IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i21p5875-d279377.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying the Sustainability of Products and Suppliers in Food Distribution Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Marina Segura

    (Department of Applied Statistics and Operational Research and Quality, Universitat Politècnica de València, s/n 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Concepción Maroto

    (Department of Applied Statistics and Operational Research and Quality, Universitat Politècnica de València, s/n 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Baldomero Segura

    (Department of Economy and Social Sciences, Universitat Politècnica de València, s/n 46022 Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

Supplier evaluation is a relevant task of supply chain management where multicriteria methods make great contributions to manufacturing industries. This is not the case in food distribution companies, which have a key role in providing safe and affordable food to society. The purpose of this research is to measure the sustainability of products and suppliers in food distribution companies through a multiple criteria approach. Firstly, the system proposed provides indicators to qualify products and assess the food quality, using the compensatory Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) model. Secondly, these indicators are included in supplier evaluation, which takes economic, environmental, and social criteria into account. MAUT and Preference Ranking Organisation Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE), a non-compensatory method, are used for supplier evaluation. This approach has been validated for fresh food in a supermarket chain, mainly using historical data. Partial indicators, such as food safety scores, together with global indicators of suppliers, inform the most appropriate decisions and the most appropriate relations between companies and providers. Poor performance in food safety can lead to the disqualification of some suppliers. MAUT is good for qualifying products and is easy to apply at the operational level in logistic platforms, while PROMETHEE is more suitable for supplier segmentation, as it helps to identify supplier strengths and weaknesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Marina Segura & Concepción Maroto & Baldomero Segura, 2019. "Quantifying the Sustainability of Products and Suppliers in Food Distribution Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:21:p:5875-:d:279377
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/5875/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/5875/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Araz, Ceyhun & Ozkarahan, Irem, 2007. "Supplier evaluation and management system for strategic sourcing based on a new multicriteria sorting procedure," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 585-606, April.
    2. Ekici, Ali, 2013. "An improved model for supplier selection under capacity constraint and multiple criteria," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 574-581.
    3. Beske, Philip & Land, Anna & Seuring, Stefan, 2014. "Sustainable supply chain management practices and dynamic capabilities in the food industry: A critical analysis of the literature," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 131-143.
    4. JosÉ Figueira & Salvatore Greco & Matthias Ehrogott, 2005. "Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis: State of the Art Surveys," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-0-387-23081-8, September.
    5. Grimm, Jörg H. & Hofstetter, Joerg S. & Sarkis, Joseph, 2014. "Critical factors for sub-supplier management: A sustainable food supply chains perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 159-173.
    6. Rezaei, Jafar & Ortt, Roland, 2013. "Multi-criteria supplier segmentation using a fuzzy preference relations based AHP," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 225(1), pages 75-84.
    7. Agnieszka Konys, 2019. "Green Supplier Selection Criteria: From a Literature Review to a Comprehensive Knowledge Base," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-41, August.
    8. Bottani, Eleonora & Rizzi, Antonio, 2008. "An adapted multi-criteria approach to suppliers and products selection--An application oriented to lead-time reduction," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 763-781, February.
    9. Ho, William & Xu, Xiaowei & Dey, Prasanta K., 2010. "Multi-criteria decision making approaches for supplier evaluation and selection: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(1), pages 16-24, April.
    10. Diaz-Balteiro, L & González-Pachón, J. & Romero, C., 2017. "Measuring systems sustainability with multi-criteria methods: A critical review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 607-616.
    11. Behzadian, Majid & Kazemzadeh, R.B. & Albadvi, A. & Aghdasi, M., 2010. "PROMETHEE: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 198-215, January.
    12. Govindan, Kannan & Kadziński, Miłosz & Sivakumar, R., 2017. "Application of a novel PROMETHEE-based method for construction of a group compromise ranking to prioritization of green suppliers in food supply chain," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 129-145.
    13. Thies, Christian & Kieckhäfer, Karsten & Spengler, Thomas S. & Sodhi, Manbir S., 2019. "Operations research for sustainability assessment of products: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 1-21.
    14. Xu, Z., 2000. "On consistency of the weighted geometric mean complex judgement matrix in AHP," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 683-687, November.
    15. Konrad Zimmer & Magnus Fröhling & Frank Schultmann, 2016. "Sustainable supplier management -- a review of models supporting sustainable supplier selection, monitoring and development," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(5), pages 1412-1442, March.
    16. Chang, Liu & Ouzrout, Yacine & Nongaillard, Antoine & Bouras, Abdelaziz & Jiliu, Zhou, 2014. "Multi-criteria decision making based on trust and reputation in supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PB), pages 362-372.
    17. Lin, Rong-Ho, 2012. "An integrated model for supplier selection under a fuzzy situation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 55-61.
    18. Rezaei, Jafar, 2015. "Best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 49-57.
    19. Brandenburg, Marcus & Govindan, Kannan & Sarkis, Joseph & Seuring, Stefan, 2014. "Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 299-312.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tomasz Witold Trojanowski & Pawel Tadeusz Kazibudzki, 2021. "Prospects and Constraints of Sustainable Marketing Mix Development for Poland’s High-Energy Consumer Goods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Ryszard Dachowski & Katarzyna Gałek, 2020. "Selection of the Best Method for Underpinning Foundations Using the PROMETHEE II Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-10, July.
    3. Felipe Barrera & Marina Segura & Concepción Maroto, 2022. "Sustainable Technology Supplier Selection in the Banking Sector," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, June.
    4. Özlem Arslan & Necip Karakurt & Ecem Cem & Selcuk Cebi, 2023. "Risk Analysis in the Food Cold Chain Using Decomposed Fuzzy Set-Based FMEA Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Marina Segura & Concepción Maroto & Baldomero Segura & José Carlos Casas-Rosal, 2020. "Improving Food Supply Chain Management by a Sustainable Approach to Supplier Evaluation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-23, November.
    6. Luis Diaz-Balteiro & Jacinto González-Pachón & Carlos Romero, 2020. "Sustainability as a Multi-Criteria Concept: New Developments and Applications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-5, September.
    7. Rosa Puertas & Luisa Marti & Jose-Maria Garcia-Alvarez-Coque, 2020. "Food Supply without Risk: Multicriteria Analysis of Institutional Conditions of Exporters," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-20, May.
    8. Han-Khanh Nguyen, 2022. "A 3-Dimensional Frame of Reference for Prevention of Risk in Supply Chain," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marina Segura & Concepción Maroto & Baldomero Segura & José Carlos Casas-Rosal, 2020. "Improving Food Supply Chain Management by a Sustainable Approach to Supplier Evaluation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-23, November.
    2. Scott, James & Ho, William & Dey, Prasanta K. & Talluri, Srinivas, 2015. "A decision support system for supplier selection and order allocation in stochastic, multi-stakeholder and multi-criteria environments," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 226-237.
    3. Mohammed, Ahmed & Harris, Irina & Govindan, Kannan, 2019. "A hybrid MCDM-FMOO approach for sustainable supplier selection and order allocation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 171-184.
    4. Chang, Liu & Ouzrout, Yacine & Nongaillard, Antoine & Bouras, Abdelaziz & Jiliu, Zhou, 2014. "Multi-criteria decision making based on trust and reputation in supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PB), pages 362-372.
    5. Xiongyong Zhou & Zhiduan Xu, 2018. "An Integrated Sustainable Supplier Selection Approach Based on Hybrid Information Aggregation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-49, July.
    6. Merve Er Kara & Seniye Ümit Oktay Fırat, 2018. "Supplier Risk Assessment Based on Best-Worst Method and K-Means Clustering: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-25, April.
    7. Glock, Christoph H. & Grosse, Eric H. & Ries, Jörg M., 2017. "Reprint of “Decision support models for supplier development: Systematic literature review and research agenda”," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 246-260.
    8. Alptekin Ulutaş & Ayşe Topal & Dragan Pamučar & Željko Stević & Darjan Karabašević & Gabrijela Popović, 2022. "A New Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model for Sustainable Supplier Selection Based on a Novel Grey WISP and Grey BWM Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Dyckhoff, Harald & Souren, Rainer, 2022. "Integrating multiple criteria decision analysis and production theory for performance evaluation: Framework and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(3), pages 795-816.
    10. Marta Bottero & Chiara D’Alpaos & Alessandra Oppio, 2019. "Ranking of Adaptive Reuse Strategies for Abandoned Industrial Heritage in Vulnerable Contexts: A Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, February.
    11. Zhengmin Liu & Lin Li & Xiaolan Zhao & Linbin Sha & Di Wang & Xinya Wang & Peide Liu, 2020. "Selecting the Optimal Green Agricultural Products Supplier: A Novel Approach Based on GBWM and PROMETHEE II," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-23, August.
    12. Wenwen Zhu & Zhiqiang Wang, 2018. "The Collaborative Networks and Thematic Trends of Research on Purchasing and Supply Management for Environmental Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-28, May.
    13. Pelissari, Renata & Oliveira, Maria Célia & Ben Amor, Sarah & Abackerli, Alvaro José, 2019. "A new FlowSort-based method to deal with information imperfections in sorting decision-making problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(1), pages 235-246.
    14. Calders, Toon & Van Assche, Dimitri, 2018. "PROMETHEE is not quadratic: An O(qnlog(n)) algorithm," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 63-69.
    15. Llamazares, Bonifacio, 2018. "An analysis of the generalized TODIM method," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 1041-1049.
    16. Cinelli, Marco & Kadziński, Miłosz & Miebs, Grzegorz & Gonzalez, Michael & Słowiński, Roman, 2022. "Recommending multiple criteria decision analysis methods with a new taxonomy-based decision support system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 633-651.
    17. Shoufeng Ji & Pengyun Zhao & Tingting Ji, 2023. "A Hybrid Optimization Method for Sustainable and Flexible Design of Supply–Production–Distribution Network in the Physical Internet," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-34, April.
    18. Zeki Ayağ & Funda Samanlioglu, 2016. "An intelligent approach to supplier evaluation in automotive sector," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 889-903, August.
    19. Osiro, Lauro & Lima-Junior, Francisco R. & Carpinetti, Luiz Cesar R., 2014. "A fuzzy logic approach to supplier evaluation for development," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 95-112.
    20. Felipe Barrera & Marina Segura & Concepción Maroto, 2022. "Sustainable Technology Supplier Selection in the Banking Sector," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:21:p:5875-:d:279377. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.