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Sustainable Production and Operations Management
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Sustainable Production and Operations Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 11594

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yanzhi Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: low-carbon supply chains; decision analytics for marketing; logistics; supply chain; operations; marketing interface; pricing; assortment planning; channel management; advertising
Prof. Dr. Ke Fu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Interests: operations; supply chain management; inventory management; sustainable operations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Governments, intergovernmental organizations, and environmental agencies have long advocated for sustainable development. For instance, in 2015, the United Nations envisioned Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 agenda [1], although revisions might be necessary to reflect major economical and societal changes due, for example, to the coronavirus pandemic [2]. Undoubtedly, the global consensus on sustainable development has changed the way many firms manage their production and operations. Benjafaar et al. [3] introduce simple models for firms to manage their operations with carbon footprint considerations and argue that operational excellence has a major role to play in addressing the current environmental crises. Miao et al. [4] investigate remanufacturing strategies under carbon regulations. Fu et al. [5] and Chen et al. [6] show that effective inventory management may be environmentally or socially beneficial. Tang and Zhou [7] and Atasu et al. [8] provide comprehensive reviews on sustainable operations.

Indeed, Atasu et al. [8] argue that sustainable operations management became a part of mainstream OM research in 2018. Eyeing growing attention from academia and the embrace from industry practitioners, in this Special Issue we seek high-quality research papers that address novel sustainability issues in production and operations management to advance knowledge and practice in sustainable operations. Both theoretical and empirical methodologies are welcome. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

  • Production and operations management under emission regulations.
  • Sustainable operations driven by analytics.
  • Game-theoretical analysis in operations management with sustainability considerations.
  • Closed-loop supply chain management.
  • Sustainability in inventory management.
  • Socially responsible production and operations management.
  • Social equity in production and operations management.
  • Sustainability in behavioral operations management.
  • Sustainable agricultural operations.

References:

[1] United Nations General Assembly. Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. 2015. Website online: https://www.unfpa.org/resources/transforming-our-world-2030-agenda-sustainable-development (accessed on 30 December 2021)

[2] Time to revise the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature. 2020, 583, 331–332.

[3] Benjaafar, S.; Li, Y.; Daskin, M. Carbon footprint and the management of supply chains: Insights from simple models. IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng. 2012, 10(1), 99–116.

[4] Miao, Z.; Mao, H.; Fu, K.; Wang, Y. Remanufacturing with trade-ins under carbon regulations. COR. 2018, 89, 253–268.

[5] Fu, K.; Gong, X.; Liang, G. Managing perishable inventory systems with product returns and remanufacturing. POM. 2019, 28(6), 1366–1386.

[6] Chen, S.; Li, Y.; Yang, Y.; Zhou, W. Managing perishable inventory systems with age-differentiated demand. POM. 2021, 30(10), 3784–3799.

[7] Tang, C. S.; Zhou, S. Research advances in environmentally and socially sustainable operations. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2012, 223(3), 585–594.

[8] Atalay A.; Corbett, C. J.; Huang, X.; Toktay, L. B. Sustainable Operations Management Through the Perspective of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag. 2020, 22(1), 146–157.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Yanzhi Li
Prof. Dr. Ke Fu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable operations
  • sustainable logistics
  • green manufacturing
  • carbon emissions
  • closed-loop supply chains
  • socially responsible operations

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3103 KiB  
Article
Machine-Learning-Based Electric Power Forecasting
by Gang Chen, Qingchang Hu, Jin Wang, Xu Wang and Yuyu Zhu
Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 11299; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411299 - 20 Jul 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2946
Abstract
The regional demand for electric power is influenced by a variety of factors, such as fluctuations in business cycles, dynamic linkages among regional development, and climate change. The valid quantification of the impacts of these factors on the demand for electric power poses [...] Read more.
The regional demand for electric power is influenced by a variety of factors, such as fluctuations in business cycles, dynamic linkages among regional development, and climate change. The valid quantification of the impacts of these factors on the demand for electric power poses significant challenges. Existing methods often fall short of capturing the inherent complexities. This paper addresses these limitations by proposing a framework, which integrates machine-learning techniques into regional electricity demand forecasting. Regional electricity generation firms could then leverage the power of machine learning and improve the accuracy and robustness of electric power forecasting. In this paper, we conduct extensive numerical experiments using an actual dataset from a large utility firm and other public data sources. The analysis indicates that the support vector regression model (the SVR model) has high accuracy in predicting the demand. The results show that socio-economic development is the major driver of growth in electricity demand, while weather variability is a key contributor to the seasonal fluctuations in electricity use. Furthermore, linkages among regional development and the status of development of the green economy become increasingly important influencing factors. The proposed forecasting approach helps the regional electricity generation firms reduce a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Production and Operations Management)
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26 pages, 609 KiB  
Article
Remanufacturing and Product Recovery Strategies Considering Chain-to-Chain Competition and Power Structures
by Housheng Duan and Jiayan Xu
Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8170; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108170 - 17 May 2023
Viewed by 1102
Abstract
In addition to its economic potential and environmental significance, remanufacturing shows strategic importance in competition. Product recovery, a fundamental part of the remanufacturing system, should be aligned with the competition between supply chains. Moreover, the power structure of the supply chain influences interactive [...] Read more.
In addition to its economic potential and environmental significance, remanufacturing shows strategic importance in competition. Product recovery, a fundamental part of the remanufacturing system, should be aligned with the competition between supply chains. Moreover, the power structure of the supply chain influences interactive decisions. In this study, we investigate how supply chain competition and power structure influence product recovery strategies. We model the problem in two competing supply chains, where the manufacturers sell products through the respective retailers. Either manufacturer can choose between two product recovery strategies: collecting the used products for remanufacturing directly (that is, direct recovery) or assigning the task of product recovery to the retailer (indirect recovery). In addition, we conduct full-blown exploration of the impact of power structures, including Stackelberg-Manufacturer as the leader, Stackelberg-Retailer as the leader, and vertical Nash. The results reveal the joint inter- and intra-channel implications of the product recovery strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Production and Operations Management)
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20 pages, 1818 KiB  
Article
Master Production Scheduling with Consideration of Utilization-Dependent Exhaustion and Capacity Load
by Marco Trost, Thorsten Claus and Frank Herrmann
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6816; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086816 - 18 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1313
Abstract
A large number of researchers have addressed social aspects in hierarchical production planning. This article responds to research gaps identified in our previous literature review. Accordingly, consideration of social aspects and the economic implications of social improvements are required in a longer term [...] Read more.
A large number of researchers have addressed social aspects in hierarchical production planning. This article responds to research gaps identified in our previous literature review. Accordingly, consideration of social aspects and the economic implications of social improvements are required in a longer term planning approach. For this, we integrate work intensity as employee utilization in a general mixed-integer programming model for master production scheduling. Following existing fatigue functions, we represent the relationship between work intensity and exhaustion through an employee-utilization-dependent exhaustion function. We account for the economic implications through exhaustion-dependent capacity load factors. We solve our model with a CPLEX standard solver and analyze a case study based on a realistic production system and numerical data. We demonstrate that the consideration of economic implications is necessary to evaluate social improvements. Otherwise, monetary disadvantages are overestimated, and social improvements are, thus, negatively affected. Moreover, from a certain level of work-intensity reduction, demand peaks are smoothed more by pre-production, which requires more core employees, while temporary employment is reduced. Further potential may arise from considering and quantifying other interdependencies, such as employee exhaustion and employee days off. In addition, the relationship between social working conditions and employee turnover can be integrated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Production and Operations Management)
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21 pages, 2167 KiB  
Article
Eco-Innovation in New Energy Vehicle Supply Chains under Government Subsidies
by Jing Peng and Zhiping Lin
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15216; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215216 - 16 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2264
Abstract
The pressure to reduce emissions has induced the government to provide subsidies to urge eco-innovation in the new energy vehicle industry. Although the giving of such subsidies to the new energy vehicle industry has been practiced for a long time, few studies consider [...] Read more.
The pressure to reduce emissions has induced the government to provide subsidies to urge eco-innovation in the new energy vehicle industry. Although the giving of such subsidies to the new energy vehicle industry has been practiced for a long time, few studies consider how the subsidy policies affect social welfare and the manufacturers’ profits and eco-innovation levels in the presence of the technology gap and the spillover effect. This paper fills the gap in the literature by studying two competitive supply chains consisting of two manufacturers and two retailers. Under three different subsidy policies, we derive the equilibrium outcomes. We find that, as the technology gap increases, the eco-innovation level of the leader increases, whereas the eco-innovation level of the follower decreases. We further investigate the conditions under which subsidy policy is better from the perspective of eco-innovation levels, firms, and social welfare. Specifically, under the centralized setting, the social welfare is lower with the unit production subsidy than with the green technology investment subsidy when the technology gap is low. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Production and Operations Management)
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18 pages, 1914 KiB  
Article
Group Buying of Competing Retailers with Strategic Inventory
by Lang Xiong, Tingting Xiao and Fuhai Nie
Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13073; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013073 - 12 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1291
Abstract
Group buying involves cooperation and competition among multiple retailers, and strategic inventory can affect this relationship. To investigate the interaction between them, we consider a two-tier distribution channel consisting of one supplier and two competing retailers who can hold strategic inventory, and explore [...] Read more.
Group buying involves cooperation and competition among multiple retailers, and strategic inventory can affect this relationship. To investigate the interaction between them, we consider a two-tier distribution channel consisting of one supplier and two competing retailers who can hold strategic inventory, and explore the effect of strategic inventory on the operational decisions and profits of all members of the supply chain. In this research, we make a major contribution by integrating strategic inventory into group buying. Furthermore, we make another major contribution by examining the impact of strategic inventory on the operational decisions of the supplier and the retailers in a competing environment. We construct a Stackelberg game, where the supplier is the leader and the retailers are followers. We find that the retailers will hold strategic inventory under group buying only when the holding cost is low or the basic wholesale price is high. Moreover, a higher holding cost is detrimental to the retailers while beneficial to the supplier, and intensified competition is detrimental to both the retailers and the supplier. Interestingly, contrary to the common view that inventory should be reduced or not held, the retailers have incentives to hold strategic inventory. The supplier also prefers that because strategic inventory benefits her. Therefore, strategic inventory achieves a win–win outcome for the supplier and the retailers. In addition, strategic inventory can improve supply chain performance and consumer surplus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Production and Operations Management)
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20 pages, 5460 KiB  
Article
Research on Joint Decision-Making of Timely Delivery, Product Quality and Marketing in Supply Chain Based on Differential Game
by Hongfang Qiao, Xiaowei Lin, Xideng Zhou and Minglin Jiang
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10774; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710774 - 29 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1481
Abstract
Due to the sudden surge of orders, it is difficult for suppliers with a limited capacity to ensure that all orders are delivered in time and all the products are qualified. Suppliers are likely to put more limited capacity into completing orders, thus [...] Read more.
Due to the sudden surge of orders, it is difficult for suppliers with a limited capacity to ensure that all orders are delivered in time and all the products are qualified. Suppliers are likely to put more limited capacity into completing orders, thus ignoring the quality of products. This will easily lead to the occurrence of product quality events, and then affect the goodwill of enterprise products. The innovations of this paper are as follows: first, based on the above facts, a negative and dynamic correlation between the delivery level and the quality level is established, which has been involved in previous studies. Second, the joint decision model of timely delivery, product quality, and marketing is constructed. Thirdly, centralized decision-making is the best way of supply chain cooperation, and cost sharing contracts can coordinate the supply chain. This paper provides guidance for enterprise managers when making decisions on quality, marketing and delivery. It also provides the basis for enterprise managers to formulate effective cooperation models. We can draw some research implications: when consumers are less sensitive to timely delivery, enterprises should give some coupons and small gifts to consumers in exchange for the extension of delivery time and put their limited capacity into improving the product quality. When consumers are highly sensitive to timely delivery, they can outsource some orders to cost-effective and professional third-party enterprises, which not only improves the delivery rate but also improves the product quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Production and Operations Management)
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