Supply chain sustainability assessment with Dempster-Shafer evidence theory: Implications in cleaner production

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production 2019-11, Vol.237, p.117771, Article 117771
• Main Authors: Bappy, Mahathir Mohammad, Ali, Syed Mithun, Kabir, Golam, Paul, Sanjoy Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical hierarchy process; Dempster-shafer theory; Evidential reasoning; Sustainability assessment; Uncertainty modeling
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117771

Assessing sustainability in supply chains is an important task for any organization in the competitive business environment. The process of assessing the sustainability of a supply chain involves incorporating different sources of information, which are normally uncertain, incomplete, and subjective in nature. However, previous studies have failed to incorporate such uncertain, incomplete and subjective information. Therefore, this research proposes a methodology that uses an integrated approach combining the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Hierarchical Evidential Reasoning (HER) based on Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory to develop a supply chain sustainability assessment model. After identifying the sustainability assessment criteria, Analytical Hierarchy Process is used to structure and rate the criteria based on experts' opinion. In this research, subjective judgmental belief data are used to test the model. The information is combined using Dempster-Shafer theory and results are depicted according to the supply chain sustainability index. In the proposed mode, the results from the Dempster-Shafer theory are compared using Yager's recursive rule of combination. The model generates satisfactory results which denotes the condition state of sustainability along with unassigned degree of belief or uncertainty. To assess the sustainability condition in supply chain this methodology can be adopted by the management of the organizations. •Proposed Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory based hierarchical model.•The model considers the degree of incompleteness or uncertainty.•Considers triple bottom line dimensions to assess sustainability in supply chains.•Evaluate sustainability attributes and aggregate performances using D-S theory.