Section 3. Applications of Advanced Methods in the Adoption of Circular Economy Practices
Fuzzy Global Criterion Method for Solving Multiobjective Sustainable Supplier Selection Problem
INTRODUCTION
The fast-developing technology and communication network helped to overcome the problems of communication between countries, and therefore the flow of information has turned into a global formation. Thus, with the cooperation between the businesses and the effective management of supply chain (SC), products and services can be delivered to the customer in a shorter time and demanding amounts (Acar & Qapkin, 2017). Businesses, which requires to ensure customer satisfaction by supplying products appropriate for customer needs in demand amounts, on the spot, on time and with minimum cost, have to form and manage the SC effectively. In this case, establishing SC management and its optimization gain importance (Giiqlii & Ozdemir, 2015). The SC term points to the interdependent network parties such as storage facilities, retailers, transporters, distributors and suppliers, which form a product’s manufacturing and distribution channels from purchasing its raw materials to supplying it to the end user (Lafnez-Aguirre & Puigjaner, 2015). Nonetheless, as environmental issues have risen in recent years, Conventional SCs have been considered responsible for producing large quantities of waste and emissions, and resource consumption leading to environmental degeneration and deteriorating environmental quality (Achillas et al., 2019). In recent conditions, conventional SC management has given place to Sustainable Supply Chain Management (S-SCM).
S-SCM is a capital, information, material and management that is related to economic, environmental, and social goals through cooperation with companies in the SC in terms of customer and shareholder needs (Seuring & Muller, 2008). Organizations had to attach importance to social and environmental factors besides economic factors, because with the pressures from stakeholders, it has become imperative to be included in the sustainability concept SC (Sagnak, 2020). Environmental, economic and social factors should be on businesses’ agendas when preferring suppliers if sustainability is the matter. Integrating social and environmental criteria into economic aspects of company performance targets is a necessity along the entire SC (Bai & Sarkis, 2010). Although the environmental dimension is more prominent, it is essential to read the concept of sustainability as a whole of environmental, economic and social dimensions (Altunta§ & Tiirker, 2012).
A sustainable supplier is instrumental in creating a positive corporate image for buying businesses. Consequently, sustainability performance assessment of suppliers is vital for determining and selecting suitable suppliers (Khan et al., 2018). The selection of suitable suppliers have a crucial role in achieving the goals of the business, maintaining and strengthening the competitive level of the business in the long run. For this reason, supplier selection is a decision that is strategic for the business, and this decision should be made more scientifically and systematically, not based on intuition and experience (£akin & Ozdemir, 2013). The increasing attention for sustainability raises the challenges that decision makers face when selecting sustainable suppliers that regard environmental, economic and social aspects. In particular, decision makers are much more encouraged to improve their SC facilities to deal efficiently with sustainable development objectives (Mohammed et al., 2019). Sustainable supplier selection is the method of selecting an organization’s suitable supply partners with the most advantageous monetary value, thus reducing the numerous social and environmental impacts of its operations (Moheb- Alizadeh & Handfield, 2019). Supplier selection and evaluation process are quite complex, requiring interrelationship between two or more SC entities, and the process is multiple objective (Sivrikaya et al., 2015). In general, the issue of supplier selection comes under the department of purchasing. The purchasing department’s vital goal is to obtain the right product from the suitable source, at the right cost, in the right quantity, and with the right quality at the right time. This needs effective decisions about the evaluation and selection of suppliers (Ware et al., 2012).
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, production processes have been affected negatively in particular, or production has been decreased. Businesses that want to be under-affected by the pandemic have reorganized work shifts and taken new measures for workers’ health. Another negative effect of the global Covid-19 pandemic is the delay in delivery times of the products purchased. Therefore, it is an expected situation that many businesses will look for new ways in supplier selection to meet the demands. In this study, a supplier selection problem (SSP) of a firm in the construction sector has been handled based on on-time delivery performance level of products (%), green product quality (%), and performance level of work safety and worker health applications (%) criteria, and Fuzzy GCM algorithm has been used as the solution of this problem.
