Analysis of the Sustainable Supply Chain Structure with Incomplete Preferences

Integration of sustainable development in the business and supply chain is potentially a source of competitive differentiation for firms. Sustainable supply chain (SSC) management is the management of material, information and capital flows as well as cooperation among companies along the supply chain while taking goals from all three dimensions of sustainable development, i.e., economic, environmental and social, into account which are derived from customer and stakeholder requirements. By using the quality function deployment (QFD) as a product/system development tool, an effective SSC structure can be obtained. The objective of this study is to apply an extended QFD methodology in SSC by introducing a new group decision making (GDM) approach that takes into account incomplete information of decision makers by means of fuzzy set theory. This methodology is compatible with the requirements of the various stakeholders, suppliers, manufacturers and clients, involved in the supply chain. Finally, to assess the validity of the proposed approach, a specific supply chain example is given.