Sustainable third-party reverse logistic provider selection with fuzzy SWARA and fuzzy MOORA in plastic industry

• Published in: International journal of advanced manufacturing technology Vol. 91; no. 5-8; pp. 2401 - 2418
• Main Authors: Mavi, Reza Kiani, Goh, Mark, Zarbakhshnia, Navid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01-07-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: CAE) and Design; Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD; Criteria; Engineering; Evaluation; Industrial and Production Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Media Management; Multiple objective analysis; Optimization; Original Article; Ranking; Ratio analysis; Recycling; Reverse logistics; Risk analysis; Safety; Social factors; Supply chain management; Supply chains; Sustainability; Third party; Transportation services; Weighing; Weight; Third-party reverse logistic provider (3PRLP); Risk; Sustainable reverse logistics; Fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (Fuzzy SWARA); Fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (Fuzzy MOORA); Supply chain management (SCM)
• ISSN: 0268-3768; 1433-3015
• DOI: 10.1007/s00170-016-9880-x

Third-party logistic provider (3PLP) companies play a major role in supply chain management (SCM) by carrying out specialized functions—namely, integrated operation, warehousing, and transportation services. Taking sustainability issues into consideration makes reverse logistics even more significant. In this paper, a combination of sustainability and risk factors was considered for third-party reverse logistic provider (3PRLP) evaluation. Initially, fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (Fuzzy SWARA) was applied for weighing the evaluation criteria; then, Fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (Fuzzy MOORA) was utilized for ranking the sustainable third-party reverse logistic providers in the plastic industry in the second step. Findings highlight that quality, recycling, health, and safety were the most important criteria in economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability, respectively. Also, operational risk was found to have the highest weight among risk factors.