Hybrid performance evaluation of sustainable service and manufacturing supply chain management: An integrated approach of fuzzy dematel and fuzzy inference system

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1431
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Author: Ehsan Pourjavad,Arash Shahin
• Date: 01 July 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Hybrid performance evaluation of sustainable service and

manufacturing supply chain management: An integrated

approach of fuzzy dematel and fuzzy inference system

Ehsan Pourjavad

1

|Arash Shahin

2

1

University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada

2

University of Isfahan, Management

Department, Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran

Correspondence

Ehsan Pourjavad, University of Regina, 3737

Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S 0A2,

Canada.

Email: epourjavad@uregina.ca

Summary

The aim of this paper is to propose a comprehensive framework for simultaneously

measuring the performance of sustainable service and manufacturing supply chain

management. Application of the proposed approach also results in reduced uncertainty

of the performance measurement process caused by qualitative criteria evaluation. The

proposed approach consists of two main steps. First, the fuzzy decision‐making trial

and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method has been used to determine important

criteria by avoiding low influences; and then a Mamdani fuzzy inference system model

has been adopted and applied for performance evaluation of sustainable supply chain

management (SSCM). This model is employed in order to cope with the vagueness that

exists in the SSCM performance investigation due to the vagueness intrinsic in the

evaluation of criteria. In the proposed model, human reasoning has been modelled with

fuzzy inference rules and has been set in the system, which is an advantage compared

with those models in which fuzzy set theory and multicriteria decision‐making models

are integrated. The proposed approach has been implemented in the pipe and fitting

industry in order to highlight its application in real life. Sensitivity analysis has been car-

ried out to determine the influence of service and manufacturing criteria on SSCM per-

formance. The findings reveal that sustainable manufacturing criteria compared with

sustainable service criteria have more effect on the performance of SSCM.

KEYWORDS

fuzzy DEMATEL,fuzzy inference system, performanceevaluation, rule, supply chainmanagement,

sustainability

1|INTRODUCTION

Supply chain management (SCM) includes a competitive strategy for

integrating supplier and customers with the aim of improving respon-

siveness and flexibility in manufacturing and service organizations

(Shahin, Arab Yar Mohammadi, & Shahin, 2017). SCM integrates key

processes from the end user to the original suppliers who provide

products, services and information that add value to customers and

other stakeholders (Lambert, 2006) in order to improve the long‐term

performance of individual companies and the supply chain as a whole

(Mentzer, DeWitt, & Keebler, 2001). The aim of performance

improvement in supply chains is to adopt supply and demand, and

thus reduce costs and simultaneously improve customer satisfaction

(Shahin, Khazaei Pool, & Khalili, 2016). Supply chain performance, in

turn, has a positive influence on organizational performance (Whitten,

Green Jr, & Zelbst, 2012; Shahin, Khalili, & Pourhamidi, 2017).

In recent years, a sharp decline in natural resources and the ever‐

increasing assets of huge organizations have converted sustainable

SCM (SSCM) into social responsibility for most companies (Govindan,

Khodaverdi, & Jafarian, 2013). This is an inevitable reality that to reach

a successful sustainable supply chain process and ensure continuous

improvement, the performance of this process should be measured.

Received: 2 October 2017 Revised: 4 May 2018 Accepted: 22 May 2018

DOI: 10.1002/isaf.1431

134 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Intell Sys Acc Fin Mgmt. 2018;25:134–147.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/isaf