Design of agile and green supply chains: an exploratory study in a non-durable consumer company

Abstract

Emerging trends in the area of supply chain management are significantly impacting academia and the business environment. Among these trends are the dynamic alignment paradigm and the sustainable supply chain management approach. The dynamic alignment paradigm recognizes that companies should dynamically manage different types of supply chains (e.g., fully flexible, agile, lean, and continuous replenishment) to respond appropriately to various types of customers behaviors. The sustainable supply chain management approach accounts for various environmental and social issues as complements to the traditional economic criteria in the design and management of these different types of supply chains. In a recent study, some authors combined these two trends in a novel conceptual model aiming to help decision-makers better manage different environmental trade-offs when designing a supply chain using the dynamic alignment concept. This study presents some experimental studies on the agile supply chain to verify some of the assumptions made by the model. To do so, simulation experiments were conducted for a large multinational company producing non-durable consumer goods. The results provide evidence that the conceptual model proposed is consistent and has the potential to help companies design agile and green supply chains.

Keywords:
Supply chains; Sustainability; Dynamic alignment; Logistics network design; Non-durable consumer goods industry; Taguchi experimental design