking of identified GSCM practices, performances, pressures and barriers. The study identified three organizational context dimensions (innovation, performance and management) and investigated the present status of GSCM. The main contribution of the study is the alignment of each category of GSCM practices, performances, pressures and barriers and organizational dimension with the selected theoretical lenses that can help future investigations to deepen the analysis of GSCM. Besides the theoretical contributions, the authors believe this contribution can also achieve practitioners.

Originality/value

The authors provide a comprehensive typology of GSCM practices, performances, pressures and barriers based on empirical evidence and conceptual arguments.

Developing integrated framework to measure performance of green supply chain management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore green supply chain management (GSCM) performance measures and to develop a framework for evaluating the impact of GSCM implementation on organizational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This research develops a performance measurement framework by integrating GSCM enabler with GSCM performance measures criteria. These criteria are selected from literature review and expert opinion. This study proposes a fuzzy balanced scorecard – fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution-based methodology to evaluate the overall organizational performance. The empirical case study of an Indian automobile organization is conducted. Further, the proposed framework is tested with three Indian Automobile organizations and their results are compared with the case organization.

Findings

The integrated methodology offers an effective way to measure and benchmark the impact of the proposed GSCM performance measurement framework. The empirical results show that the output of the proposed model is consistent. Thus, the study contributes to the advancement of knowledge toward GSCM and its management for sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to the automotive sector; hence the outcomes may not be comprehensively applicable across different sectors. The results cannot be applied to other sectors with other product and process specificities.

Practical implications

It helps the practitioners to measure and improve the effectiveness of GSCM implementation.

Originality/value

This study is the generalized performance measurement framework and can be used to measure the performance for any type of organizations to benchmark one organization with the other or the group of organizations.

Modeling supplier selection in the era of Industry 4.0

Purpose

The problem of evaluating potential suppliers has always been based on finding an optimal tradeoff between supplier’s performance consistently meeting firms’ needs and acceptable cost. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid multi-criteria decision framework to quantify this qualitative judgment and reduce ambiguity in selection of suppliers in the era of Industry 4.0.

Design/methodology/approach

A hybrid intuitionistic fuzzy entropy weight-based multi-criteria decision model with TOPSIS is proposed. The authors make use of the intuitionistic fuzzy weighted approach operator for aggregating individual decision maker’s opinions regarding each alternative over every criterion. Additionally, the authors employ the concept of Shannon’s entropy to calculate the criteria weights.

Findings

Results obtained on the basis of the proposed hybrid methodology are analyzed against two more cases wherein the authors try to showcase the relevance of using IFS and entropy-based decision framework and find out the uniqueness of the proposed framework in supplier selection process.

Practical implications

The proposed model is apposite to solve management problem of supplier selection in two ways: aggregating individual decision maker’s opinion for each of the predefined criteria along with individual decision maker’s importance and ranking the suppliers based on both positive and negative ideal solutions using TOPSIS.

Originality/value

A robust framework incorporates not only suppliers’ performance but also provides weightage to key decision makers. Especially in the context of MCDMs wherein both qualitative and quantitative data is evaluated simultaneously, the proposed framework is unique in its practical implementation of reducing ambiguity in the supplier selection process.

An integral GSCM index for assessment of environmental performance in manufacturing companies

Purpose

From the green supply chain management (GSCM) approach, the purpose of this paper is to propose a green index as a benchmarking tool to assess environmental performance in manufacturing companies. The index involves 10 green practices and 46 performance dimensions, which were identified by way of an exhaustive literature review.

Design/methodology/approach

The GSCM index was designed as follows: survey design; experts group selection; relationship identification and green practice weighting (DEMATEL method); and GSCM index construction. The proposed GSCM index was validated at a set of ten Colombian manufacturing companies, which belong to different industrial subsectors.

Findings

The structural relationships between both green practices and performance dimensions (cause group vs effect group) were determined. Consequently, a set of green practices and performance dimensions on which managers must focus their environmental efforts (cause group), in order to positively affect the system as a whole, was identified. The environmental performance of a set of manufacturing companies was established.

Practical implications

As a decision support tool, the GSCM index provides a baseline for the deployment of environmental improvement plans. It also permits the comparison of environmental performance between companies from different industrial sectors. Further, it can be used to monitor internal operations and collaboration programs in each echelon of the supply chain.

Originality/value

This publication contributes to the field of environmental performance measurement by introducing a new index, from the GSCM perspective. In contrast with the existing green indicators, the proposed index is the first to consider causal relationships between green practices and between their performance dimensions.