A Bi-objective Model for Mineral Supply Chain Network Design Considering Social Responsibility and Solving by a Novel Fuzzy Multi-choice Goal Programming Method

The main objective of this research is effective planning as well as greener production and distribution of mineral products in supply chain network. For such achievement, it employs a novel fuzzy multi choice goal programming approach to address the conflicting nature of its objective functions and their associated uncertainty parameters. While simultaneously maximizing the profit and improving greener production and distribution, its adjustable constraint parameter ensures compliance with certain preset maximum acceptable carbon dioxide gas emission level that are released during cement production and transportation process. The main contribution of this paper can therefore be its innovative analytical approach and customizable constraint parameter. The experimentation is done through a case study in cement industry that has several factories, each with a number of production lines, and multiple distribution centers. The proposed strategy is to leave part of the transportation operation to contractor companies, so as to enable the core company to better focus on its products’ quality and also create job opportunities to local people. Although leaving part of the transportation operations to contractor companies, increases the number of vehicles used by the contractor companies, the study shows that its associated decrease in the number of required factory vehicles can improve the second objective of the model. For its modeling, it uses multi-period and multi-product mixed integer linear programming and because of the uncertainty of its cost parameters, fuzzy logic has also been employed in the process. It is solved via the novel fuzzy multi-choice goal programming approach and reliability of the method has been tested through sensitivity analysis on some key parameters. Its good efficiency is also justified by comparing the obtained results with those that are from the single-objective models. Such approach should be considered by the managers since on top of profit maximization, it can help them build an eco-friendly image. Mining industries generally generate significant amount of pollutions and companies that pay attention to different dimensions of their social responsibilities can remain stable in the competitive market.