Sustainable supply chain network design using lean principles

The design of sustainable supply chain networks has attracted more attention in recent years as it encompasses all three economic, social and environmental factors at the same time. The lean philosophy is to achieve a system that is free from any waste. There are different techniques to implement lean in the organization. Each of these techniques, through their effects, helps the organization to improve sustainability performances of the overall business. This paper proposed a multi objective mixed integer nonlinear programing for sustainable supply chain network design using lean techniques. The proposed model is aimed at maximizing social benefits while minimizing economic costs and environmental impacts. In this paper, 10 lean techniques with the effects of each are introduced, which calculate the impact of each of these techniques on different aspects of sustainability. we introduce a solution procedure based on linearization . Finally, a single aggregated objective function is derived using a fuzzy goal programming approach. In addition, sensitivity analysis is conducted to provide deeper understanding of the proposed model. The results show that lean implementation in supply chain design reduces costs, helps the organization to improve sustainability performances, and gives better results when compared to the non-compliant state.