Dynamic simulation based assessment of supply chain sustainability

Abstract

As sustainability becomes an increasingly important business factor, companies are looking for decision support tools to assess the impacts associated with their manufacturing operations and supply chain activities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used to measure the environmental consequences and more recently social/societal impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. However, LCA-based assessments are static as they do not consider the dynamics arising from the multitiered structure and the interactions along the supply chain. In this work, we describe a framework integrating dynamic simulation with LCA indicators for sustainability assessment that considers the dynamics in supply chain operations. The advantages of this framework are demonstrated through sustainability assessment scenarios involving changes in product composition, ordering policy, and supplier selection policy in the diaper and detergent supply chains.