A robust, sustainable, resilient, and responsive model for forward/reverse logistics network design with a new approach based on horizontal collaboration

Optimizing the strategic and tactical decisions regarding sustainability and resilience is important because they affect the performance of the supply chain over a long period. This study proposes a new multi-objective model for resilient, sustainable, and responsive forward/reverse logistics network design considering cost, social responsibility, CO2 emission, water consumption, responsiveness time, and collaboration risk. The most significant impacts on costs are identified using the design of experiments, and a robust optimization method is applied to deal with operational risk. In addition, horizontal collaboration for the first time as a quantitative model is suggested to deal with the disruption risk. Also, a multi-objective solving algorithm with a new aggregation model is developed, and the efficiency of the proposed solution method is shown. The analysis of results based on the iron and steel industries shows the efficiency of resilience strategies and the improvement of costs, sustainability and responsiveness indicators. Also, the findings demonstrate that collaboration has a higher performance than fortification. Finally, managers and supply chain decision-makers are provided with managerial implications to make more effective decisions about the supply chain network design, technology selection, supply chain sustainability, and collaborators selection, using the presented results.